I've been thinking a bit lately about the recent murder of George Tiller. In case you don't recall, he's the abortion doctor in Kansas who was gunned down last week while attending church. I remember first seeing the headline blurb on cnn and msnbc and wondering who the heck the guy was and why anyone would care that he was dead. It wasn't until a few hours later when the first stories hit the wire that I figured out the relevance. My first thought was the hope that he had been gunned down in a robbery attempt or perhaps even better, he was killed by his transvestite lover in some sort of love polygon gone bad. Despite all that, it looks like he was killed over abortion and that's started some predictable gnashing of teeth and churning of rhetoric.

I knew without a doubt that this murder was going to be used by pro-abortion individuals as a rallying point and an attempt to tar and feather pro-lifers in general. Considering the latest poll results, things haven't really been going all that great for them and they could use some point of leverage. I didn't think more of the whole incident than that, but as I read more about the man and the debate, things started to change.

First and foremost, there was probably no more odious abortionist in the whole country than George Tiller. He was the abortionist's abortionist. Because of his willingness to take on even the most morally questionable of cases, many doctors would refer their patients to him when they required late term abortions. In fact, late term abortions were practically his specialty and he noted on the advertising for his clinic that no man in the entire western hemisphere had performed more such procedures than he. So knowing this, one journalist on Slate raised the question of whether his murder was justifiable if we really do believe that abortion is murder. The author's point seems to be that if we say no (and he clearly believes that most people would say no) that it means that we don't really view abortion as being equivalent to murder. If we did, then we should not only celebrate George Tiller's death but considering knocking one of his colleagues off to boot.

At the start of this, I was of the belief that whoever killed the man had to be punished because we are a nation of laws but that I certainly wouldn't weep for Tiller's corpse. The more I read of the man and the more I thought about the situation and I'm led to believe that maybe killing him was the moral path in the end. The man was a monster who committed incredible atrocities on a daily basis. While his supporters would tell us that his work entailed abortions on the brain dead or those fetuses who would have had no functional quality of life if born, we all know that that was not the limit of his actions. He so believed in abortion that he would do what no other doctor in the country would and indiscriminate corpses lay littered in his path. The person who killed him will have to face justice and pay for his crimes, but at least George Tiller won't be committing any more.

I just read an article that really put a smile on my face. It seems that Gallup did another one of their yearly abortion polls and it looks like the tide has finally turned.

NEW YORK - The Gallup Poll reported Friday that 51 percent of Americans now call themselves "pro-life" rather than "pro-choice" on the issue of abortion, the first time a majority gave that answer in the 15 years that Gallup has asked the question.

The findings, obtained in an annual survey on values and beliefs conducted May 7-10, marked a significant shift from a year ago. A year ago, 50 percent said they were pro-choice and 44 percent pro-life — in the new poll, 42 percent said they were pro-choice.

...

The findings echoed a recent national survey by the Pew Research Center, which reported a sharp decline since last August in those saying abortion should be legal in all or most cases — from 54 percent to 46 percent.

I know the numbers have been moving in this direction for quite a while, but it's still sort of impressive and gratifying to finally see it crest the wall. For decades, you've seen spazzy hippies able to say that the majority of Americans agree with them and their support for abortion. That's no longer possible (short of rigging some sort of private poll) and it feels pretty good. It's amazing to think about how far this has come given that just a little over 10 years ago, the ratio was 56% pro-choice and 33% pro-life. A 23% deficit to a 9% lead.

It's not surprising really, if you think about it. Here we have people out there protesting that serial killers and rapists shouldn't be put to death and yet people extinguish innocent life willynilly. It's impossible to reconcile that after a while. I might not believe that all life is precious, but even I believe the innocent should be saved. Find me a fetus who went out and maliciously beheaded a half dozen people and maybe I could be convinced to change my mind.

MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- A doctor's license was revoked Friday in the case of a teenager who planned to have an abortion but instead gave birth to a baby she says was killed when clinic staffers put it into a plastic bag and threw it in the trash.

