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The revival of abortion services in Wichita

An abortion clinic in Wichita, Kansas, that has been closed since the murder of its doctor and owner in 2009 is going to reopen.

This particular clinic, Women's Health Care Services, has been controversial because it was one of the few clinics to perform late-term abortions, which are, relatively speaking, extremely rare. The doctor who ran the clinic, George Tiller, performed late-term abortions as a matter of principle (providing a service he thought necessary for some women). As a result, Dr. Tiller became a kind of highly publicized super-villain of the pro-life movement. One nickname for Dr. Tiller, repeated many times by Bill O'Reilly on his television show, was "Tiller the Baby Killer."

In part because of Dr. Tiller's clinic, Wichita became one of the epicenters of the pro-life 'rescue' and 'blockade' movements of the 1980s and 1990s. Operation Rescue's famous 1991 "Summer of Mercy" action focused on the Dr. Tiller's clinic.

Dr. Tiller was murdered while attending church in 2009 by pro-life militant Scott Roeder. He had previously survived other acts of violence against himself and the clinic; notably, he was shot in both arms in 1993 by another pro-life militant, Shelly Shannon.

This clinic symbolically represents the extremes of both the pro-life and the pro-choice movement, so the reopening of the clinic will, I think, be seen by activists as important or provocative, depending on one's point of view. The reopened clinic will not perform late-term abortions. 

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