Ebay Refuses Auction to Support Pro-Choice Doctor's Killer
posted by: Amelia Thomson-DeVeaux 21 days ago
Sometimes, corporations do actually make the right choice. This was the case earlier this week, when online auction site eBay refused to allow supporters of Scott Roeder, who is charged with the first-degree murder of Dr. George Tiller this summer, to hold an auction to raise money for his defense. Dr. Tiller was a Wichita doctor who was one of the few doctors in the country who performed late-term abortions. He was shot on May 31 in the foyer of his church, as he handed out the weekly bulletin.
EBay refused to permit the auction on the grounds that it would violate their policy regarding "offensive material." The announcement that the auction would not be allowed came after a statement from Tiller's family that implored the company to prevent it. "These materials contain hate messages, glorify violence against abortion doctors who provide constitutionally protected medical services, and instruct on means of violence, including bombing, of abortion clinics," wrote an attorney for the Tiller family in a letter. "We urge you to deny access to the resources of eBay for this reprehensible and vile 'auction.'"
Roeder is scheduled to go on trial in January; he is currently being represented by a public defender. His supporters are urging him to argue that the killing of Tiller was a justifiable homicide, a defense that other anti-abortion activists charged with violent crimes have attempted to use with little success. Roeder's friends and defenders are outraged by eBay's refusal to allow the auction, saying that it was necessary for Roeder to have a "true defense." A friend of Roeder's claimed that eBay was "trying to shoot down the truth of what went on behind Tiller’s closed doors and fenced gates." She added, "It’s not going to work."
The auction itself would have included items that ranged from the expected to the incredibly offensive, including an Army of God manual (an underground publication containing detailed instructions on how to attack abortion clinics - among other things, it includes bomb recipes), a prison cookbook compiled by a woman doing time for abortion clinic bombings and arsons, and some drawings submitted by Roeder.
These drawings included one particular sketch of David and Goliath, depicting David holding the head of Goliath. "Tiller" was written on Goliath's forehead. The words "child-murdering industry" was written on the corpse.
The murder of Dr. Tiller has reignited the discussion of the methods used by anti-choice activists who will use any means necessary to shut down abortion clinics. These methods range harassment of women entering clinics to attempts to destroy clinics and kill doctors. A New York Times article last July sensitively recounted the battle that Dr. Tiller fought until the end of his life, and looks directly at the implications of his death for both sides of the abortion debate. David Barstow, the article's author, wrote:
"They blockaded his clinic; campaigned to have him prosecuted; boycotted his suppliers; tailed him with hidden cameras; branded him “Tiller the baby killer”; hit him with lawsuits, legislation and regulatory complaints; and protested relentlessly, even at his church. Some sent flowers pleading for him to quit. Some sent death threats. One bombed his clinic. Another tried to kill him in 1993, firing five shots, wounding both arms."
Roeder was finally successful, but many anti-choice activists have acknowledged that Tiller's death means a loss for both sides. The pro-choice movement lost one of its most fearless proponents, and the anti-choice movement's most radical, violent techniques were brought baldly into the public consciousness. To put it simply, the conversation about abortion is not ended by violent attacks on doctors or clinics. As a pro-choice activist who has engaged in many peaceful and productive conversations with anti-choice groups about how we can work together to stop abortion from being a necessity, I am horrified by violent attacks on innocent people who publicly support a woman's right to choose, which make me much less willing to work with anti-choice groups generally.
To their credit, many members of the mainstream anti-choice movement tried to distance themselves from Roeder and his supporters in the months after Dr. Tiller's murder, but this auction reveals that many will still resort to - or defend - brutal, illegal and inhumane methods of ending abortion. I'm just happy that eBay refused to let it happen.
UPDATE: Via Jezebel, apparently the drawings signed by Roeder as well as many of the other items that were slated to be auctioned are available on eBay, and people are bidding on them. Since this seems clearly to violate eBay's policy, the whole auction may be taken down soon, but Jezebel has some chilling photos of the drawings.
EBay refused to permit the auction on the grounds that it would violate their policy regarding "offensive material." The announcement that the auction would not be allowed came after a statement from Tiller's family that implored the company to prevent it. "These materials contain hate messages, glorify violence against abortion doctors who provide constitutionally protected medical services, and instruct on means of violence, including bombing, of abortion clinics," wrote an attorney for the Tiller family in a letter. "We urge you to deny access to the resources of eBay for this reprehensible and vile 'auction.'"
Roeder is scheduled to go on trial in January; he is currently being represented by a public defender. His supporters are urging him to argue that the killing of Tiller was a justifiable homicide, a defense that other anti-abortion activists charged with violent crimes have attempted to use with little success. Roeder's friends and defenders are outraged by eBay's refusal to allow the auction, saying that it was necessary for Roeder to have a "true defense." A friend of Roeder's claimed that eBay was "trying to shoot down the truth of what went on behind Tiller’s closed doors and fenced gates." She added, "It’s not going to work."
The auction itself would have included items that ranged from the expected to the incredibly offensive, including an Army of God manual (an underground publication containing detailed instructions on how to attack abortion clinics - among other things, it includes bomb recipes), a prison cookbook compiled by a woman doing time for abortion clinic bombings and arsons, and some drawings submitted by Roeder.
These drawings included one particular sketch of David and Goliath, depicting David holding the head of Goliath. "Tiller" was written on Goliath's forehead. The words "child-murdering industry" was written on the corpse.
