Do you find it ironic that the Abortion Doctor was killed at church and how do you feel about what happened there today?

Sad more than anything.
I want unwanted pregnancies to be avoided at all costs and what he was doing wasn’t something I like ether. Two wrongs don’t make a right.

I am not bothered at all.
I don’t know the man or the perportraiter so why would anyone unaffected care.

Ironic? No. I don’t think I understand putting the question this way. Are you suggesting that a religious, churchgoing doctor who acts on his conscience to aid others is inconsistent with the idea of a person who performs abortions? I don’t detect any irony there.

I do think this a crime of murder and utterly without right or justification. It is also a tragic loss to the community as well as to the man’s family and friends. And it is a horrifying thing to think that a church is not a safe sanctuary respected even by those with murderous intent.

@switchhitter, murder is okay with you?

@Jeruba unaffected so i do not really care.(serious)

@Jeruba: Your answer is perfect. Murder is senseless and awful, no matter who does it and who is killed. (I do not believe abortion is murder).

@switchhitter, you truly do not care about anything that doesn’t affect you directly? That is simply amazing. You do not realize how much you are indeed affected by things that happen to other people? And you assume that other people think the same way? Are you very, very young, perhaps?

@Jeruba no,i just have no feelings for another to whom i have no bond or immotional link.

@Jeruba: Not very young, just a sociopath it sounds like.

And you don’t see that you are directly threatened by people who consider that they are entitled to enter a church where people are worshiping and execute a man for their own reasons and without process or protection of law.

@switchhitter :: are you sure about that?

http://www.fluther.com/disc/46033/if-you-only-hade-3-wishes-what-would-they-be/#quip618266

@johnpowell like i say,i don’t care.(seriously do not care)

@switchhitter: Methinks you doth protest overmuch.

I bet secretly you’re a gay, bible-bashing liberal.

@KatawaGrey oh.

@switchhitter :: If you didn’t care your answer would be closer to..
Everyone is straight
Everyone is Conservative
Everyone goes to church

That was a question about wishes. And you turned it into hating and killing people.

That was just so messed up.

I find it sad.
His occupation not withstanding he was a human being and was brutally murdered.
The fact that he provided a service to women in need, went to church, was a family man, etc adds something to it.
I as a Dr. DO NOT advocate abortion since my primary function is to preserve life, but i am not against it. It is a personal choice that one has to live with.

I believe in the validity of early abortion when necessary to save the mother’s life and do not judge other people’s justification of the act itself for whatever reasons they may have.

@Dr_C
Wasn’t this Dr doing late abortions?

@Myndecho He was accused of doing illegal abortions, which is not the same as late. But it seems he was cleared and acquitted. I guess someone thought they knew better.

@oratio
That’s the last time I watch Fox news.

@Myndecho there were also some reports (not all fox news btw) that he was doing late abortions… however.. if he was acquitted then that settles that no?

Obviously the gunman confused himself with God. I suspect that he’s in for a rude awakening? Isn’t “Judge not lest you be judged” in there somewhere?

I think this kind of murder is nothing but pure hypocrisy. Is that spelled correctly? Oh well.

I think it’s sad, a tragedy for his family and friends, and a complete waste. It’s not like it even prevents abortion, since there are plenty of doctors to go around. Wouldn’t it make much more sense for people who feel strongly that abortions should never be performed to do something to help prevent unwanted pregnancies? Maybe contribute to education, help fund birth control for the uninsured or impoverished, or volunteer for an organization that counsels women about adoption choices. Killing one abortion doctor changes nothing about the “big picture.”

I think it is knee deep in irony as well as all the other things listed above. It is alleged he was killed by an anti-abortion advocate. Someone who supposedly is opposed to killing.

Stuff like this always reminds me of Johnny Carson’s classic line about the political party who is against abortion but pro capitol punishment,

“It’s all a question of timing.”

Even if someone were to believe that an eye for an eye is actual justice… in a church, REALLY?

Way to offend pretty much everybody. Even a religious, pro-life, pro-death sentence person would have a problem with performing a murder in a house of God.

What do I find ironic? Irony would have been if the murderer had gone into a church to shoot a doctor that performs abortions, and accidentally shot a pregnant woman instead, causing her to lose the baby or her life, or both. What happened here was a tragic exercise in hypocrisy, more than irony. A life is a life is a life, if you are pro life, I don’t think you can be pro death penalty or murder without a serious and unhealthy case of delusion or denial. The decision to go through with murder was just the homicidal icing on the crazy cake.

