I was deeply saddened yesterday to hear that Dr. George Tiller’s family had decided to close his Wichita, Kans., women’s clinic. Certainly no one could blame them. After years of controversy, harassment, and violence, Tiller was murdered last week by an anti-abortion activist. As a family, they must have felt they could give no more.

But I thought of how the closing was a victory for the murderer and others of his ilk. I thought of the women who, in the future, might need that clinic’s services and would now be denied them. I thought of how important it is that women in this country have access to safe, legal, compassionate care when they need it, and how no one has the right to deny them that care — certainly not extremists who think it is their God-given right or duty to both preach and employ intimidation, lies, violence, and murder to deny them that care.

Then today I read that a Nebraska doctor, Dr. LeRoy Carhart, is going to provide the late-term abortion services Dr. Tiller once provided. Thank you, Dr. Carhart, for your courage and dedication to your profession and to the women of America.