Anti-abortion Activist Admits to Killing Doctor (Title Says It All About Media Bias)

Yahoo! News (AP) ^ | 8/20/02 | n/a

[Pyro7480]

Abortion Foe Admits to Killing Doctor

Wed Nov 20, 9:02 AM ET

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BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) - Anti-abortion activist James Kopp admitted in a jailhouse interview that he killed a doctor who provided abortions, but said he only intended to wound the man, the Buffalo News reported.

"The truth is not that I regret shooting Dr. (Barnett) Slepian. I regret that he died," Kopp told the newspaper in an interview published Wednesday. "I aimed at his shoulder. The bullet took a crazy ricochet, and that's what killed him. One of my goals was to keep Dr. Slepian alive, and I failed at that goal."

Kopp, 47, said his outrage over abortion prompted him to shoot Slepian on Oct. 23, 1998, as the doctor warmed soup in the kitchen of his suburban Amherst home.

Kopp quickly became one of the FBI (news - web sites)'s most-wanted fugitives and was captured in France in March 2001. He has pleaded innocent to charges of second-degree murder and interfering with the right to an abortion and is scheduled to go on trial in February.

He told the newspaper he decided to make a public confession because he believes his supporters have been misled, and he wants them to know the reasons behind his actions. He also said he feels sorrow for Slepian's wife and four sons.

"To pick up a gun and aim it at another human being and to fire, it's not a human thing to do," Kopp said. "It's not nice. It's not pleasant. It's gory, it's bloody. It overcomes every human instinct.

"The only thing that would be worse, to me, would be to do nothing, and to allow abortions to continue."

Kopp said he selected Slepian's name out of a telephone book and that he had never read any news accounts about Slepian or ever participated in Buffalo protests before the shooting. No one in the Buffalo anti-abortion community recommended Slepian as a target, he told The Buffalo News.

Kopp said he targeted Slepian largely because his home was "vulnerable" because it had a rear window facing some woods.

Kopp said he scouted Slepian's neighborhood about six times over the course of a year before the attack. Twice, Kopp had his gun and was ready to shoot if he saw Slepian at the rear window, he said.

Kopp told the newspaper he shot the physician in the back of his left shoulder and was "horrified" when he later learned that the bullet glanced off a bone and caused internal injuries that killed the doctor.

"I didn't intend to kill Dr. Slepian," Kopp said. "Why do you think I used force against Dr. Slepian when he was within 10 hours of taking the lives of 25 babies? The question answers itself."

Kopp spoke with two reporters from The Buffalo News in the Erie County Holding Center last week with his new attorney, Bruce A. Barket.

Kopp's admission and his anti-abortion views are expected to be the basis of his defense, when his murder trial begins in Erie County Court.

[Pyro7480]

Yahoo! has the headline above displayed under their "In the News" box on their homepage. My first thought is that the headline exuded bias. Read the article and you'll get the same reaction. The mainstream media has no shame. Yes, Kopp should be punished for his crime, but the impression their giving is that all "anti-abortion" activists are "that way."

[RonF]

I don't think the title reflects bias at all, nor do I think it implies that all anti-abortion activists would do such a thing. This murderer's anti-abortion beliefs drove his actions and bear directly on to his killing of this doctor. Thus, it's germane enough to be put in the headline.

[SunStar]

I find no bias in the title. The man is an anti-abortion activist who admitted to killing an abortion doctor. Where's the beef?

[BfloGuy]

He was an anti-abortion activist. I look for media bias (and find it) every day. This just isn't.

He stood in the woods behind the house and shot through the kitchen window when he saw Slepian in the room. Slepian's family was with him.

Nothing to do but disavow stridently this nutcase's actions.

[Pyro7480]

Obviously, the pro-aborts have constantly used this instance to paint the pro-life movement in a bad light. I don't know of any pro-life organization that hasn't condemned his murder.

[Lurking Libertarian]

But there used to be a lot of threads on FR full of people claiming that Klopp was framed, and that Slepian was murdered by pro-abortion people to put pro-lifers in a bad light.

[Pyro7480]

Some people can be as bad as the Illumanati(sp?) conspiacy theorists with situations like this.

[Lurking Libertarian]

It was like all the "Dave Westerfield was framed" threads that suddenly disappeared when word of his plea bargaining leaked out.

[Saundra Duffy]

Kopp is one sick puppy.

[KeyBored]

"But there used to be a lot of threads on FR full of people claiming that Klopp was framed, and that Slepian was murdered by pro-abortion people to put pro-lifers in a bad light.""

I posted a related article earlier today.

Although I never stated it in a post, I didn't think it would've been beyond the realm of possibility that pro-abortion zealots could have murdered Slepian. Look at what's happened since that day in October '98:
1. Pro-abort Shumer elected to US Senate in Nov. '98
2. Pro-abort NY State Atty. General Spitzer replaced pro-lifer
3. Slepian becomes a martyr
4. Focus is off the good the majority of pro-lifers do; instead the lunatic fringe is focused on

And I could go on. Which side benefitted, anyway?

[Mr. Silverback]

ProLife Ping!

If anyone wants on or off my ProLife Ping List, please say so here or send me freepmail.

[Cicero]

The chief bias I see here is the phrase "anti-abortion activist." That's the left's version of what conservatives prefer to call the pro-life movement.

But considering that Kopp has now admitted killing Dr. Slepian, maybe we are better off with the newspapers calling him anti-abort. It's a contradiction in terms that a pro-lifer would murder somebody, and murder is something the pro-life movement should not wish to be linked with.

I was fooled on this, I confess. I read some convincing arguments that Kopp was framed. Evidently not. I don't feel very apologetic about being fooled, however, since the pro-abort media and the Reno Justice department frequently did frame and variously abuse pro-lifers. There are numerous instances. This case seems to be the exception. It's the only one I know of where a pro-lifer who was not insane actually shot an abortionist. Regretably it will NOT help his cause, as Kopp naively seems to think.

[2harddrive]

But, did Kopp murder a doctor.......or did he terminate an abortionist????

[ApesForEvolution]

Abortionists aren't doctors, they're baby-murderers...

[ArcLight]

I'm a journalist AND pro-life, and I don't see a thing wrong with this story.

[WOSG]

And I could go on. Which side benefitted, anyway?

Clearly, evil won as a consequence of this ... evil means lead to evil ends. But the primary evil consequence was a death.

[victim soul]

I proudly wear the title of anti-slavery and anti-abortion.

[Lester Moore]

Clearly, evil won as a consequence of this ...

Is it really so clear for you? 20% of the women who miss a scheduled abortion do not reschedule their baby shredding and their babies live. If the number of babies to have been shredded the next day, 25, as asserted by Kopp, is accurate then 5 babies lived that would have died. Possibly other baby shreddings scheduled for the following few days were also cancelled and some babies lived.

1 murderers life traded for 5 innocents. Is it so clear that evil won?