George Tiller, who ran one of only three US clinics that provides late term abortions, was murdered on Sunday morning while serving as an usher in his Reformed Lutheran Church in Wichita, Kansas.

News reports said that he was killed by a single shot fired by a middle aged white man. Dr Tiller’s wife, Jeanne, was in the choir at the time. The Associated Press news agency said that a suspect was in custody.

Abortion is highly divisive in the United States. Abortion became legal in 1973 with the Supreme Court’s Roe versus Wade decision. Anti-abortion activists say that abortion amounts to murder, and proponents of abortion say that it is a woman’s decision. …