Emily
MikeOne week ago marked the 37th anniversary of Roe v. Wade. Roe means 37 years of women having autonomy over their own bodies. Thirty-seven years without living in fear of having to obtain an unsafe, illegal, back alley abortion– a fear men will never have to encounter. Many Americans found their own ways to reflect on the date, including NARAL’s Blog for Choice day and hundreds of Roe happy hours across the country.
But in the shadow of this thankful reflection lies the Tiller murder trial. On May 31, 2009, one of the few doctors who offered late-term abortions, George Tiller, was shot in the head as he entered his church. Scott Roeder, Tiller’s shooter, testified in court 2 days ago. He again admitted to committing the murder. According to the Guardian, this the first time in American legal history that an anti-abortion activist was allowed to testify about what he perceives as “justification” for murder.
It took the jury, fittingly, 37 minutes to find Roeder guilty. This certainly came as no surprise; Roeder’s crime was premeditated, and he admitted it. His defense was not based on fact dispute; rather, it was a tortuous glimpse into dangerous pro-life extremism. On his motive, Roeder simply said:
“If I didn’t do it, babies were going to die the next day.”
Roeder doesn’t believe in abortion, at any point, under any circumstances. He doesn’t believe women who are raped or victims of incest should be allowed to terminate the consequences of their assaulters’ crimes:
“I do not believe that is justified. You’re punishing the innocent life for the sins of the father.”
Roeder’s comments dripped with hypocrisy, as he advocated for his “pro-life” position:
“It is not man’s job to take life. Only in cases of self-defense or the defense of others…from conception forward, [abortion] is murder.”
It’s not a man’s job to take a life, but Roeder took Tiller’s. And with it, important access to legal reproductive services for the community around Wichita, KS.
Filed under: Abortion, Law, Reproductive Rights, Violence Tagged: | Abortion, pro-choice, pro-life, Reproductive Rights, scott roeder, tiller
