Abortionist Killed: National News – Abortionist Kills Woman: Ignored

June 16, 2009

The following is a press released from Eileen Smith, whose daughter was killed by an abortionist in 2007. At that time, the local papers would not even print Laura’s obituary. With Operation Rescue’s help, Eileen has worked to bring her daughter’s killer, Rapin Osathanondh, to justice. He goes to trial an manslaughter charges in September. Osathanondh has already surrendered his medical license and closed his two abortion clinics. [Read more]

Abortionist Killed: National News – Abortionist Kills Woman: Ignored

HYANNIS, Mass., June 16 /Christian Newswire/ – Abortionist George Tiller’s death brought an outpouring of national media headlines and Congressional condolences to his family by a resolution approved by the US House. Laura Hope Smith’s death at the hands of an abortionist was and continues to be ignored and her mother’s effort to bring it to the attention of her senator was stonewalled.

“Where was the press when my daughter Laura died at the hands of an abortionist?” asks Eileen Smith, Laura’s mother. A media search shows mostly news reports from nonprofit organizations, religious news and other alternative media.

Laura’s death was mentioned 10 months later in one major publication, The Boston Globe, when the abortionist was indicted for manslaughter. It was 6 weeks before her local paper, The Cape Cod Times, mentioned Laura’s death, although it sought out her mother for a two-hour interview just 2 days after Laura’s death. Smith says the local newspaper rationalized delaying a report on Laura’s death so it could corroborate it with an autopsy report.

“Since when has news been postponed in lieu of reporting facts except in the abortion deaths of the mothers?” asks Smith. “I have to believe that it is only because the media’s bias toward abortion determines what makes news,” she said.

“If Laura had died falling off a bike or in a car accident it would have been in the paper the next day,” she said. “My daughter walked into that abortion facility healthy and she left dead,” Smith said.

Smith believes Tiller’s death is another senseless killing in the history of abortion, adding to the 50 million untimely deaths of unborn babies, including the 60,000 viable babies aborted by Tiller. “His death is a tragedy, but so are all the lives that were taken by him and the lives of over 400 women who have died as a result of an abortion,” said Smith.

The abortionist was indicted by a grand jury for manslaughter in the death of Laura, following an investigation by local police and the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Medicine. The District Attorney found the abortionist’s conduct to be “willful, wanton, and reckless” because he sedated Laura with level three drugs without any means of cardiac monitoring or blood pressure cuff; had no assistant who could administer sedation, monitor the patient, or assist in resuscitating her; and, “failed to timely initiate a call to 911.” The board also alleged that the abortionist made false statements.

“I call on the media to report deaths like Laura’s,” said Smith. “If Tiller’s death merits national news, so does a death at the hands of an abortionist,” she added.

Eileen Smith is available for interviews. Contact Valerie Mosher Pfeil, 413-768-9722

WomenMust be Told about Risks of Abortion: Pro-Abortion Columnist

By Alex Bush

June 10, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The proven risk of having a premature birth caused by previous abortions has lead Barbara Kay, a supporter of abortion availability and columnist for the National Post, to state that abortionists must tell these risks to women seeking an abortion, so that they may make a truly informed decision.

Kay says that “researchers in the field of human reproduction have been quietly beavering away on mounting epidemiological data around IA [Induced Abortion] and its link to preterm birth (PTB) in a future pregnancy. Recent findings in their research remind us of a ‘right’ generally observed in the breach: the right of women seeking safe abortions to informed consent.”

Kay observes that preterm birth “presents a heightened risk for birth defects’ and that the risk increases the more premature the birth is.”

She writes that “in 2007 Dr. Greg Alexander of the U. S. Institutes of Medicine (a branch of the National Academy of Sciences) identified a ‘prior first trimester induced abortion’ as an ‘immutable medical risk factor associated with preterm birth.’ ”

Kay also quotes a 2008 Lancet article, where Drs. Jay Iams, Robert Romero, and Robert L. Goldenberg say that “greater public and professional awareness of evidence that repeated uterine instrumentation — e. g. uterine curettage [including "suction" abortion] or endometrial biopsy — is associated with increased risk of subsequent preterm birth might over time influence [government] decision-making about the procedure.”

