It was not the usual memorial service, but it was not the usual death. It was a murder. It was a murder, we were told, that was both “inevitable” and “predictable.”
Certainly, no one had to ask why this murder had happened. Not when the murdered man was Dr. George Tiller, the Kansas doctor who performed late-term abortions. An anti- abortion fanatic shot Tiller, who had already been shot years before. We know the list of abortion-performing doctors who have been killed.
There is no mystery here. If it was a senseless killing — what we say of any killing — the shooting was not without its own peculiar logic.
And that was the point of the memorial — that if you call a doctor who performs abortions a “baby killer” often enough, somebody may well try to stop him from, yes, killing more babies.
It’s not a difficult proposition to understand. But where it grows difficult is when you take it one more step: Who’s responsible, then, when Tiller gets gunned down?
Does it begin and end with Scott Roeder, who is charged with the murder?
Does it extend to people like Bill O’Reilly, who liked to refer to Tiller as “Tiller the baby killer” on his TV show?
Dr. Warren Hern, the principal speaker at the memorial, blamed “35 years of rabid anti-abortion harassment, hate rhetoric, violence and intimidation.”
Hern — who got the news of Tiller’s death two hours after it happened in a phone call from Tiller’s wife —is the director of the Boulder Abortion Clinic and also performs late-term abortions.
If you know Hern or know of him, you’re not surprised by the clinic’s straightforward name. Hern, who has been performing abortions since 1973, is not exactly the subtle type. He’s the type who says at the memorial that the “main difference between the American anti-abortion movement and the Taliban is about 8,000 miles.” He tells you about the rifle he used to keep at his bedside after getting death threats and dares you to disagree.
Hern and Tiller were friends. They were colleagues. They shared the same job and the same dangers. To some, Tiller was a baby killer. Late-term abortions are, of course, central to the abortion debate. But if you check , you’ll find stories from women, some heartbroken, writing warm tributes to Tiller, who did the difficult abortions most doctors wouldn’t.
“I couldn’t believe it when I heard the news,” Hern said of the shooting, even though, in fact, he and Tiller had often talked of the possibility.
No one misunderstands here. No one is really surprised.
I saw Bob Enyart, from Colorado Right to Life, quoted on this subject the other day in the Los Angeles Times: “If a Mafia hitman gets killed,” he said, “people recognize it’s an occupational hazard.”
Enyart was not condoning the killing, he said. He was explaining it.
And Hern has his own explanation: “You think this isn’t what they wanted?”
OK, guns don’t kill people, we’re told. People do. Well, what about words?
The words “baby killer” are used so routinely they’ve become part of the vocabulary. O’Reilly, who condemned the shooting, tried to disown his words, saying in calling Tiller a baby killer that he was merely reporting what others were saying. Unfortunately for O’Reilly, there are transcripts. Go to , the Pulitzer Prize-winner fact checker at the St. Petersburg Times, and see for yourself.
But Hern takes it beyond those you use the term “baby killers” to “antiabortion fanatics (who) call themselves ‘pro-life’ while they are killing doctors and other health workers who help women.”
Hern is a soldier in what he says has moved past debate and into civil war.
“I used to debate these people up and down,” he said. “But you can’t debate people who want to kill you.”
Before Tiller’s death, the big abortion story was President Barack Obama’s speech at Notre Dame, in which he asked for the opposing sides to stop “reducing those with differing views to caricature.” He called for “fair-minded words.”
Hern was in no mood to be fair- minded. He was angry. He came to the memorial with his wife and son, with his sister and mother, there to provide support for Hern, who broke down during his speech. He also came with U.S. marshals, who were providing 24-hour security. There was no publicity for the memorial service. Too dangerous.
It couldn’t be missed that the memorial was held at a synagogue — Temple Emanuel — so soon after the Holocaust museum killing.
I asked Rabbi Steven Foster, who called Hern a “hero,” if there was a link between the death of Tiller and the death of Holocaust museum guard Stephen Johns.
“There’s a link,” he said. “Hatred.”
Mike Littwin writes Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Reach him at 303-954-5428 or mlittwin@denverpost.com.
