Scott Roeder found guilty of murder

Jury took a mere 40 minutes to decide.

There is joy all around on the pro-choice blogs today at this news. One quote from the site itself disturbs me:

"The man killed a doctor for legally doing his job... How does someone do that and avoid the death penalty?"

—Jay Keggerlord

Have we not learned as a society that two wrongs don't make a right? No man has the right to take the life of another man. Period. End of discussion!

Dr. George Tiller was hailed by pro-choice advocates as a hero, who had "generosity of spirit, resolute determination" and his "commitment to serving women has a reach far beyond his Wichita, Kansas clinic. His mantra was 'trust women,' and he demonstrated that belief everyday."

Perhaps that trust went a bit too far. As one of his former employees describes it, "in over 95% of these babies, and it's probably more than that, there was nothing wrong with those babies at all—nothing—and these were third trimester abortions." 3rd trimester. These could be preemies. How many of us know and love someone who was born a month, a month and a half, early? How many of us were preemies ourselves who could have been lost under an abortionist's knife? In how many of these cases was the mother's life in no harm?

Scott Roeder didn't see George Tiller as a hero. He saw this man as a murderer and his OWN role was not to protect the unborn by campaigning to criminalize abortion, but rather by playing God himself. He played judge, jury, and executioner and carried out the sentence in Tiller's place of worship.

Should Roeder be punished for what he did? Yes, yes he should. He should spend the rest of his life behind bars, cut off from the outside world where he can no longer influence other extremists to act.

But the killing stops now.

Voices from our feminist foremothers

Found at Feminists for Life:

Elizabeth Cady Stanton
She classified abortion as a form of "infanticide." The Revolution, 1(5):1, February 5, 1868

"When we consider that women are treated as property, it is degrading to women that we should treat our children as property to be disposed of as we see fit."
Letter to Julia Ward Howe, October 16, 1873, recorded in Howe's diary at Harvard University Library

"There must be a remedy even for such a crying evil as this. But where shall it be found, at least where begin, if not in the complete enfranchisement and elevation of women?"
The Revolution, 1(10):146-7 March 12, 1868

Victoria Woodhull

The first female presidential candidate was a strong opponent of abortion.

"The rights of children as individuals begin while yet they remain the foetus."
Woodhull's and Claflin's Weekly 2(6):4 December 24, 1870

"Every woman knows that if she were free, she would never bear an unwished-for child, nor think of murdering one before its birth."
Wheeling, West Virginia Evening Standard, November 17, 1875