Since these studies are so accessible to abortionists, Kay says that if she “were the mother of a post-IA, PTB infant or toddler with autism or cerebral palsy, and had not been informed as a matter of regulatory course of IA’s risk for a future PTB, I’d be angry. Litigiously so.”

She concludes by asking: “Abortion on demand: empowerment — or bamboozlement — of women?”

See Barbara Kay’s Column “The abortion issue we’re ignoring”

See Related LifeSiteNews.com Coverage:

Massive German Study Confirms Abortion Significantly Increases Premature Birth Risk

http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/feb/09021111.html

More Research Links Abortion with Preterm Births in Subsequent Pregnancies

http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/mar/09030404.html

Study: Previous Abortions Linked With Pre-Term Birth and Cerebral Palsy

http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/oct/07102602.html

HEAR TILLER’S VOICE AND FR. FRANK PAVONE’S RESPONSE

Brothers and Sisters,
[I invite you to read the following statement I released yesterday, and also to listen to some chilling audio from George Tiller and to watch and comment on a new You Tube video at the links below. - Fr. Frank Pavone]

The pro-life leadership has gone out of its way – and rightly so – to condemn the violence that took the life of abortionist George Tiller on Sunday. I join with those voices, as I always have done, that declare that the end never justifies the means, and that violence has no place in the effort to end abortion.

I have been asked what I think the biggest negative effect of this killing will be on our pro-life movement. Does it tar the movement’s reputation? Yes, it does, despite the fact that those who kill abortionists are always disconnected from pro-life organizations. Does it make the government reach too far in clamping down on First Amendment activity against abortion? Yes, it does and it will.

But those are not the biggest dangers. The biggest danger is the enemy within. It is the fear and self-doubt to which we can all too easily fall victim. It is the voice inside that makes us feel guilty for saying “Abortion is murder” or “Abortion is a holocaust” or “The babies who are being killed need to be defended now.” It is the fear inside that keeps us from going out to the abortion mills and intervening to save the children scheduled to be killed there each day. The biggest danger is that some will listen to those in the pro-abortion movement who try to lay blame for violence on us and who, as one person wrote on my blog, think that saying “Abortion is murder” should be prosecuted because it leads to violence against abortionists. The Church teaches us that we have to look evil in the eye. John Paul II, in “The Gospel of Life”, said that we have to call evil by its proper name. This is no time to shrink back from the reality of what is going on every day in abortion. Children are being killed, and the reason it continues is that too many of our fellow citizens are blind to it. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, in his Letter from the Birmingham Jail, responded to criticisms that the civil rights activists were fomenting violence. No, he said. That’s like saying the person who owns money is fomenting the activity of the robber. To expose the violence that is already occurring, to call it what it is, and to sound the alarm that it has to stop, is not to foment violence. The pro-life movement is a movement of non-violence. As Ghandi and Dr. King taught, and as we teach, non-violence is not passivity, and it is not obscurity. It is a force. It is a clear and strong response against violence, in whatever form that violence takes.

Let the outcry against Tiller’s murder be loud and clear. And let the outcry against the murders he committed – and that other abortionists commit — be loud and clear as well.
Click below to hear Dr. Tiller’s words to prospective abortion clients. Notice, he makes no attempt to deny that this is a baby, and offers the parents the opportunity to view their dead baby and say goodbye with religious and other rituals. (06:43)

Former Abortion Practitioner Bernard Nathanson Talks About George Tiller’s Death

by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
June 12, 2009

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — Former abortion practitioner Bernard Nathanson, who has since converted to the pro-life position, was a former mentor of George Tiller, the slain late-term abortion practitioner. In a new interview, Nathanson said he was surprised that Tiller never became pro-life himself because of new medical technologies.

