WICHITA - One of the few doctors to provide late-term abortions in the United States has been gunned down in his Kansas church, and authorities said they have arrested a suspect in the case.
President Barack Obama, who just two weeks ago sought an end to the "demonization" of opponents in the bitter culture war over abortion rights, said he was outraged by Sunday's killing.
The gunman killed George Tiller just after 10:00 am (1500 GMT) in the lobby of Reformation Lutheran Church. Wichita officials said the 51-year-old man suspected of shooting Tiller was arrested some three hours later.
Long a lightning rod for anti-abortion activists, Tiller, 67, had already been picketed, bombed and shot in both arms.
About 500 people filled a downtown Wichita square during a candlelight vigil for the doctor.
"We've been terrified for him for years," said Jean Spurney of Belleville, Kansas, who drove over two hours to attend the vigil.
When she heard the news, she said, "I was sick through and through." Many at the vigil blamed radical anti-abortion groups for fostering an atmosphere of hate.
"I'm upset at the anti-abortion people who have allowed the atmosphere to get to this point where someone feels it's alright to walk into a church and shoot an unarmed man," said Diane Wahto, who volunteered at Tiller's clinic.
Several anti-abortion groups released statements condemning the killing.
Obama, in a statement released by the White House, said he was "shocked and outraged by the murder of Dr George Tiller as he attended church services this morning."
"However profound our differences as Americans over difficult issues such as abortion, they cannot be resolved by heinous acts of violence," he said.
Tiller's clinic was one of only three in the United States that perform late-term abortions, which are performed on fetuses that could be viable outside the mother's womb.
Late-term abortions are legal in Kansas if two independent physicians agree that the mother could suffer irreparable harm by giving birth.
The shooting occurred just two weeks after Obama sought "common ground" in the divisive abortion debate during a controversial speech at one of the top Catholic universities in the United States.
Obama has attempted to defuse one of the most emotive issues in US public life by arguing that while abortion should remain legal, the government should do all it can to limit unwanted pregnancies.
But Obama has angered the anti-abortion movement by reversing predecessor George W. Bush's restrictions on federal funding for embryonic stem-cell research and for family-planning groups that carry out or facilitate abortions overseas.
Obama's choice for health secretary, former Kansas governor Kathleen Sebelius, has been widely condemned by the anti-abortion movement because of her ties to Tiller.
Tiller's family released a statement saying he "dedicated his life to providing women with high-quality heath care despite frequent threats and violence," according to the local KWCH TV station.
"We ask that he be remembered as a good husband, father and grandfather and a dedicated servant on behalf of the rights of women everywhere." Tiller was labeled a mass murderer by abortion opponents who regularly protested outside his clinic and set up several websites decrying and detailing his activities.
In 1986, someone placed a bomb on the roof of his Wichita clinic, seriously damaging the building.
In 1993, Tiller was shot in both arms outside the clinic. He recovered, and his assailant received an 11-year prison term.
Some 2,000 protesters were also arrested outside the clinic during summer-long demonstrations in 1991.
Tiller has also faced numerous legal challenges, most recently when he was acquitted in March on charges that he performed 19 illegal abortions in a case which his lawyer described as a witch hunt.
Tiller testified during the trial that he spent years under the protection of federal agents after the FBI discovered an anti-abortion assassination list in 1994 that listed Tiller as the top target.
US Attorney General Eric Holder said federal authorities offered protection to "appropriate people and facilities" across the country after the shooting Sunday.
He called Tiller's murder "an abhorrent act of violence."
