It wasn't clear whether Scott Roeder (left) knew of any impending violence or was simply seeking publicity for his cause.
WICHITA (Kansas) - ABORTION providers say that threats of more slayings from a man accused in the shooting death of a high-profile Kansas abortion doctor proves the existence of a 'violent, terrorist movement' coalescing around the issue.
Scott Roeder called The Associated Press on Sunday from the Sedgwick County jail, where he's being held on charges of first-degree murder and aggravated assault in the shooting death of Dr. George Tiller last week at the doctor's church in Wichita.
ABORTION CLINICS TARGETED
Tiller's clinic, one of the few in the country to perform late-term abortions, had been a target of regular demonstrations.
Most were peaceful, but his clinic was bombed in 1986 and he was shot in both arms in 1993.
Roeder, 51, told the AP he refused to talk to investigators after he was arrested a few hours after Tiller's shooting and has made no statements to police since then.
'I just told them I needed to talk to my lawyer,' Roeder said.
'I know there are many other similar events planned around the country as long as abortion remains legal,' Roeder said. When asked by the AP if he was referring to another shooting, he refused to elaborate.
It wasn't clear whether Roeder knew of any impending violence or was simply seeking publicity for his cause. Law enforcement authorities, including the Justice Department, said they didn't know whether Sunday's comments were credible.
And a leader of the anti-abortion movement derided the accused shooter as 'a fruit and a lunatic.'
'He is a terrorist - there is no question about that. I don't believe he is an isolated terrorist,' said Dr. LeRoy Carhart, a Nebraska abortion provider who also practiced at Tiller's Wichita clinic.
In response to the remarks, Dr. Warren Hern, of Boulder, Colorado, called on President Barack Obama to go on national television and demand that anti-abortion violence and terrorism stop.
'It is exactly the same as the Taleban, but the Taleban is 13,000 kilometers away and the Taleban is too civilized to assassinate people in mosques,' said Hern, one of the few remaining doctors in the country who performs late-term abortions.
Carhart acknowledged Roeder might just be trying to get publicity, but noted that Tiller was not the first abortion provider killed. 'There is more than one lunatic running loose in this country that can be influenced by the religious rhetoric,' Carhart said.
Asked if he shot Tiller, Roeder said he couldn't comment and needed to clear everything with his lawyer. -- AP