Nathanson is no stranger to the abortion industry, having done more than 75,000 abortions himself during the 1960s and 1970s and presiding over one of the nation’s premier pro-abortion groups, NARAL.

He earned widespread praise from the pro-life movement for his movie “Silent Scream” which showed the advancement in ultrasound technology and how an abortion destroys human life.

“I knew George Tiller years ago when I was on the pro-abortion side,” he told the Washington Times. “He came to a course I was giving in the technique of abortion in New York in 1970 under the auspices of NARAL. And I did late-term abortions until I changed my opinion as of 1980.”

“My switch to pro-life had nothing to do with religion,” he told the newspaper.

“Tiller was a church-going man, which doesn’t say a whole lot in this country, but one wonders why he never changed his mind based on the scientific evidence. That is where I changed my mind, based on fetoscopies and ultrasound studies,” Nathanson added.

“Once we had ultrasound in place, we could study the fetus and see it was a member of our community. If you don’t do that, you’re just a creature of political ideology. In 1970, there were approximately 1,100 articles on the functioning of the fetus. By 1990, there were 22,000. The data piled up swiftly and opened a window into the womb,” Nathanson continued.

The former abortion practitioner admitted to the Times that he, too, could have been shot had he continued to do abortions.

“Yes, that is correct,” he said. “But I wasn’t.”

Tiller was allegedly shot by Scott Roeder, a militia activist with no affiliations with any pro-life organizations. Roeder’s family has also indicated that he battled with mental illness over the years.

Hundreds of pro-life groups have since issued statements condemning the shooting and saying it doesn’t represent the views of the majority of Americans who are pro-life on abortion and seek legal and peaceful means to protect human life.

However, that hasn’t stopped pro-abortion groups from attacking the majority of Americans who take a pro-life position on abortion and referring to them as terrorists.

Family of Slain Late-Term Abortion Practitioner George Tiller Will Close Business

by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
June 9, 2009

Wichita, KS (LifeNews.com) — The family of late-term abortion practitioner George Tiller, who was recently shot to death, has confirmed they will close his late-term abortion business permanently. The family’s attorneys released a statement Tuesday saying the Women’s Health Care Services abortion center will be “permanently closed.”

The decision, they explained, is effective immediately.

It means that other late-term abortion practitioners like Nebraska-based LeRoy Carhart will not take over Tiller’s Kansas-based abortion center and continue it following his death.

The statement also indicated that Tiller’s family will not have any involvement in any other abortion centers. That means the Tiller name will no longer be connected with the performance of abortions on babies who may be able to live on their own outside their mother’s womb.

“Notice is being given today to all concerned that the Tiller family is ceasing operation of the clinic and any involvement by family members in any other similar clinic,” the statement continued.

Still, the Tiller family did not renounce his late-term abortion business, but thanked him for his involvement in the abortion industry.

“We are proud of the service and courage shown by our husband and father and know that women’s health care needs have been met because of his dedication and service,” the family said. “That is a legacy that will never die. The family will honor Dr. Tiller’s memory through private charitable activities.”

The family did not name any pro-abortion groups or other agencies that may benefit from their donations.

The family also sought to ensure women who had abortions with Tiller that their medical records will be protected. The obtaining of medical records had been an issue in the cases state attorneys filed against Tiller for allegedly engaging in illegal abortions.

The family said the medical records will be “as fiercely protected now and in the future” as they were when Tiller was doing abortions.

Tiller opened Women’s Health Care Services in the 1970s and it was one of the few places in the nation solely dedicated to doing late-term abortions. Such abortions are done across the country, with as many as 13,000 or more done annually.

Tiller was allegedly shot by Scott Roeder, a militia activist with no affiliations with any pro-life organizations. Roeder’s family has also indicated that he battled with mental illness over the years.

Hundreds of pro-life groups have since issued statements condemning the shooting and saying it doesn’t represent the views of the majority of Americans who are pro-life on abortion and seek legal and peaceful means to protect human life.