The murder of Dr. Tiller has reignited the discussion of the methods used by anti-choice activists who will use any means necessary to shut down abortion clinics. These methods range harassment of women entering clinics to attempts to destroy clinics and kill doctors. A New York Times article last July sensitively recounted the battle that Dr. Tiller fought until the end of his life, and looks directly at the implications of his death for both sides of the abortion debate. David Barstow, the article's author, wrote:
"They blockaded his clinic; campaigned to have him prosecuted; boycotted his suppliers; tailed him with hidden cameras; branded him “Tiller the baby killer”; hit him with lawsuits, legislation and regulatory complaints; and protested relentlessly, even at his church. Some sent flowers pleading for him to quit. Some sent death threats. One bombed his clinic. Another tried to kill him in 1993, firing five shots, wounding both arms."
Roeder was finally successful, but many anti-choice activists have acknowledged that Tiller's death means a loss for both sides. The pro-choice movement lost one of its most fearless proponents, and the anti-choice movement's most radical, violent techniques were brought baldly into the public consciousness. To put it simply, the conversation about abortion is not ended by violent attacks on doctors or clinics. As a pro-choice activist who has engaged in many peaceful and productive conversations with anti-choice groups about how we can work together to stop abortion from being a necessity, I am horrified by violent attacks on innocent people who publicly support a woman's right to choose, which make me much less willing to work with anti-choice groups generally.
To their credit, many members of the mainstream anti-choice movement tried to distance themselves from Roeder and his supporters in the months after Dr. Tiller's murder, but this auction reveals that many will still resort to - or defend - brutal, illegal and inhumane methods of ending abortion. I'm just happy that eBay refused to let it happen.
UPDATE: Via Jezebel, apparently the drawings signed by Roeder as well as many of the other items that were slated to be auctioned are available on eBay, and people are bidding on them. Since this seems clearly to violate eBay's policy, the whole auction may be taken down soon, but Jezebel has some chilling photos of the drawings.
Read more: abortion, reproductive rights, womens rights, pro choice, george tiller, pro life protesters, scott roeder, anti choice
comments
continueed..
sexually abused. Not many couples will want to adopt these childeren because they want their"own" child.
These anti-choice pricks are constantly chanting "save the lives of the unborn". It's not like humanity is endangered of becoming extincted any time soon. Infact the world is so over populated with humans it's hurting wildlife and natural eco-systems and habitats! What's wrong? Do these people have such boring lives that they have to stick their noses in the matters of women's uteruses to feel important? Or is it that these assholes hate the fact that women aren't concidered property anymore that they want to have control over women in some way? Either way these people are pathetic and desperate. What I want to say to the anti-choice, in the words of a good friend of mine "The day you become god, is the day you can judge me".
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Has anyone else noticed that the majority of anti-choice extreamists are male? Honestly, males don't know crap about what any individual woman goes through when they choose to have an abortion. So what is the big deal for them here? Males produce sperm everyday of their lives well into the age of 50. So why do males think they have the right to say what a woman can or cannot do with her own body? The only time males have anything to do with it is during intercourse then it's all over in less than 3 minetes. Infact if men were the ones to carry the fetuses going through all of the 'fun' pragnancy stuff, followed by hours of seemingly endless pain of somthing the size of a bowlingball tearing out of a small orfis then humanity would surely become endangered because men would not be able to handle it.
Then we have these radical anti-choice groups who are so Hell-Bent on baning abortion all together that they have attempted to convince others(not to mention themselves) that when the exact moment a sperm unites with an egg it becomes a self-aware person. Whatever! I seriously doubt that an embryo/fetus can be self-aware, let alone even think due to having lack a brain!
So, If women are denied abortion outright, this will lead to many unwanted childeren being left in dumpers, drowned in rivers or creeks. To less extreams, these unwanted kids will be left at hospitals, put in orphanages, followed by being put in to foster 'care' where alot of them will be beaten and sexually
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Melanie, what gives you the idea that women "abort just for the hell of it?" Do you have statistics on this? If not, you're just repeating the same anti-female, anti-choice nonsense that "pro-lifers" spout.
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I don't think abortion is wrong, if I was told that I was going to have a baby with major complications and that he would have no quality of life or say God forbid I was raped - then I would most certainly abort! But on the other hand I do also think that aborting a baby just for the hell of it is also wrong!
Lets just say that I would never judge a girl if she had had an abortion! What a person does and believes is their own business!!!
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You all need to calm down. What goes on with a woman's body is her business. Stop with the Jesus and religious rants they are crazy, everytime people drag their Jesus guy to the fight it just gets stupid. If a woman decides that a baby is not wanted it is not an easy decision. If all you Jesus nuts would just consider this.....It is not your business to stick your nose in someone else's pants unless invited. If you truly believe in this wonderful, all knowing whatever, you would believe that HE OR SHE will deal with this woman in his most tender and loving way, or send them to hell, GOD'S CHOICE not yours.
Ebay is right and others should show such courage. This animal is a MURDERER. Raise money for his execution only and contribute it to children born in this country that were not wanted and sit in child welfare waiting to be loved.
If you believe in GOD OR JESUS
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and if i asked a stupid question, it was about your stupid statement.
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i didn't ask you about your biological reproductive or personal rights. you apparently don't know anything except how to shoot your mouth off.
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"again, you didn't answer the question."
I don't need to. I know my biological and reproductive and personal rights. You also asked a stupid question, so in return I asked you a stupid question right back.
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again, you didn't answer the question.
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"so, who has the right to kill?"
So if a pro-lifer bombs an abortion clinic or kills another abortion doctor, will you be there to praise them and call them a hero and say they should not be charged and covicted?
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