Swift justice: Doctor`s murderer convicted, fast

The man who shot and killed Dr George Tiller has been named as Scott Roeder. The Doctor was shot and killed while he was attending his Whichita church. The killer Scot Roeder protrayed himself as a holy warrior, bent on saving the lives of the unborn.

Dr George Tiller on the other hand was a well known provider of abortions in Kansas and was constantly harassed and threatened. The U.S Supreme Court ruled almost 40 years ago that women had the right to a safe and legal abortion. This is an about-face from years of back alley abortionists, the secret "old wives tales" inspired poisonings and self mutilation using sharp objects.

Woman have emerged from this nightmare thanks to the court who saw it as a private matter.To be honest in my opinion and in most others its between a woman, her doctor, her god, and her moral compass. For those who still rail about abortions there are alternatives: Abortion will never disappear. It can be safe and legal for those who choose it - or unsafe and illegal.

These are the alternatives.The law of the land is clear on these issues. But the dander to those men and women who provide this legal service is also clear. In 1993, Dr David Gunn was murdered. This Florida doctor was pictured on "wanted" posters by Operation Rescue. Dr John Britton and a colleague were shot and killed by a minister in Florida the next year. Two clinic secretaries were murdered in Massachusetts in 1994. An off-duty police officer, working security at an abortion clinc in 1998 in Alabama was murdered when the facility was bombed.

Most people who wanted to protect a woman's rights to choose were justifiably alarmed by the Dr Tiller case. Tiller had been shot but survived in 1993. Also he survived a clinic bombing in 1996. He had been dubbed the "Baby Killer". Randal Terry Of Operation Rescue called him a "mass murderer" after his death.

But thankfully today we live in a land of laws. These laws extend to women, and those laws protect their right to choose a safe and legal type of abortion. Murder, even by a holy warrior, is still illegal.The jury spent just 37 minutes discussing Roeder's murder of Dr. Tiller.