However, that hasn’t stopped pro-abortion groups from attacking the majority of Americans who take a pro-life position on abortion and referring to them as terrorists.

Komen for the Cure Joins Idaho Abortion Business for Breast Cancer Screenings

by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
June 9, 2009

Boise, ID (LifeNews.com) — The Komen for the Cure organization that sponsors events to combat breast cancer has teamed up with a business that does abortions, which have been proven to increase a woman’s risk for contracting the disease. The move in Idaho is the latest in the link between Komen and Planned Parenthood.

On Friday, Komen teamed up with Planned Parenthood of Idaho to offer breast cancer screenings in Twin Falls and information about breast cancer.

About a dozen women scheduled screenings, according to the Magic Valley Times-News and they were done at the abortion business.

“The main goal is to provide clinical breast exams and mammography to women for free,” Suzanne Edelman of Planned Parenthood told the newspaper.

Komen essentially paid Planned Parenthood for the breast cancer exams that, without its financial input, would have cost women $70.

Although there are nothing wrong with breast cancer screenings, pro-life advocates are disappointed a group that is concerned about breast cancer would team up with an abortion business, especially since research shows abortions increase the risk.

In 2007 alone, Komen chapters gave $711,485 from April 1, 2005 to March 31, 2006 to Planned Parenthood affiliates.

The amount of the grants from Komen affiliates to Planned Parenthood appears to be on the rise and 25 Komen affiliates now have a partnership with the abortion business.

A new video released in February, “Komen’s Dark Side,” exposes the irregular relationship between the breast cancer organization and Planned Parenthood. The video reports on the cover-up of the abortion-breast cancer link.

“Komen’s officials have no right to keep women in the dark about a breast cancer risk, while at the same time giving funds to Planned Parenthood, a primary cause of the breast cancer epidemic,” says Karen Malec, the head of the Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer.

“The cancer fundraising industry is covering up the link, in part, because it is not good for fundraising to tell donors their abortions may be responsible for their breast cancers,” Malec added.

Baruch College professor and renowned researcher Joel Brind, Ph.D., one of the world’s leading experts on the link between abortion and breast cancer, says that the link between the two is real and that studies back up his assertion that carrying a pregnancy to term reduces the risk.

“That’s what the big research argument is about: does abortion increase the risk of breast cancer beyond not getting pregnant in the first place? And the answer is yes,” Brind says.

Brind explains that the reason for the link is “obvious” in that “once a woman gets pregnant, her breasts start growing within days or a week or so after getting pregnant. So the number of those Type 1 and Type 2 lobules where breast cancer can form are multiplying and so there are more places where cancer can start as the pregnancy proceeds.”

“Well, once 32 weeks pass, all those Type 1 and Type 2 lobules become Type 3 and Type 4 lobules so you actually have fewer places for cancer to form than before the pregnancy started. But if a pregnancy is aborted before the 32-week mark, the risk for breast cancer goes way up from where it would have been even if a woman hadn’t gotten pregnant in the first place,” he said.

While much of the focus of the debate is on the abortion side of the breast cancer issue, Brind says there is little controversy about the fact that pregnancy helps women.

“No one argues with the fact that when a woman has a full-term pregnancy, breast cancer risk goes down,” he said.

For more information on the abortion-breast cancer link, visit the Breast Cancer Prevention Institute’s web site at http://www.BCPInstitute.org

George Tiller’s Family Sends Statement After Killing, Abortion Advocates Plan Vigil

by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
May 31, 2009

Wichita, KS (LifeNews.com) — The family of late-term abortion practitioner George Tiller has released a statement following his Sunday morning shooting death. Meanwhile, abortion advocates in central Kansas are planning a vigil this evening as they mourn his shooting death.

Dan Monnat and Lee Thompson, attorneys for the controversial abortion practitioner, released a statement to the press on behalf of Jeanne Tiller, his wife, and four children and ten grandchildren.

