By Janet Crepps, Deputy Director of the U.S. Legal Program at the Center for Reproductive Rights and a former criminal defense attorney
It's been thirty-seven years since the Supreme Court recognized a woman's constitutional right to abortion in Roe v. Wade, and in that time, without fail, a woman's ability to obtain an abortion has been under attack. Between stringent state laws, a lack of funding, and a severe shortage of abortion providers, abortion is virtually unattainable for significant numbers of women.
And it gets worse. The promise of affordable healthcare for all is quickly turning for women as federal lawmakers threaten to strip millions of the abortion coverage that they already have. And this past week, the judge presiding over the trial of the man accused in the shooting death of Kansas provider Dr. George Tiller essentially opened the door to a dangerously forgiving legal defense for th
ose who commit violent acts-including murder-against doctors who provide abortion.
We expect judges to uphold the rule of law and make sure that its protections apply equally to everyone. But Judge Warren Wilbert (left) has stepped over that line. Last week, the judge indicated that he will allow the accused, Scott Roeder, to potentially avoid conviction on first-degree murder charges on the grounds that he honestly, albeit unreasonably, believed his actions - shooting Dr. Tiller at point blank range while he was serving as an usher at his church - were justified to prevent Dr. Tiller from performing abortions. After considering this evidence, the jury may have the option of convicting Roeder of voluntary manslaughter, a considerably less serious crime which also carries a significantly smaller penalty.
The fallout from such a ruling cannot be understated. If anti-choice extremists can justify murdering or physically harming abortion providers because they personally believe that abortion is wrong, then they would be, in effect, above the law. Take it from Reverend Don Spitz of Virginia, a member of the notoriously anti-choice group Army of God himself. He predicts that the judge's decision "may increase the number of people who may be willing to take that risk." As a result, abortion providers will fear for their lives even more than they already do because the laws that protect other citizens from violence do not apply with equal force to them.
ether to allow the confessed killer of Wichita physician George Tiller to argue that his killing was voluntary manslaughter instead of first-degree murder. Today, Prosecutors filed a motion urging Sedgwick County Judge Warren Wilbert (right) to bar Scott Roeder from arguing he is only guilty of voluntary manslaughter. Pursuant to Kansas law, voluntary manslaughter is the "unreasonable but honest belief that circumstances existed that justified deadly force." Roeder's attorneys are arguing that the killing was a justifiable act. "In the mind of Mr. Roeder," defense attorneys asserted, "the victim presented a clear danger to unborn children."