The Return of Pro-Life Terrorism

George Tiller, a doctor who provided late-term therapeutic abortions to women facing severe pregnancy-related complications, was shot to death as he entered his church this morning.  Considering the amount of vitriol and violence directed towards Tiller over the past twenty years – he was shot in 1993, and since then, has been vilified by the national “pro-life” movement as the “doctor of death” – it’s a pretty safe bet that Tiller was murdered by a pro-life “Christian” extremist.  By any definition of the word, this is a tragedy; Tiller dedicated his life, in the face of constant threats and violence, to providing a necessary and life-saving medical service to thousands of women.  Amanda Marcotte writes at Pandagon:

He didn’t have to do this.  He didn’t have to put his life and his family’s life on the line every day to tend to women going through a little-understood trauma.  He didn’t have to go through a sea of protesters who hate women so much they actually think that women are lying about their problems so they “get” to have later term abortions.  He didn’t have to suffer through relentless legal abuse at the hands of fundamentalist misogynists who obtain political power by exploiting voter ignorance about abortion.  He didn’t have to make himself the target for this murder to help women, but for whatever reason, he rose to this challenge, and that makes him a real hero.

I think it’s clear that Tiller’s murder flowed directly out of the “by any means necessary” rhetoric of the pro-life movement.  Pro-choicers are regularly derided as “baby-killers” and “murderers,” and abortion providers are routinely subject to protests and threats.  And while the mainstream pro-life movement isn’t directly responsible for Dr. Tiller’s death, it must account for its considerable role in contributing to a climate where someone is driven to violence – to kill a man in front of his wife – over a political disagreement.