Kansas man pleads not guilty in slaying of abortion doctor
2009-07-28

Category Murder Nations U.S. City Wichita Kansas City States Kansas Missouri Category Regions County Sedgwick County Metropolitan Kansas City Metro Source (AFP)

CHICAGO (AFP) - An anti-abortion activist on Tuesday pleaded not guilty to gunning down a controversial provider of late-term abortions in his Kansas church, local media reported.

Scott Roeder did not speak at his preliminary hearing and had his public defender enter the not guilty plea on his behalf, the Wichita Eagle reported.

Roeder, a 51-year-old Kansas City area resident with a history of mental problems and links to anti-abortion groups, is charged with the May 31 murder of George Tiller.

Tiller, 67, was a lightning rod in the nation's culture wars over abortion and had already been shot in the arms and seen his Kansas clinic bombed, vandalized and targeted by decades of protests before he was gunned down in the foyer of his Wichita church.

Just two other clinics in the United States are believed to provide the late-term procedure, which is legal in many states only when a doctor determines that an abortion is necessary to preserve the health or life of the mother.