The doctor, Pierre Jean-Jacques Renelique, also is the subject of a criminal investigation. Renelique was not present when the baby was born, but the Florida Medical Board upheld Department of Health allegations that he falsified medical records, inappropriately delegated tasks to unlicensed personnel and committed malpractice.

Joseph Harrison, the attorney representing Renelique at the license revocation hearing in Tampa, said Renelique has not decided whether to appeal.

The state attorney's office, meanwhile, said its criminal investigation into the incident is ongoing and no charges have been filed. A fetus born alive cannot be put to death even if its mother intended to have an abortion, police said when the incident occurred in 2006.

The baby's mother, Sycloria Williams, sued Renelique, the clinic and its staff in January, seeking damages.

She alleges in her suit that "she witnessed the murder of her daughter" and said she "sustained severe emotional distress, shock and psychic trauma which have resulted in discernible bodily injury."

"This is not about a pot of gold," said Tom Pennekamp, her attorney. "What this is about is right and wrong and making a statement, making sure it doesn't happen to other young women."

According to the suit, Williams, then 18, discovered while being treated for a fall that she was 23 weeks pregnant. She went to a clinic to get an abortion on the morning of July 20, 2006, after receiving medication and instructions the previous day.

Renelique was not at the clinic, however, and Williams was told to wait for him. She was given two pills and told they would make her ill. When she complained of feeling ill, clinic staff members gave her a robe and told her to lie down in a patient room, the suit says.

Renelique was still not present when Williams "felt a large pain" and delivered a baby girl, according to the suit.

"The staff began screaming and pandemonium ensued. Sycloria watched in horror and shock as her baby writhed with her chest rising and falling as she breathed."
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A clinic co-owner entered the room and used a pair of shears to cut the baby's umbilical cord, the suit said. She "then scooped up the baby and placed the live baby, placenta and afterbirth in a red plastic biohazard bag, which she sealed, and then threw bag and the baby in a trash can."

Staff at the clinic did not call 911 or seek medical assistance for Williams or the baby, the suit said.

Renelique arrived at the clinic about an hour later and gave Williams a shot to put her to sleep. "She awoke after the procedure and was sent home still in complete shock," the suit said.

Police were notified of the incident by an anonymous caller who told them the baby was born alive and disposed of.

"The complainant [Williams] observed the baby moving and gasping for air for approximately five minutes," according to a police affidavit requesting a search warrant for the clinic.

Two search warrants found nothing, but officers executing a third warrant "found the decomposing body of a baby in a cardboard box in a closet," the suit said.

I'm always curious what someone who supports abortion thinks when the read an article like the one above. I've never been able to understand how those people seem to be able to partition their minds when it comes to a fetus. For most of them, the only thing that seems to differentiate the difference between whether something is just a clump of cells or a human being is whether the mother wills it to be. It's almost never because of something scientific or quantifiable, like development or viability or anything. If the mother decides she wants an abortion, then it's automatically a parasitic clump of cells that do not deserve protection and if the mother decides she wants to keep the baby, then it's afforded the protection right from the start.

In the case of the article, does it matter whether the they aborted the fetus or actually delivered it and then smothered it to death? If all that's important is the mother's decision about whether to terminate the pregnancy, you would think it's all kosher no matter what. I find it pretty offensive that the seacow is suing in the first place. She wanted to kill the kid from the start. Is she upset now that its death was a little more distressing than she had hoped? Oh, if only they had vaccu-sucked its brain out while it was still up her hoo-ha, it would have been so much cleaner. To me, it feels like it's the same damn thing. Either both instances would be murder or both would be perfectly morally justifiable.

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On a sidenote, who the fuck names their daughter 'Sycloria'? It sounds like a intestinal parasite that causes explosive diarrhea. It's no wonder that she turned out to be a sue-happy babykiller with a name like that. Her parents might as well have named her Chlamydia because they thought it sounded pretty.