Abortion Proponents 'Exploit' Tiller Killing

The National Organization for Women (NOW), a pro-abortion feminist organization, blamed the 'anti-abortion' movement for the murder.

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WASHINGTON, D.C. (LifeSiteNews.com) - Defenders of legalized abortion in the Obama administration are exploiting the assassination of George Tiller, Kansas' infamous late-term abortionist, to attack the pro-life movement, according to prominent pro-life activist Jill Stanek.

"Already we've seen the pro-abortion movement try to exploit this, which is not a surprise," Stanek told U.S. News and World Report.

"[President Obama's chief of staff] Rahm Emanuel is famous for saying, 'Never let a crisis go wasted' and already we're seeing talk of the Justice Department and [Attorney General] Eric Holder calling in forces to protect the abortion forces and clinics, and we're going to see moves to attempt to stifle free speech. It now falls to the pro-life movement to protect the First Amendment."

In the hours following the death of Tiller, pro-abortion journalists and organizations have issued statements blaming the pro-life movement on the whole for the actions of a man acquaintances say suffered from mental illness and belonged to fringe organizations rejected by the pro-life movement.

Mike Hendricks, writing for the Kansas City Star asserts that "the motive for the crime we can all surmise, given the vitriolic rhetoric aimed at Tiller these past couple of decades by anti-abortion activists. And if we're right about that, then we know the identities of his accomplices."

"If anyone is in need of salvation now, it's the anti-abortion movement in Kansas and across the nation. ... the bullet that killed George Tiller also shattered the moral underpinnings of the movement that inspired its firing."

The National Organization for Women (NOW), a pro-abortion feminist organization, blamed the "anti-abortion" movement for the murder and called on the Department of Homeland Security to declare the movement a form of "domestic terrorism."

"Dr. Tiller's slaying is the most recent in a string of murders in the service of the anti-abortion cause, and hundreds of people have been injured or threatened because they provide legal abortion services," said NOW in a public statement on its website.

"Bringing the killers to justice is not enough - the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security must root out and prosecute as domestic terrorists and violent racketeers the criminal enterprise that has organized and funded criminal acts for decades."

Bonnie Erbe of U.S. News and World report announced on the magazine's website that "Tiller Murder Is Terrorism, and All Pro-Life Extremists Are to Blame."

"Let George Tiller's murder be the last straw. It is time for America's pro-choice majority to stop standing idly by as extreme so-called pro-life advocates murder obstetrician-gynecologists (OB/GYNs) who are providing women with the legal right to terminate pregnancies," opined Erbe adding that, "I am careful to note I am referring here to EXTREMIST pro-life advocates, people who refer to abortion as 'baby-killing' and other inflammatory rhetoric."

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The problem is, however, that the whole pro-life movement is based upon the premise that the unborn child is a human being with an inherent right to life. Hence, Erbe's definition of an extremist as being someone who refers to abortion as 'baby-killing' would encompass nearly every mainstream pro-life activist in the country.

Jill Stanek notes that, in contrast to the statements by Erbe, Now, and others, "The pro-life movement is the most peaceful social justice movement in American history. There are a thousand abortion clinics and small groups of protesters outside many of them and nothing ever happens, except that some pro-lifers get run over by pro-aborts. So this is so ironic."

"There has never been a social justice movement that has been totally focused on saving human lives, as opposed to expanding voting rights or other rights, like the pro-life movement is."

Pro-life organizations nationwide issued statements today condemning the killing of Tiller, who specialized in late-term abortions in his Wichita, Kansas, clinic.

Tiller was unsuccessfully prosecuted for violating state laws against late-term abortions without the necessary legal justifications, and was under investigation by the Kansas State Board of Healing Arts for the same charges at the time of his death.

He was shot and killed on Sunday morning while fulfilling the functions of an usher at a Lutheran church in Wichita.

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