(RNS) The online auction house eBay has halted a proposed auction of items that aimed to raise funds for the defense of the man charged in the May killing of abortion provider Dr. George Tiller.
“Based on the details we know about the anticipated listings, we believe these would violate our policy regarding offensive material,” the company said in a Tuesday (Oct. 27) statement. “eBay will not permit the items in question to be posted to the eBay site, and they will be removed if they are posted.”
Dave Leach, an anti-abortion activist from Des Moines, Iowa, said he had hoped to auction items to raise money for Scott Roeder, who was charged with first-degree murder in Tiller’s death. Tiller was murdered May 31 in the lobby of his Wichita, Kansas, church.
Among the items Leach said supporters hoped to sell were a copy of the Army of God manual, an underground guidebook for anti-abortionists that describes how to shut down abortion clinics; a cookbook compiled by Shelley Shannon, an Oregon woman who wounded Tiller in 1993 and was later convicted in a series of abortion clinic bombings; and “A Time to Kill” a book by anti-abortion activist Michael Bray.
Listings that “promote or glorify violence, hate, racial or religious intolerance,” are not permitted, eBay said.
Leach said eBay’s rules about glorifying violence contained “vague” language.
“It’s unfortunate that they would make a decision without even finding out what … kind of disclaimers and explanations we’re going to put on with it,” he said.
Leach said he’s looking into other options for an auction, which he said is designed to increase Roeder’s legal defense options.