Killer of Kansas abortion doctor disciplined in prison for comments

Scott Roeder, 51-year-old Kansas City-area man charged with murder of Kansas abortion doctor George Tiller, is seen in this undated booking photograph released to Reuters on June 12, 2009.

KANSAS CITY, Kansas (Reuters) - The man imprisoned for killing Kansas late-term abortion provider Dr. George Tiller will be penalized for trying to intimidate a woman who reopened Tiller's clinic, a state official said Thursday.

Scott Roeder will spend 45 days alone in his cell for 23 hours a day, with one hour in the prison yard for exercise, and will have reduced privileges for another 60 days, Kansas Department of Corrections spokesman Jeremy Barclay said.

An administrator made the decision following a hearing for Roeder this week, Barclay said

Roeder, serving a life sentence for shooting Tiller to death at a church in 2009, said in an April YouTube telephone interview with Iowa abortion opponent Dave Leach that reopening the clinic was "a shame and a disgrace" and risky for the new operator.

"To walk in there and reopen a clinic, a murder mill where a man was stopped, is almost like putting a target on your back saying, 'Well, let's see if you can shoot me,'" Roeder said in the interview.

Tiller's former clinic in Wichita, Kansas, was reopened in April as the South Wind Women's Center. A nonprofit group, Trust Women Foundation, owns the clinic. Julie Burkhart is director of the foundation.

Roeder, 55, had testified that he killed Tiller, 67, to stop abortions. He is serving his time at a state prison in Lansing, Kansas.

Barclay said Roeder also was fined $20 for his comments.

(Reporting by Kevin Murphy; Editing by Mary Wisniewski and Xavier Briand)