WICHITA, Kan. — The Wichita clinic of slain abortion provider George Tiller, one of only a handful of clinics in the country that provides third-term abortions, will be permanently closed, his family said Tuesday.
Operations at Women’s Health Care Services Inc. had been suspended since Tiller’s death May 31, and the clinic’s future was uncertain. Tiller’s family said in a statement that it will close permanently, and relatives would honor Tiller with charitable activities instead.
Tiller, who had said he believed women with access to prenatal testing needed options in case those tests showed severe fetal abnormalities, was shot to death while serving as an usher at the Lutheran church in Wichita that he regularly attended. Abortion opponent Scott Roeder, 51, is being held on charges of first-degree murder and aggravated assault in Tiller’s death.
Tiller’s clinic had been a target of regular demonstrations by abortion opponents. Most were peaceful, but his clinic was bombed in 1986 and he was shot in both arms in 1993. In 1991, a 45-day Summer of Mercy campaign organized by Operation Rescue drew thousands of abortion opponents to Wichita, and there were more than 2,700 arrests.
Randall Terry, who founded the anti-abortion group Operation Rescue, said “Good riddance” when he heard Tiller’s clinic would be shuttered. He said history would remember Tiller’s clinic as it remembers Auschwitz and other Nazi concentration camps.
“What set him apart is that he killed late-term babies,” Terry said. “If his replacement was going to continue to kill late-term children, the protests would continue, the investigations would continue, the indictments would continue.”
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