A New York doctor who was the target of anti-abortion protests and named on a sinister website list, was shot and killed by a sniper at his home at the weekend.
Dr Barnett Slepian (51), who was killed on Friday night near Buffalo, New York, was named in an anti-abortion website list and crossed out soon after his death, abortion rights advocates said yesterday. His name and address were among those of doctors who perform abortions and "their accomplices" on www.christiangallery.com/atrocity/aborts.html.
A Planned Parenthood official said a line appeared through Dr Slepian's name early on Saturday. Yesterday, his name was among dozens listed on the site underneath a graphic of dripping blood. A heading said a line through a name represented a "fatality".
New York Republican Governor George Pataki on Saturday called for the doctor's killer to face the death penalty, while the director of an anti-abortion group yesterday called the physician a serial murderer and the killer a hero.
Dr Slepian was killed just days after officials issued a warning that abortion clinic workers should be on alert because four doctors had been shot in recent years in early autumn, usually around the time of Veteran's Day.
Most anti-abortion groups including one of America's largest, Operation Rescue, said the doctor's murder was wrong. But the Rev Donald Spitz, director of ProLife Virginia, said yesterday that Dr Slepian "reaped what he sowed". "The shooter is a hero," Dr Spitz said. "Whatever action is justified to save the life of a born baby is justified to save the life of an unborn baby ... Someone else who loved the babies that he planned on killing stopped the serial murderer."
Planned Parenthood said in a statement that the Buffalo area "has been a hotbed for confrontation and deadly rhetoric by Operation Rescue" and added that clinics in New York City had been put on an "increased state of security alert". President Clinton and New York Senator Alfonse D'Amato, who opposes abortion, were quick to condemn the killing.
"This killing is a despicable act, the ultimate act of hate and intolerance," Senator D'Amato said on Saturday. "The assailant deserves the death penalty."
"No matter where we stand on the issue of abortion, all Americans must stand together in condemning this tragic and brutal act," a Clinton statement said.
The US Attorney General, Ms Janet Reno, promised to do "whatever it takes to track down and prosecute" the murderer and said the possibility that Dr Slepian was killed because of work performing abortions was being actively investigated.
"We are seeing extremists using bullets and bombs to get their way in our democracy . . . We believe the authorities must consider this political terrorism and act as if it is," Ms Eleanor Smeal, president of the Feminist Majority Foundation, said.
Abortion rights activists urged law enforcement officials to step up their protection of abortion providers and clinics. The shooting follows years of abortion-related protests and violence in the US.