George Tiller

George Richard Tiller (August 8, 1941 – May 31, 2009) was an American physician and abortionist from Wichita, Kansas.

He gained national attention as the medical director of Women's Health Care Services, which, at the time, was one of only three abortion clinics nationwide that provided late-term abortions.

He studied at the University of Kansas School of Medicine from 1963 to 1967.

Shortly thereafter, he held a medical internship with the United States Navy, and served as flight surgeon in Camp Pendleton, California, in 1969 and 1970.

In July 1970, he planned to start a dermatology residency.

On August 21, 1970, his parents, sister and brother-in-law were killed in an aircraft accident.

In her will, his sister requested that Tiller take care of her one-year-old son.

Tiller intended to go back to Wichita, close up his father's family practice and then go back to become a dermatologist, but he felt pressure to take over his father's family practice.

Tiller's father had performed abortions at his practice.

After hearing about a woman who had died from an illegal abortion, Tiller stayed in Wichita to continue his father's practice.

Tiller struggled with substance abuse at various points in his life, which came to a head in 1984 when he was arrested for driving under the influence.

He sought treatment, overcame his addiction, and later served on the Kansas Medical Society's impaired physicians committee.

Tiller's practice performed post-viability abortions, which made Tiller a focal point for anti-abortion protest and violence.

Tiller treated patients who discovered late in pregnancy that their fetuses had severe or fatal birth defects.

He also aborted healthy late-term fetuses in cases where two doctors certified that carrying the fetus to term would cause the woman "substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function."

His practice frequently made him the focus of anti-abortion groups.

In June 1986, his clinic was firebombed.

The group known as Operation Rescue held an event called "The Summer of Mercy" in July and August 1991, focusing on Tiller's clinic but also protesting other abortion providers in Wichita, Kansas.

Years later, a branch that split from the main Operation Rescue group moved from California to Kansas specifically to focus on Tiller, initially named Operation Rescue West.

The Kansas Coalition for Life kept a daily vigil outside Tiller's facility from May 9, 2004, until May 31, 2009.

On November 3, 2006, O'Reilly featured an exclusive segment on The O'Reilly Factor, saying that he had an "inside source" with official clinic documentation indicating that Tiller performed late-term abortions to alleviate "temporary depression" in pregnant women.

He characterized the doctor as "a savage on the loose, killing babies willy-nilly," and accused him of "operating a death mill," and of protecting the rapists of children.

He suggested that Tiller performed abortions for women who had "a bit of a headache or anxiety" or who felt "a bit blue."

O'Reilly's campaign against Tiller included the on-air disclosure of confidential patient information provided by former-Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline, for which breach of professional conduct Kline's law license was eventually suspended indefinitely.

After Tiller was murdered, O'Reilly denied responsibility and defended his campaign against Tiller, saying: "When I heard about Tiller’s murder, I knew pro-abortion zealots and Fox News haters would attempt to blame us for the crime, and that’s exactly what has happened. [...] Every single thing we said about Tiller was true, and my analysis was based on those facts. [...] Now, it’s clear that the far left is exploiting—exploiting—the death of the doctor. Those vicious individuals want to stifle any criticism of people like Tiller. That—and hating Fox News—is the real agenda here."

Throughout his career, Tiller was a frequent target of anti-abortion violence.

In 2007, Kansas prosecutors charged Tiller with 19 charges of illegal late-term abortions for allegedly consulting a physician who was financially affiliated with him in late-term abortion procedures in 2003.

Kansas law prohibits abortions after the beginning of fetal viability unless two doctors certify that continuing the pregnancy would cause the woman "substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function", with the requirement that the two consulting doctors must not be "financially affiliated" with the doctor performing the abortion.

The case became a cause célèbre for both supporters and opponents of legal abortion.

WorldNetDaily columnist Jack Cashill compared the trial to the Nuremberg Trials of Nazi war criminals, while Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Professor Jacob Appel described Tiller as "a genuine hero who ranks alongside Susan B. Anthony and Martin Luther King Jr. in the pantheon of defenders of human liberty."

On May 31, 2009, Tiller was fatally shot in the side of the head by Scott Roeder, an anti-abortion terrorist, while Tiller served as an usher during the Sunday morning service at his church in Wichita.

The trial took place in March 2009, with the jury finding Tiller not guilty on all charges on March 27, approximately two months before his death.

At the time of his death, Tiller was board certified with the American Board of Family Practice, an Associate of the American Society of Addiction Medicine, and a clinical instructor in the Department of Family Medicine for Wesley Medical Center, where he had previously served as president of the medical staff.

Tiller was discussed in 28 episodes of the Fox News talk show The O'Reilly Factor in the years leading up to his death, focusing national attention on his practice.

Although he later denied it, show host Bill O'Reilly sometimes described him as "Tiller the Baby Killer," a nickname that Congressman Robert Dornan had used on the floor of the US House of Representatives.

O'Reilly said he would not want to be Tiller, Kathleen Sebelius, and other pro-abortion rights Kansas politicians "if there is a judgment day."

Roeder was convicted of murder on January 29, 2010, and sentenced to life imprisonment without possibility of parole until after 50 years.

In November 2016, Roeder's sentence was lowered to 25 years imprisonment following a resentencing hearing.

Tiller's family supported the sentencing being lowered.

Tiller was born in Wichita, Kansas, the son of Catherine and Dean Jackson "Jack" Tiller, a prominent physician.