Lawrence community remembers slain doctor
Published June 3, 2009
UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS -- More than 150 people gathered at South Park at 8 p.m.Sunday to hold a candle-light vigil to mourn the death of George Tiller, an abortion doctor from Wichita who was shot and killed this morning in a church.
Vanessa Sanburn, Wichita graduate student, helped organize the vigil.
Sanburn said when she met Tiller, she saw he was very passionate about his work. Sanburn said Tiller was working with legislative updates regarding options for women who needed late-term abortions when they first met.
“He was a really easy going, nice person who also understood the seriousness of his work,” Sanburn said.
When Sanburn heard that Tiller was shot and killed while he was working as an usher at the Reformation Lutheran Church in Wichita, she knew she wanted to be a part of a vigil.
Sanburn said she thought there were enough people in Lawrence who cared about the killing, and the reasons behind it, to host a second vigil at the same time as the vigil in Wichita. A third vigil was also held in Washington D.C.
Other memorial vigils are planned to be held Monday in Boston, Seattle and Portland.
Sanburn’s sister, Keri Behre, also helped organized the event. Behre said the purpose of the event was to honor the life of a man who risked his life for reproductive freedom. Behre said Tiller did procedures that were rare, but necessary to save women’s lives and gave many women access to help that they could not otherwise find.
At 2 p.m. Sunday, Sanburn posted a Facebook event for the vigil and sent out invitations to hundreds of Lawrence residents. When the vigil began people had gathered to listen as friends, co-workers and admirers of Tiller and several spoke about the him and the issues involved in his murder.
“To pull together this many people in six hours shows the impact he had, to have vigils in Lawrence, Wichita and Washington D.C.,” Behre said.
Lawrence resident Janet FitzGerald came to the vigil with a sign that read “Dr. Tiller’s killer is a terrorist hypocrite coward.” She said she was not a part of an abortion-rights group, but that the attack made her decide to join the gathering.
“I’m very disturbed about what just happened,” FitzGerald said. “This fight’s been going on so long that people are resorting to terrorist acts, attacking innocent people.”
Emma Rothbrust, a member of KU Students for Life said on behalf of the organization that as a pro-life group, they were against all forms of killing at every level of human development.
“Although Dr. Tiller was an abortionist, we abhor the senseless killing and I pray for his soul and for his family,” Rothbrust, Overland Park junior, said. “We do not condone any actions taken outside of the law.”
Sylvie Rueff, a part of the Peggy Bowman Second Chance Fund, which helps women afford abortions in life-threatening situations, said Tiller was one of the reasons the fund existed. She, as well as state senator Marci Francisco, spoke at the vigil.
At 8:45 p.m., vigil gatherers in both Lawrence and Wichita held a moment of silence.
Tiller was one of three doctors in the U.S. who provided the option of a late-term abortion. Sanburn said that Tiller wanted to retire but so many women came to him with lives at stake that he kept on working, even after being shot in 1993. She said that for some time he took an armored car to work.
“I’m really happy with the turn-out. It gave me hope,” Sanburn said. “I think the reason for this was for healing and I definitely think this helped me and hopefully some other people as well.”
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