“Today we mourn the loss of our husband, father and grandfather. Today’s event is an unspeakable tragedy for all of us and for George’s friends and patients,” the Tiller family said. “This is particularly heart wrenching because George was shot down in his house of worship, a place of peace.”

“We would like to express the family’s thanks for the many messages of sympathy from our friends and from all across the nation. We also want to thank the law enforcement officers who are investigating this crime,” the statement continued.

The statement said the “loss” of Tiller was a loss “for the City of Wichita and women across America” because Tiller had “dedicated his life” to “providing women with high-quality” abortions.

“We ask that he be remembered as a good husband, father and grandfather and a dedicated servant on behalf of the rights of women everywhere,” it said.

Meanwhile, abortion advocates have planned a candlelight vigil for 8 p.m. today at Old Town Square in downtown Wichita to mourn Tiller’s death show support for him and oppose the shooting.

The Wichita Eagle newspaper indicates Dustin Deckard, a 20-year-old abortion backer, put together the vigil and says he hopes it will be “a quiet show of support for Dr. Tiller and a moment to remember his medical and political triumphs.”

“With the situation today, I think that what side people are on is the last thing we should be arguing about,” Deckard said. “The death of people’s loved one is more important today than any political alignment.”

Pro-life advocates have swiftly and thoroughly issued genuine condemnations of the shooting.

Abortion Advocates Quickly Attack Pro-Life People After George Tiller Murder

by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
May 31, 2009

Wichita, KS (LifeNews.com) — Abortion advocates wasted little time in attacking the majority of Americans who are pro-life following the shooting death of late-term abortion practitioner George Tiller. One leading pro-abortion group is asking the administration of President Barack Obama to target pro-life groups and individuals.

Saying that women “lost a champion” with the death of Tiller, the pro-abortion National Organization for Women claimed that an “anti-abortion terrorist” must have killed Tiller even though the identify of the shooter has yet to be revealed.

NOW said “the anti-abortion cause” was behind Tiller’s murder and other actions against abortion centers and practitioners even though members of pro-life groups have never been behind any such incident.

Saying that bringing the person who killed Tiller to justice is “not enough,” NOW called on the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security to “root out and prosecute as domestic terrorists and violent racketeers the criminal enterprise that has organized and funded criminal acts for decades.”

“We call on the new attorney general Eric Holder and head of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano to treat these murders in the same way they would treat politically-motivated domestic terrorism of any other kind and put the full resources of their two departments behind that effort,” they said.

Kansas City Star columnist Mike Hendricks blamed pro-life advocates for Tiller’s death, saying there had been a “vitriolic campaign that has been waged against Tiller for more than two decades by anti-abortion groups.”

As “accomplices,” Hendricks named “every one who has ever called Tiller’s late term abortion clinic a murder mill.”

“The groups who spent decades fomenting hate toward” Tiller, he claimed. “Hate. Not heated opposition. Not strong disagreement. But blind hatred. The kind of hate that would prompt some maniac to take a gun into a church and shoot a man to death in front of friends and family.”

Hendricks went as far as saying that pro-life advocates condemned Tiller’s murder because they know they were at fault.

ACTION: Contact Mike Hendricks at primebuzz@kcstar.com

Pro-Abortion Groups Falsely Blame Pro-Life Movement for George Tiller’s Death

by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
May 31, 2009

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — Just hours after the shooting death of late-term abortion practitioner George Tiller and without a potential suspect, leading pro-abortion organizations immediately blamed pro-life advocates for George Tiller’s death.

The statements by the pro-abortion leaders appeared to use Tiller’s death for political gain by painting the pro-life community with a broad brush and accusing them of fostering a climate leading to Tiller’s death.

Vicki Saporta, the president of the National Abortion Federation, a trade group for abortion businesses, claimed “individuals who oppose the right to choose have used violence to try to advance their extreme anti-choice agenda.”

Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards relied on the same kind of comments to attack the majority of Americans who are pro-life and also peaceful, law-abiding people.

“He was continually harassed by abortion opponents for much of his career,” Richards said.

She pointed out that Tiller was recently “targeted for investigation by a jury,” referring to the charges brought against him by a Kansas Attorney General who supports legal abortions but had evidence suspecting Tiller may have been engaging in illegal abortions.

Richards called the late-term abortions that Tiller did, which involved the death of unborn children after viability that most Americans oppose, as “critical reproductive health care.”

Eleanor Smeal, the head of the Feminist Majority Foundation, said Tiller was a “hero for women’s rights” who “many legal challenges by anti-abortion extremists.”

Accusing pro-life advocates of killing Tiller, she said he “was murdered in his church by such an extremist” on Sunday.

NARAL president Nancy Keenan also accused pro-life advocates of being behind the Tiller killing, saying “we suspect it is” a case of “anti-abortion violence.”

Other abortion advocates carried on the blame-the-pro-life-movement banner including Andrew Sullivan of The Atlantic newspaper, who went as far as blaming Fox News political commentator Bill O’Reilly for Tiller’s death.

He called it the “campaign of domestic terrorism against him” and blasted pro-life advocates for protesting at his abortion center and O’Reilly for calling him Tiller the “so-called baby killer.”

Susan Demas of the Capitol Chronicle newspaper in Michigan claimed the killing was the result of the “sick side of the pro-life movement” and said she wasn’t surprised by the killing.

“So why wouldn’t some “pro-lifer” go off the deep end as another pro-choice justice is poised to join the Supreme Court and take out a doctor who performs abortions?” she wrote.

ACTION: Contact Demas at sjdemas@gmail.com with your comments about her post.

Pro-Life Groups Soundly Condemn Murder of Abortion Practitioner George Tiller

by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
May 31, 2009

Wichita, KS (LifeNews.com) — Within hours of the Sunday murder of late-term abortion practitioner George Tiller, several leading pro-life groups genuinely and thoroughly condemned the killing. The reiterated the fact that, while they opposed the abortions Tiller did, they equally oppose the use of violence and death as a solution.

“We are shocked at this morning’s disturbing news that Mr. Tiller was gunned down,” Operation Rescue president Troy Newman told LifeNews.com.

“Operation Rescue has worked for years through peaceful, legal means, and through the proper channels to see him brought to justice,” Newman added. “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,” Newman continued.

Kansans for Life, another pro-life group that relied only legal and political means of responding to Tiller’s abortions, said it “deplored” the killing.

“Kansans for Life deplores the murder of Dr. George Tiller, and we wish to express our deep and sincere sympathy to his family and friends,” KFL director Mary Kay Culp told LifeNews.com immediately after the shooting.

“Our organization has a board of directors, and a 35 year history of bringing citizens together to achieve thoughtful education and legislation on the life issues here in Kansas,” she explained. “We value life, completely deplore violence, and are shocked and very upset by what happened in Wichita today.”

Father Frank Pavone, the founder and director of Priests for Life, a very prominent pro-life Catholic group, urged the media and those involved in the abortion debate not to assign blame to the pro-life community that would never employ these kinds of tactics to oppose abortion.

“I am saddened to hear of the killing of George Tiller this morning,” he told LifeNews.com.

“At this point, we do not know the motives of this act, or who is behind it, whether an angry post-abortive man or woman, or a misguided activist, or an enemy within the abortion industry, or a political enemy frustrated with the way Tiller has escaped prosecution. We should not jump to conclusions or rush to judgment,” Pavone added.

“But whatever the motives, we at Priests for Life continue to insist on a culture in which violence is never seen as the solution to any problem. Every life has to be protected, without regard to their age or views or actions,” he said.

Other pro-life advocates have also condemned the shooting in no uncertain terms, including pro-life activist Rev. Patrick Mahoney, members of the youth pro-life group Bound for Life, and others.