Abortion doctor's killer executed
I expect a great reward in heaven. I am looking forward to glory.
- Paul Hill
We know events can trigger acts of violence, and we know that those in the extreme wing of the anti-choice movement are predicting a backlash, and we know we need to take these people seriously
- Victoria Saporta
Before anyone rushes to judgement here, let me state for the record that I am NOT anti-religion. Most any religion, at it's basic level, stands for the same basic values as any other religion: faith, hope, charity, peace among men. The problem comes in when you insert the word "militant" in front of the religion in question. Frankly, the words "minister" and "cold-blooded murder" should never have occasion to be used in the same sentence. Unless, of course, you're Paul Hill.
Paul Hill purported to be a man of God, a minister of the One True Faith. Frankly, I am sickened that a moral reprobate such as Hill could, with a straight face, call himself a minister. Someone clearly slept through his Theology lectures.
STARKE, Florida (AP) -- Paul Hill, a former minister who said he murdered an abortion doctor and his bodyguard to save the lives of unborn babies, was executed Wednesday by injection.
He was the first person put to death in the United States for anti-abortion violence.
Hill, 49, was condemned for the July 29, 1994, shooting deaths of Dr. John Bayard Britton and his bodyguard, retired Air Force Lt. Col. James Herman Barrett, outside the Ladies Center in Pensacola. Barrett's wife, June, was wounded.
Doctors who performed abortions were using escorts at the time because of the fear of violence from protesters.
As he has since the slaying, Hill showed no remorse and urged abortion foes to use whatever means to protect the unborn.
"If you believe abortion is a lethal force, you should oppose the force and do what you have to do to stop it," Hill said as laid strapped to a gurney in the execution chamber. "May God help you to protect the unborn as you would want to be protected."
Hill was pronounced dead at 6:08 p.m., Gov. Jeb Bush's office said.
Paul Hill was a cold-blooded killer, as much a man of the cloth as I am. Of course, I've never murdered an abortion provider in cold blood. This sickening perverter of religion has no business being regarded as a martyr, though there is a certain wacko strain of Right-wing anti-abortion nutjobs who will consider the good Reverend exactly that. The man is a murderer- PERIOD. No matter what your feelings on the abortion issue, NO ONE is above the law, no matter how strong your "religious" convictions. Paul Hill deserved to die. At least he saw it coming, which is more than could be said for his victim.
Memo to the militant anti-abortion lobby: wake up and smell the cat litter. Homicide is a felony, punishable by death in some states. Abortion is legal (Roe v. Wade, anyone?). Thankfully, most of you who oppose abortion at least have the moral underpinnings to recognize the difference.
To those of you who admire Paul Hill and those who would hold Paul Hill up as a role model, there is a special place in Hell for troglodytes such as yourself. Your "religion" is in fact nothing but a facade for your narrow-minded, homicidal intolerance. You will not effect the type of social and legal changes you profess to support by murder and violent intimidation. Thankfully, this is still a country that has at it's foundation the rule of law. Y'all could learn a few things from that.
