Statement of Professor Daniel C. Maguire at the Memorial for Dr. George Tiller, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, June 7, 2009

I had the privilege of knowing George Tiller.  It was a pleasure at the time, but it gives me pain now to remember the evening and dinner my wife Edie McFadden and I spent with George and his wife Jeanne in New York two years ago.

I would use these words to describe George: gentle, soft-spoken, courageous, committed.  He also had a quiet anger at American terrorists and outlaws who would not leave him in peace to practice medicine according to American law.

Thomas Aquinas spoke of “the virtue of anger.”  He saw the prophets of Israel and saw that they were bursting with anger.  He saw Jesus angrily attacking the temple of injustice, overturning tables and Thomas concluded that if these moral heroes were angry, then there is a virtue of anger.  It is a virtue, I would say, that most of us lack.  Thomas cited this quote from St. John Chrysostom: “Whoever is not angry when there is cause for anger, sins.”  Remember that quote.  It should be in every church and court house. 

Good anger is a virtue, said Thomas, because good anger respicit bonum justitiae, it looks to the good of justice, and those who are not angry in the face of injustice love justice too little.

The history of abortion rights in America is cause for anger.  In 1973, in Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court  gave women the legal and constitutional right to abortion in problem pregnancies.

Such a legal and constitutionally grounded right, is like the right to vote the right to go to church or synagogue the right to go to school.  And to do all of that without being harassed, threatened, or murdered.  That’s what rights are.

Starting in 1976, some—-not all—-anti-choice activists became outlaws.  Since they could not change the law non-violently, they turned to violence and began a campaign of terror, egged on by right wing talk show hosts. They began by the  bombing of clinics, arson, anthrax threats, and hostile violent picketing and physical and verbal assaults at clinics. 

When this was not enough, starting in the 1990’s, they turned to murder and assassination.

The results so far in this domestic war of terror: seven doctors and clinic workers murdered………..one doctor murdered in his church, another in his kitchen.  The suspect Scott Roeder said from jail that more such events are planned.

Sad to tell, this domestic war of terror has had an evil success.  In 85% of the counties of this nation, there is no abortion provider.  And we have let it happen.

This evening, as we gather in memorial, a single man, Scott Roeder, is held in prison in Kansas for this murder. The guilt, however, extends far beyond him.

The guilt extends to all of us here tonight who have not been angry enough to practice effective non-violent resistance to this very successful and malicious war of terror.  In the memory of George Tiller I issue to all of us tonight a fervent Call to Effective Political and Non-violent Action.

Let me list those who, with us, share in the guilt of this murder:

First, I cite the police and FBI nationwide who have been lax.  Reports went to the police and FBI during the week and the day before the killing about Roeder breaking the law and violating clinics.  Absolutely nothing was done.  In my opinion this screams out sexism.  Abortion related violence is a WOMAN THING and it simply is not taken as seriously as if it were a MAN THING.  In my view, if men got pregnant, clinics would be protected like an army fortress and police would make sure that no one would threaten or harass men as they went there to exercise their legal rights as citizens.  There would be none of the current nonchalance.

On an almost daily basis, pickets outside Planned Parenthood offices and abortion clinics cross the line between protected free speech and violence. Violence is defined as harm done or threatened.  Pickets here in Milwaukee practice violence by threat, shouting at clinic workers: “We know where you live!” or, with the same effect: “We know you Mary,” a tactic used by organized crime to intimidate. They scream insults at patients entering the clinic—in most clinics most clients are not there for abortions but to get the health care that Planned Parenthood provides for the poor—-and the pickets rejoice when they see these women reduced to tears.  What they are doing is shouting “Fire! in a crowded theater,” to use Justice Holmes famous analogy. That is violence. Where are the police?

Conclusion: Every day that pickets gather outside these offices a police person should be there to arrest anyone who turns free speech into violent and assaultive threats.  We must insist on this.

Secondly on the guilt list is the medical profession: The AMA and the Medical Society of Wisconsin and other state medical societies have sinned by their lack of outrage and effective leadership as their fellow professionals were murdered, tortured and harassed.  Let them also hear this call to action.

Also guilty are the religious leaders.  All the world religions, including Roman Catholicism, have a strong pro choice position existing alongside the no choice position.  Both positions have the weight of religious authority and Roe v Wade respects that religious freedom of choice.  It recognizes that the right to abortion is a religiously grounded civil and human right.  Yet religious leaders, almost all men, fan the lethal fury of fanatical terrorists. Their pious hands are not clean when these people act out violently.  Most of these religious leaders do not even know the openness to abortion choices in their religious traditions, and should be sent back to school.  At the least they should say a prayer to St. Antoninus, canonized a saint in 1523, who supported abortion when a woman’s health was endangered, a common condition in his day. He was thus approving of a great number of abortions.

President Obama at Notre Dame called for “common ground” with anti-choice people.  He was wrong.  There is already common ground.  It is called Roe v. Wade.  That is the common ground for the law of this land and the anti-choice people are using pressure, threats and violence to prevent women citizens from acting within that law.

This is what angered George Tiller.  This is what killed George Tiller.

This gathering this evening does Dr. Tiller no honor if we only shed tears and issue lamentations, but do not adopt the spirit of the African American civil rights movement.  Let their cry be ours.  “We’re all fed up.  Aint going to take it no more……no more……no more!!!”