As doctor George Tiller stood in the foyer of his church this weekend, a 51-year-old Johnson County man named Scott P. Roeder allegedly shot him once, ending his life. Tiller has long been the target of harassment from anti-abortion groups because his clinic is one of the few in the nation which performs late-term abortions.

In 1993, Tiller was shot in both arms while at his clinic.

Bill O'Reilly has been reporting on Tiller since 2005. O'Reilly gave Tiller the nickname "Tiller the Baby-Killer" and called his clinic a "death mill" while saying of Tiller himself, he has "blood on his hands".

In the wake of Tiller's murder, Warren Hern, a Colorado physician and close friend of Tiller's said:

"I think it's the inevitable consequence of more than 35 years of constant anti-abortion terrorism, harassment and violence,"

What kind of harassment?

Protesters blockaded Tiller's clinic during Operation Rescue's "Summer of Mercy" protests during the summer of 1991, and Tiller was shot by Rachelle Shannon at his clinic in 1993. Tiller was wounded in both arms. Shannon remains in prison.

The clinic was bombed in June 1986 and was severely vandalized last month. His lawyer said wires to security cameras and outdoor lights were cut and that the vandals also cut through the roof and plugged the buildings' downspouts. Rain poured through the roof and caused thousands of dollars of damage in the clinic. Tiller reportedly asked the FBI to investigate the incident.

Operation Rescue, an organization which claims "If you believe abortion is murder, act like it's murder.", lost their tax-exempt status in 2006 for illegal political involvement.
Randall Terry, the leader of Operation Rescue, released the following statement about Dr. Tiller's murder:

We are shocked at (Sunday) morning's disturbing news that Mr. Tiller was gunned down. Operation Rescue has worked for years through peaceful, legal means, and through the proper channels to see him brought to justice. We denounce vigilantism and the cowardly act that took place this morning. We pray for Mr. Tiller's family that they will find comfort and healing that can only be found in Jesus Christ.

And then Terry released this video to various anti-abortion advocates.

...George Tiller was a mass murderer. He had blood all over his hands. Now we grieve for him that he was shot in this deplorable manner and he did not have a chance to get things right with his maker, perhaps. Every man deserves a trial of a jury of his peers and then a proper execution....

So Operation Rescue believes that abortion should be treated like murder and Mr. Terry thinks that every man deserves "a proper execution". Especially, "mass murderers".

People who knew the suspect echo similar rhetoric.

"I know that he believed in justifiable homicide," said Regina Dinwiddie, a Kansas City anti-abortion activist who made headlines in 1995 when she was ordered by a federal judge to stop using a bullhorn within 500 feet of any abortion clinic. "I know he very strongly believed that abortion was murder and that you ought to defend the little ones, both born and unborn."...

...Roeder also was a subscriber to Prayer and Action News, a magazine that advocated the justifiable homicide position, said publisher Dave Leach, an anti-abortion activist from Des Moines, Iowa.

"I met him once, and he wrote to me a few times," Leach said. "I remember that he was sympathetic to our cause, but I don't remember any details."

Killing babies is wrong but killing adults is...not as big of a deal? To many of these Conservatives, war and the death penalty are fine, too.

That's not pro-life. That is just anti-abortion.

Dinwiddie described how Roeder intentionally inspired fear in another doctor and his staff.

Dinwiddie said she met Roeder while picketing outside the Kansas City Planned Parenthood clinic in 1996. Roeder walked into the clinic and asked to see the doctor, Robert Crist, she said.

"Robert Crist came out and he stared at him for approximately 45 seconds," she said. "Then he (Roeder) said, 'I've seen you now.' Then he turned his back and walked away, and they were scared to death.

Remember the DHS report that had so many right-wingers up in arms? On page 2 there was a footnote:

Rightwing extremism in the United States can be broadly divided into those groups, movements, and adherents that are primarily hate-oriented (based on hatred of particular religious, racial or ethnic groups), and those that are mainly antigovernment, rejecting federal authority in favor of state or local authority, or rejecting government authority entirely. It may include groups and individuals that are dedicated to a single issue, such as opposition to abortion or immigration.

Roeder is emphatically anti-abortion...to the point where he has intimidated doctors and subscribed to literature which condones murder. Other extremists in the anti-abortion movement knew him and supported his skewed and violent views.

As Terry and O'Reilly know, right-wing hate rhetoric has consequences. This weekend somebody decided to pick up a gun and end another man's life.

That's not being pro-life. That is murder.