3 Reasons Why Murdering an Abortion Doctor Isnâ€™t Being Called â€œTerrorismâ€

Dr. George Tiller, one of the few late-term abortion providers in the country, was murdered inside his church on Sunday, and the only suspect is Scott Roeder, a man The New York Times said â€œhad professed an anti-government, anti-abortion philosophy.â€ U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder called the murder an â€œabhorrent act of violence,â€ but he hasnâ€™t used the word â€œterrorism.â€ Not once.

Why?

As a bit of context, if youâ€™re new to this website, the FBI labels the animal rights and environmental movements as the â€œnumber one domestic terrorism threat” even though those activists have never harmed a human being. At the very worst, underground groups like the Animal Liberation Front and Earth Liberation Front have released animals from fur farms, destroyed SUVs and set fire to empty buildings.

When animal rights activists or environmental activists are arrested, though, the government immediately sends out press releases and holds press conferences trumpeting the arrest of â€œeco-terroristsâ€ and â€œdomestic terrorists.â€

So it’s pretty startling that government hasn’t used the T-word, considering that weâ€™re talking about murder, and, as James Ridgeway notes over at Mother Jones, Roeder was also arrested in 1996 with ammunition, gunpowder, a blasting cap, and a fuse chord in his car. He was sentenced to two years of supervised probation. (By contrast, the SHAC 7 received years in prison for running a website).

What gives? Why hasnâ€™t the murder of an abortion provider been labeled â€œterrorismâ€?