I did not mean to kill abortion doctor, says activist

AN ANTI-ABORTION militant has admitted killing a doctor who provided abortions, but maintained he only intended to wound him.

"The truth is not that I regret shooting Dr Barnett Slepian. I regret that he died," James Kopp told a New York state newspaper in a prison interview.

"I aimed at his shoulder. The bullet took a crazy ricochet, and that's what killed him. One of my goals was to keep Dr Slepian alive, and I failed at that goal." Kopp, 47, said his outrage over abortion prompted him to shoot Slepian four years ago at his home.

Kopp quickly became one of the FBI's most-wanted fugitives and was captured in France in March 2001. He has pleaded innocent to charges of second-degree murder and interfering with the right to an abortion and is scheduled to go on trial in February.

He told the Buffalo News he decided to make a public confession as he believes his supporters have been misled, and he wants them to know the reasons for his actions. He said he feels sorry for Slepian's wife and four sons.

"To pick up a gun and aim it at another human being and to fire, it's not a human thing to do," Kopp said. "It's not pleasant. It's gory, it's bloody. It overcomes every human instinct.

"The only thing that would be worse, to me, would be to do nothing, and to allow abortions to continue."

Kopp said he selected Slepian's name out of a telephone book and targeted him largely because his home was "vulnerable" it had a rear window facing some woods.

Kopp said he shot the physician in the back of his left shoulder and was "horrified" when he later learned that the bullet glanced off a bone and caused fatal internal injuries.

"Why do you think I used force against him when he was within 10 hours of taking the lives of 25 babies? The question answers itself." Kopp's admission is to be the basis of his defence, when his murder trial begins.