On the morning of May 31, 2009,
in the lobby of a Wichita Lutheran
church, a gunman quietly approached
an usher as he distributed bulletins to
his fellow parishioners. The gunman
raised his weapon to the 67-year-old
man’s head and fired at point-blank
range. Soon after the suspect fled, the
usher died.
What might have been an isolated
incident took a startling turn when the
victim’s identity became known:
George Tiller, a medical doctor and one
of only a handful of physicians in the
country who performed late-term abortions,
was one of the most reviled figures
by anti-abortion activists.
His alleged killer, Scott Roeder, was
discovered to be a virulent extremist
within that movement. Tiller was not
chosen at random.
And though activists on the fringe
hailed this as a victory for the unborn,
Tiller’s slaying—along with the eight
other abortionists murdered in this
country since 1977—contradicts what
the pro-life movement defends.
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 A Lesson in Hate
The term “hate crime” is a newer invention,
first coined in the 1980s. But its
roots are deep. History shows that these
crimes are, sadly, wedded to our
nation’s lineage.
But hate crimes are not solely an
American epidemic: Romans persecuted
Christians for centuries; the Nazi party
massacred Jews by the millions; and
Rwanda’s Hutu militia, under an ideology
of intolerance, slaughtered some
500,000 Tutsis in 1994.
But crimes of this nature that crop up
on our own soil should resonate
strongly as well. From the killing of
Martin Luther King, Jr., to the torture
and murder of gay college student
Matthew Shepard, to the increase
of violence against Hispanics, bias-motivated
crimes continue to pervade
history.
According to the Anti-Defamation
League, the United States has made
efforts to curb the problem:
• Forty-five states have statutes that
criminalize varying types of hate-related
violence or intimidation. These
include religion, race and ethnicity; 32
of them cover sexual orientation; 32
cover disability; 13 cover age; and 11
states cover transgendered people.
• According to the Department of
Justice and the F.B.I., of the more than
113,000 hate crimes since 1991, 55 percent
were motivated by racism; 17 percent
involved religion; 14 percent
related to sexual orientation; and 14
percent regarded ethnicity.
The murder of Dr. Tiller, however,
is difficult to categorize. He wasn’t part
of a racial minority, nor was he gay or
disabled. But he was the victim of
another’s hatred: He performed abortions,
which surely got him killed.
In life, Dr. Tiller was no stranger to
unwanted attention.
The clinic that he ran was bombed in
1985. In 1993, he was shot in both
arms by extremist Shelley Shannon. In
early May 2009, Tiller asked local F.B.I.
agents to investigate vandalism to his
clinic, including severed wires to surveillance
cameras and roof damage that
triggered flooding. Three weeks later, he
was murdered.
While Tiller’s medical practice cannot
be condoned, unlawful, unethical
and hypocritical methods of hindering
the practitioner are futile: Murder
cannot save the unborn.
Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann of
Kansas City, Kansas, immediately
denounced Tiller’s killing.
“The Catholic Church,” he wrote in
a statement, “believes that every
human life is sacred. The murder of a
human being is the gravest of crimes
and is an intrinsic evil. Such an act of
violence against human life is a contradiction
of the most fundamental
principle of the pro-life movement.”
But not everyone mirrored such a
tactful position. Controversial activist
Randall Terry, founder of the anti-abortion
organization Operation Rescue,
passively denounced Tiller’s murder,
yet compared him to a Nazi who
“reaped what he sowed.”
Not vigorously speaking out in defense
of all life—regardless of how a
life was lived—may reap similar crimes
in the future.
Dr. Warren Hem, a friend of Tiller’s
and himself a late-term abortionist,
spoke of his own fears.
“It’s the inevitable consequence of
more than 35 years of constant anti-abortion
terrorism, harassment and
violence,” he said. “No wonder that
this happens. I am next on this list.”
Pope Benedict XVI spoke of the
promise of life to those present at
2008’s World Youth Day. In a few simple
words, he summed up the tenets of
the pro-life movement.
“Life is not governed by chance. It
is not random,” he said. “Your very
existence has been willed by God,
blessed and given a purpose. It is a
search for the true, the good and the
beautiful.”
We will never know if Dr. Tiller
might have one day chosen to use his
medically trained hands to heal instead
of harm. But regardless of his job, Tiller
was a creation of God. His occupation
was irredeemable. His life was not.
The Rev. Lowell Michelson, pastor
of the church Tiller attended, saw past
his troublesome career. Perhaps we can,
too.
“As with any church community,
there are folks on all different ends of
the spectrum,” Michelson said. “But
there was a sense here that our lives of
faith are bigger and deeper than those
issues.”—C.H.
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