Using force to get their way, in America

Rachel Maddow has been tracking two difficulties facing one Kansas doctor who has decided to offer abortion services in Wichita, following the murder of Dr. George Tiller.  So far, Dr. Milla Means has been sued by her landlord, is unable to rent another facility, has faced protests at her clinic, and has had her personal information splashed across anti-abortion websites.  And now protesters have shown up at her home.  Maddow asks an important question: is this really the way we do things in America - through violence and intimidation?

Anti-abortion activists showed up Tuesday night at the home of Dr. Mila Means, a family practitioner who'd like to offer abortion services in Wichita, Kansas. Dr. Means would be the first open provider in Wichita since the last one, Dr. George Tiller, was murdered in 2009. She had talked to us on the show the night before.

As we reported Wednesday, the protesters turned up at Dr. Means' house without much attempt to deliver their message to anyone but her. "She is killing babies right now in Ks. City, and plans to kill in Wichita," protest leader Rob Rotola e-mailed us later. "We will notify her neighbors and all who do business with her."

Read more at Maddow Blog

Is Providing Abortions Creating a "Nuisance"?

A judge has barred a doctor who trained specifically to begin offering abortions following the murder of Dr. George Tiller in Wichita from performing abortions.  The temporary restraining order is based on a suit brought by the clinic's landlord that abortion services will create a nuisance.

The first doctor to try to offer abortion services in Wichita, Kansas, since Dr. George Tiller was gunned down in a church in May 2009 has been blocked from doing so—by her landlord, who has claimed this would create a "nuisance." And groups opposed to abortion rights are hailing this development as a major win on a prominent frontline in the national war over abortion.

Dr. Mila Means is a family practitioner in Wichita, and since last year she has been preparing to provide abortion services there. (She has been undergoing training with Kansas City abortion provider, Aid for Women.) But on Monday, a state judge issued a temporary restraining order barring Means from performing abortions at her medical office or making any changes to the facility that would allow her to do so. Judge Jeffrey Goering granted this order at the behest of Foliage Development, Inc., the owner of the building that houses Means' office.

Read more at Mother Jones

Wichita doctors to offer abortions

A Kansas City abortion clinic has been training two doctors to provide abortion services in Wichita in the wake of the shooting death of Dr. George Tiller, a clinic spokesman told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

Drs. Mila Means and Greg Linhardt decided to learn how to perform abortions at their Wichita practices after Tiller was shot to death by anti-abortion activist Scott Roeder in May 2009, said Aid For Women spokesman Jeff Peterson. Abortion services haven't been offered in Wichita since Tiller's death.

"The reason we are training is for George," Peterson said.

Read more at The Wichita Eagle

300 protest plan for late-term abortions in Md.

In response to Dr. LeRoy Carhart beginning to work in a reproductive health clinic in the Washington, DC area, protests have already begun.  Dr. Carhart announced last month he would open 3 clinics that offered late-term abortion services for women who need them around the country.

Nebraska doctor LeRoy Carhart began working Monday at a Germantown abortion clinic, prompting protests and a prayer vigil - and shifting the national battle over abortion from the Midwest to Maryland by focusing attention on a controversial procedure that stirs up strong feelings among many Americans. 

One of the few doctors in the country who openly acknowledges performing abortions late in pregnancy, Carhart said last month that he chose the Washington area because Nebraska has implemented a law making it illegal to perform abortions beyond the 20th week of pregnancy. Only a handful of doctors say publicly that they perform late abortions, and Carhart has been the target of abortion protests. 

Read more at The Washington Post

Rachel Maddow Examines Anti-Abortion Candidates

On last night's show, Rachel Maddow reviewed the current crop of anti-abortion candidates running for office and offered a preview of the upcoming documentary on the murder of Dr. George Tiller.  From candidates who believe that abortion should never be legal, even in the case of rape, incest, or health of the mother, to a group called Personhood USA who is now equating President Obama with the Angel of Death, abortion is starting to take a much more visible role this election season.  Despite popular opinion that this election is only about the economy and jobs, culture wars are very much making a come back.

View the video at MaddowBlog

First look: Inside 'The Assassination of Dr. Tiller'

On Monday night, October 18, MSNBC will air a documentary called "The Assassination of Dr. Tiller," narrated by Rachel Maddow.  The show will be aired at 9:00 EDT (8:00 pm CDT). Below is a link to the preview.  

In light of the increased rhetoric against abortion, and the passage of laws aimed at restricting or outright eliminating access to abortion and reproductive health across this country (especially since the murder of Dr. Tiller), this looks to be a very stirring, informational, and needed documentary. 

Read more at Maddow Blog

Two ex-roommates of abortion doctor’s killer tell of grand jury appearances

Two former roommates of the man who killed Wichita abortion doctor George Tiller say they have testified before a federal grand jury investigating whether Scott Roeder acted alone.

Tiller was shot to death in the foyer of his Wichita church while serving as an usher on May 31, 2009. Roeder, of Kansas City, was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced in April to life in prison with no chance of parole for 50 years.

After Tiller’s death, the Department of Justice announced that it was looking into whether anyone else played a role.

Read more at the Kansas City Star

Lawyer: Abortion doctor’s death was ‘terrorism’

It appears that the murder of Dr. George Tiller has had some unforeseen consequences - it has caused some medical school students to look into training in reproductive health procedures, including abortion procedures.

The murder of one of the few U.S. doctors who performed late-term abortions was "a gutless act of terror" and was as destructive as "an earthquake" for women seeking such medical services, the doctor's friend and attorney said Thursday.

Attorney Lee Thompson asked District Judge Warren Wilbert to give the harshest possible sentence to anti-abortion zealot Scott Roeder, who admitted he gunned down Dr. George Tiller in the back of Tiller's Wichita church last May because he felt doing so would protect unborn children.

Roeder was facing a mandatory life prison term, although Wilbert had to decide whether to make him eligible for parole after 25 or 50 years. The judge indicated during the hearing that the evidence showed that the 52-year-old Roeder stalked Tiller before killing him, which could qualify him for the harsher of the two sentences.

George Tiller: Healthcare Provider

Rare in the news coverage of the murder of Dr. George Tiller were the voices of physicians who referred patients to him. That's because, in the media, abortion features as an "issue," a battlefront in the culture wars, and only secondarily, if at all, as a medical procedure. The letter below, written by a physician in response to my comment in The Nation on the murder, is a rare exception, shedding light on Dr. Tiller's role as a healthcare provider. Many thanks to Dr. Laurence Burd, its author, for writing it.