Kansas abortion doctor shot dead at church

By Carey Gillam

KANSAS CITY, Missouri (Reuters) - A Kansas doctor reviled by anti-abortion groups for his work providing so-called "late-term" abortions was shot and killed in his Wichita, Kansas, church on Sunday, and police said they captured the man responsible.

Police said they plan to charge a 51-year-old man on Monday with homicide and two counts of aggravated assault in the death of 67-year-old George Tiller, who died from a single gunshot.

Tiller was shot once while serving as an usher for Sunday services in the foyer at Reformation Lutheran Church. The shooter threatened two other men at the church who tried to intervene, police said.

"We feel that this is an act of an isolated individual, however our investigation continues," said Wichita deputy police chief Tom Stolz.

Stolz said they were investigating whether the shooter had any ties to anti-abortion groups.

President Barack Obama expressed shock and outrage, saying in a statement, "However profound our differences as Americans over difficult issues such as abortion, they cannot be resolved by heinous acts of violence."

The killing comes as the Obama administration is seeking confirmation to the U.S. Supreme Court of Sonia Sotomayor, whom

many anti-abortion groups have vowed to oppose. Some in the movement said on Sunday they feared Tiller's killing could aid her confirmation and set back their efforts.

Anti-abortion leaders said they would hold a news conference in front of the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday to discuss how the shooting might impact their efforts to curtail abortion and Sotomayor's Supreme Court nomination.

Tiller was one of only a few physicians in the United States willing to perform late-term abortions, those performed after the 20th week of gestation when a fetus potentially could survive outside the womb and legal under certain conditions.

PREVIOUS ATTACKS

His Wichita clinic had been the site of several mass protests by anti-abortion groups and was bombed in 1985. And Tiller was shot in both arms by an abortion opponent in 1993.

Abortion foes celebrated earlier this year when Tiller was brought to trial on charges of illegally performing certain abortions in his Wichita clinic. But Tiller was acquitted in March.

One anti-abortion group, Operation Rescue, had been particularly outspoken against him, maintaining a "Tiller Watch" on its website. But the group on Sunday denounced what it called "vigilantism."

"We pray for Mr. Tiller's family that they will find comfort and healing that can only be found in Jesus Christ," the group said in a statement on its website.