Tiller's abortion clinic to close permanently

[topaz]

When George Tiller was killed a couple of weeks ago, the clinic's management said that it would close for the following week to regroup, but would reopen afterward.  Or at least that's how I recall it.

That is not to be.  The Tiller family announced today that the clinic would remain permanently closed.

Who can blame them?  But the result is that there are only two facilities now in the U.S. where women at risk can seek late-term abortions.

I take a little bitter comfort in knowing that this move leaves abortion opponents are distraught and at a loss, for purely tactical reasons:

Although Operation Rescue worked for years to close down Dr. Tiller’s clinic, his death was never the outcome Mr. Newman wished for, he said. Of the man charged with killing Dr. Tiller, he tearfully said, “This idiot did more to damage the pro-life movement than you can imagine.” (NYT)

Comments

[rsc.livejournal.com]

Can someone explain to me why his killer -- and the latter's supporters/enablers -- are not being tried as terrorists? Because this is exactly what the overused term "terrorism" really means.

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

I could try, but I shouldn't say something that bitter in a friend's journal.

[lhn.livejournal.com]

In this context, what do you mean by trying them as terrorists? Trying them by military commissions? AFAIK, the enabling legislation for that only explicitly covers alien enemy combatants.

In the Padilla case, the Bush administration argued that US citizens working for Al Qaeda were covered by the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Terrorists, but that addressed people and organizations that "planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001" ... "in order to prevent any future acts of international terrorism against the United States by such nations, organizations or persons." Domestic terrorism wasn't addressed, so even if the Obama administration agrees with its predecessors' interpretation, it wouldn't apply in this case.

[rsc.livejournal.com]

Well, all right, I guess the legal mechanisms we have that target "terrorism" don't cover this case. But I'd sure like to see more people at least identifying it as terrorism.

[crouchback.livejournal.com]

Probably because it doesn't fit the legal definition (http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/18/usc_sec_18_00002331----000-.html) of "domestic terrorism."