I think it was terrible. I live about 30 miles from Wichita, so I’ve grown up my whole life hearing of George Tiller. We were on vacation in Texas in 1991 when they had that summer long protest and I remember thinking how crazy it was that they were showing that on the news in another state. I was only about 15 and didn’t quite understand the whole stink about it

I don’t understand the rationale of the people that wanted to harm Dr. Tiller. He was doing nothing illegal. He was just doing his job. From what I can tell, anti abortion people are generally super “religious”. How did this guy work out that it was ok for him to kill Dr Tiller if he thought of Dr Tiller as a murderer?

He was one of 3 or 4 other doctors in the nation that do late term abortions after 21 weeks of pregnancy A few years ago he did an abortion on a girl that was 13 or 14 that had been molested by her older brother. She was about 8 months along if I am remembering correctly. I never quite knew how to feel about that one. The girl didn’t tell for the a long time who had gotten her pregnant and when her mother found out she brought her to Wichita to get an abortion. I thought the whole damn situation was terrible.

@knitfroggy I can tell you with 100% certainty that no doctor will abort a fetus after it can be viable outside the womb, which is approximately 24 weeks. An abortion at 8 months, as you allege, is impossible.

@shilolo I heard that 0.08% of abortions are late abortions.
Though whether they are actually viable is debatable
because they’re usually done because of birth defects.

Not sure where that statistic came from though…
EDIT: Numbers came from The Guttmacher Institute.

@Nimis Depends on your definition of “late”. Most people (and doctors too) would consider any late second trimester abortio (18–24 weeks) to be “late”, and inherently more challenging than an earlier one. I’m not involved in the field, but just from personal experience I don’t know anyone who does abortions after 24 weeks, nor have I heard of someone who has had one. Of course, it is possible, and would jive with your numbers (that is is very rare), but I doubt highly that they are done routinely.

@shilolo I think it technically refers to abortions after the 24th 20th week. Thanks, Oratio.
Yes, not done routinely at all. I think Tiller was one of only a handful of doctors
in the nation who performed these procedures. Probably why he was singled out.

@Nimis http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Late-term_abortion

@shilolo This had happened many years ago, but I found a story about it. I was wrong in saying 8 months, the girl was 28 weeks. There are doctors that will abort after 24 weeks, although, I doubt it happens often.

This doctor performed late term abortions for couples who were told their baby suffered from a genetic or developmental abnormality that would lead to the baby having a very very difficult life if they were lucky. This is not the same as most abortion clinics at all, and I doubt he would have performed a late term abortion on a healthy baby just because the person changed their mind.

Alas, the terrorist organization that committed this and similar crimes, and who support and preach the mentality, will not be punished in any way. Sure the person who shot the doctor will be punished, but that won’t stop the next doctor being killed. Such domestic terrorism is disgusting and sickening to see happening in America.

@dynamicduo Hah, terrorist organisation. Good description. Yes, it’s not the first performing doctor that has been killed, and probably not the last.

US Marshals will now begin to protect abortion doctors:

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/05/31/pro-life-groups-fear-backlash-tiller-murder/

Murderer kills Murderer…..now… whats that saying?

In a recent New York Times article it is reported that the suspected shooter subscribed and contributed to a newsletter “Prayer and Action News”.

The editor of this publication is quoted as saying that he shared similar views to the shooter on abortion and says “To call this a crime is too simplistic.” He added, “There is Christian scripture that would support this.”

http://www.reasonproject.org/newsfeed/item/suspect_identified_in_killing_of_doctor/

Religious fundamentalists: Just smart enough to be dangerous.

@Critter38 Yes. I wonder sometimes why we accept these things when we bash other cultures for sharing some of the same characteristics. When we and media keep scaring ourselves with the “dangerous and crazy” Muslims, we fail to see how we struggle with similar problems too.

There is no real difference between Crusaders and Jihadists. They are of the same breed.

@dynamicduo was making a good point calling them terrorists. In the eyes of themselves they probably see themselves as freedom fighters, with a just cause, justified by their personal interpretation of the holy scripture and their chosen grievances.

Agreed.

The facial expression of self-righteous indignation is scary no matter which holy book they choose to wave above their heads.

Very sad.

When violent religious fundamentalists are disempowered, they are limited to individual acts of murderous aggression. When they are running the World’s most powerful nation…who knows what kooky ideas they might come up with?!

http://www.reasonproject.org/newsfeed/item/bushs_biblical_prophecy_emerges_god_to_erase_mid-east_enemies_before_new_ag/