Editorials, Opinion Pieces React To Kansas Abortion Provider Tiller's Murder

Main Category: Abortion
Article Date: 04 Jun 2009 - 1:00 PDT

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Several newspapers on Wednesday published editorials and opinion pieces responding to the shooting death of Kansas abortion provider George Tiller, who was one of the few physicians in the country providing care for women in need of the procedure later in pregnancy. Summaries appear below.

Editorials

~ Boston Globe: Although officials are calling Tiller's murder "'the act of an isolated individual,' ... the generalized culture of violence and hate in the antiabortion movement that feeds the fanaticism of disturbed individuals with guns is not so easily explained away," a Globe editorial states. The editorial notes, "Many responsible abortion opponents, including Americans United for Life, condemn the killing," but "other so-called pro-life leaders insist on finding a moral equivalence between Tiller's murder and abortion." The editorial continues, "Also victimized by Tiller's murder are the anguished women who have sought late-term abortions because their pregnancies have gone horribly wrong." According to the editorial, the "sad irony" is that these procedures "are not a matter of 'choice,'" as the "overwhelming majority of these women desperately wanted their children to be born." It adds, "Tiller's brave and compassionate care saved the lives of these women and their futures as mothers." In his speech last month at the University of Notre Dame's commencement ceremony, President Obama "called for people of good will on both sides of the abortion issue to bridge the divide," the editorial states, concluding, "An end to the hateful rhetoric over issues of faith that lead unhinged individuals to murder would be a good place to start" (Boston Globe, 6/2).

~ USA Today: Tiller's "insistence" on continuing to practice, despite protests and threats of violence, "was remarkably courageous," but, "[r]egrettably, threats by antiabortion activists have worked all too well," a USA Today editorial states. According to the Guttmacher Institute, the number of abortion providers has decreased by 40% since a peak in 1982, and 87% of U.S. counties have no provider, forcing many women to travel long distances to obtain care, the editorial says. "Mainstream pro-life groups should not be blamed for the actions of a suspected killer who appears to have lurked in the violent and twisted fringe of the movement," the editorial continues. However, the "braying of cable TV hosts," such as Fox News' Bill O'Reilly, "and activists such as Operation Rescue founder Randall Terry contributes to a climate of intolerance that can encourage deranged individuals," the editorial says. According to USA Today, "Thwarted in legislatures and courts, some antiabortion activists are achieving with intimidation and harassment what they can't through the political process," but "[r]egardless of personal beliefs about abortion, authorities have an obligation to protect those providing and receiving abortion services, and to prosecute those who harass or threaten them." The editorial concludes that "Tiller's death will only be compounded if it frightens away more doctors and makes a legal procedure even harder to come by" (USA Today, 6/3).

~ Washington Post: Tiller's death "is a tragedy for his family, his patients and his profession," and "[i]t should serve as a wake-up call that more must be done to ensure that women have access to this legal procedure," a Post editorial states. "It is unclear how this violence has affected decisions by health care providers," according to the editorial. However, it is clear that "the number of places where women can go for abortions has been declining since 1982," and "[v]ery few are performed in hospitals -- a sign that mainline medicine is not living up to its responsibility," the editorial says. The editorial notes that Attorney General Eric Holder "is offering U.S. Marshals Service protection for abortion clinics and the doctors who staff them," concluding, "It's the right call, but one that underscores the urgency of coming up with better solutions for the delivery of abortion services" (Washington Post, 6/3).

Opinion Pieces

~ Tim Rutten, Los Angeles Times: "Over the last few weeks, Americans have been offered a stark choice on the subject of abortion," and "[s]eldom has the choice between the tormented past and the future's new possibilities been more starkly put," Times columnist Rutten writes. In their speeches at Notre Dame's commencement ceremony last month, Obama and John Noonan, a federal judge and a Catholic theologian, "suggested that even irreconcilable views can coexist in a pluralist democracy -- if they're civilly expressed, if each side concedes the other's good will and if both adjudge the other as mistaken rather than wicked," Rutten writes. "That's one approach," Rutten says, adding that the "other was the one put forward" on Sunday by the individual who chose to murder Tiller. It is "fair to wonder whether any of those who have rhetorically insisted that voluntarily terminating a pregnancy and shooting an abortion provider are equally murder, or that a Planned Parenthood clinic and Auschwitz are in any fashion analogous, now are willing to entertain the possibility that verbal extremism -- however effective as argument -- has consequences," Rutten writes. He concludes, "In the American debate over abortion, the extravagance of the moral argument and the intemperance of its expression have had consequences -- and we have the graves to prove it" (Rutten, Los Angeles Times, 6/3).

~ Troy Newman, USA Today: "The fundamental tenet of the pro-life movement is that human life has intrinsic value and is deserving of protection from the moment the seed and egg unite, until natural death," Newman, president of the antiabortion-rights group Operation Rescue, writes. He adds, "We at Operation Rescue were shocked to hear of" Tiller's murder and "were among the first groups to denounce the cowardly act that took Tiller's life. It was not justice, but vigilantism, which must be abhorred by a society that embraces the rule of law over anarchy." Newman concludes, "Tiller's homicide must be denounced, but so should the killing of over 45 million innocent babies through abortion, because when even one life is wrongfully taken, it devalues us all" (Newman, USA Today, 6/3).

~ James Kirchick, Wall Street Journal: "Within hours after" Tiller's murder, "every antiabortion group in the country denounced the attack," Kirchick, assistant editor of the New Republic and a contributing writer to the Advocate, writes, adding, "These unqualified reproaches are nothing new. The organized antiabortion movement has always opposed violence against abortion providers. That has never stopped opportunistic pro-choice activists, however, from conflating their passionate rhetoric with the behavior of individual criminals." According to Kirchick, over the past 10 years, "this argumentative tactic has taken on an even more insidious twist. In addition to fighting violent, Muslim jihadists abroad, some liberals argue that America must deal with its own, homegrown terrorists." He adds, "In the coming days, we will hear more about how mainstream conservative organizations and media personalities created an 'environment' in which the murder of an abortion doctor became an inevitability," concluding, "But the Christian right's responsible reaction to the death of George Tiller should put to rest the lie that Judeo-Christian extremists are anywhere near as numerous or dangerous as those of the Muslim variety" (Kirchick, Wall Street Journal, 6/3).

~ Kathleen Parker, Washington Post: "It has long been a problem for the GOP that some of the party's cherished positions are embraced most enthusiastically by people whose grip on reality is sometimes ... tenuous," syndicated columnist Parker writes in an opinion piece, adding, "This is especially true with regard to abortion." According to Parker, there are "certainly compelling secular arguments against abortion that one might be perfectly willing to hear. Then Randall Terry," founder of Operation Rescue, "shows up." She adds, "Such is the continuing dilemma of the GOP: How do you get out the message when the messengers keep getting in the way?" Parker concludes, "We should never shoot the messenger, it should go without saying. But until the Republicans marginalize those who belong in the margins, they won't be attracting many new recruits. And the messengers will continue to obscure the message" (Parker, Washington Post, 6/3).

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