WICHITA, KAN. — Dr. George Tiller, the Kansas doctor who has become a national symbol of the struggle over legalized abortion, unexpectedly testified in his defense Wednesday during the criminal trial that abortion opponents are following with passionate interest.
Tiller, one of the few doctors in the country who perform abortions in the last trimester of pregnancy, has been targeted for years by abortion foes who would like to see him in prison and his clinic shut down. Many of his patients, however, consider him heroic.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Thursday, June 11, 2009 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 4 National Desk 1 inches; 44 words Type of Material: Correction
Abortion doctor slain: An article in Section A on March 26 about the Kansas criminal trial of abortion provider Dr. George Tiller said a Pennsylvania abortion doctor, Barnett Slepian, was shot to death by an abortion foe in 1994. Slepian was killed in 1998.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Saturday, June 13, 2009 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 4 National Desk 2 inches; 68 words Type of Material: Correction
Abortion provider's trial: A March 26 article in Section A about the Kansas criminal trial of abortion provider Dr. George Tiller said a Pennsylvania abortion provider, Barnett Slepian, was shot to death by an abortion foe in 1994. Slepian was from New York, not Pennsylvania, and was killed in 1998. A correction published Thursday that corrected the year of Slepian's killing repeated incorrectly that he was from Pennsylvania.
Tiller became emotional as he told the jury why he continues to practice, even though he and his staff have been harassed for years by anti-abortion protesters, one of whom shot him in both arms as he left work in 1993.
" 'Quit' is not something I like to do," Tiller said. He has not closed shop, he said, because his patients need him and he has the "strong support" of his family -- including his wife of 45 years, three daughters (two of whom are physicians), a son and 10 grandchildren.
He said that one family conversation crystallized in his mind the importance of his work.
"My daughters came into my study," he said. "I was reading. And they said, 'Daddy, if not now, when? If not you, who? Who is going to stand up for women with unexpected and badly damaged babies?' I had the support of my family, and we were able to proceed ahead."
Tiller is being tried on 19 misdemeanor counts of breaking a Kansas law that requires a second opinion for a late-term abortion from a consulting physician with whom the doctor performing the procedure has no legal or financial ties. The consulting physician must determine that the pregnant woman would suffer permanent and irreversible harm if she had the baby.
If convicted, Tiller faces up to a year in prison and a $2,500 fine for each count.
Prosecutors say Tiller's arrangement with Dr. Ann Kristin Neuhaus, who signed off on 19 procedures that are the basis of the charges, violated that law. Neuhaus, who consulted for Tiller from 1999 to 2006, was given immunity for her testimony.
Tiller's attorneys have claimed the 1999 law, which requires that the second doctor not only be independent but licensed to practice in Kansas, is vague because it does not define financial or legal affiliation. Tiller testified he was told by the director of the Kansas board that licenses and disciplines doctors that if he recruited Neuhaus to see patients at his clinic, he would be complying with the law.
