On May 31, 2009, George Tiller, a physician from Wichita (Wichita, Kansas), Kansas who was nationally known for being one of the few doctors in the United States to perform late-term abortions, was shot and killed by Scott Roeder, an anti-abortion militant. Tiller was killed during a Sunday morning service at his church, where he was serving as an usher. Multiple action groups and media figures have labeled Tillers killing an act of domestic terrorism, and an assassination.

Roeder was arrested within three hours of the shooting and charged with first-degree murder and related crimes two days later. In November 2009 Roeder publicly confessed to the killing, telling the Associated Press that he had shot Tiller because "preborn childrens lives were in imminent danger." Roeder was found guilty of first-degree murder and two counts of aggravated assault on January 29, 2010, and sentenced to life without parole for 50 years on April 1st, 2010.