Slain Kan. abortion provider's clinic will be closed

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 May 31 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.

Dr. Warren Hern, one of the few remaining doctors in the country who perform late-term abortions, said the closure of the clinic was an "outrage" and he feels the loss for Tiller's family and the patients he served.

Asked whether he felt efforts should be made to keep the clinic open, he said: "This was Dr. Tiller's clinic. How much can you resist this kind of violence? What doctor, what reasonable doctor would work there? Where does it stop?"

Nebraska doctor LeRoy Carhart, who had worked at Tiller's clinic and expressed interest in keeping it open, said he had no immediate comment.

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 antiabortion group Operation Rescue, said "Good riddance" when he heard Tiller's clinic would be shuttered. Terry stopped using the Operation Rescue name following numerous lawsuits in 1990. 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."