RACHEL MADDOW: Joining us now is Julie Burkhart, who worked closely with Dr. Tiller for eight years.  She now directs the Trust Women PAC.  It focuses specifically on doctors who provide the kind of services that Dr. Tiller provided and the task of protecting legal access to those services across the country.

Ms. Burkhart, thanks very much for joining us today.

JULIE BURKHART, TRUST WOMEN PAC:  Thank you, Rachel.  Thank you for having me.

MADDOW:  What‘s your reaction to today‘s sentencing?  Do you feel that justice was served?

BURKHART:  Well, I feel that the “hard 50” was the right sentence, and Scott Roeder will, as he most certainly should, spend the rest of his life in prison.  This does not stop the anti-choice terrorism that physicians and staff members face.  And this certainly, most certainly, does not bring back one of the most caring and compassionate men I‘ve ever known.

MADDOW:  Scott Roeder clearly wants to be seen as a martyr to the anti-abortion cause.  I keep mindful of that when we play the statements today from his—people who I would consider to be his co-conspirators in the movement, who spoke on his behalf today.  We saw it in him invoking and lionizing other people who have killed abortion providers. Are you worried that there‘s a risk that the resolution of this case today could incite more violence—could spark more violence from these people?

BURKHART:  Yes, most certainly.  When you see anti-choice terrorists, such as Scott Roeder, answering to another rule of law and not to the laws that we have in the United States, I‘m afraid that it does.  With the inflammatory language that is used, “baby killer,” “murderer,” the use of holocaust, this incites violence, and this is like yelling “fire” in a crowded theater.

MADDOW:  I know that you worked with Dr. Tiller for eight years during which time he was very cognizant of the physical threats that he faced. What was that like to work in that kind of environment in which you knew you were physically being targeted every day that you went to work?

BURKHART:  Well, I would say that after a while you became—one would become rather immune to that, or it was not something that one would think about on a daily basis.

MADDOW:  I know that Dr. Tiller‘s attorney talked about the impact of his death being like an earthquake.  He said it would leave women who needed the services that Dr. Tiller provided to ask, “Where can I go, what will I do.”  What do you think the larger impact is of Dr. Tiller‘s murder on the availability of the services that he provided?

BURKHART:  Well, we‘ve found that women across the state of Kansas, across the United States, around the world, have been without care.  There are now just a small handful of physicians left here in the U.S., a few in the west, and one in the Midwest, who are now providing care.

MADDOW:  When you say that, it makes me feel like the campaign of terrorism—I consider it terrorism, I know that‘s a very loaded term—to shut down availability of this legally-protected service in this country has been effective, that they haven‘t been able to do it legally but they‘ve done it practically.  Do you—do you feel like that‘s true?

BURKHART:  I do.  If you look at the number of physicians who are now offering abortion services across the United States, the number has dwindled.  We see an aging population amongst abortion providers.  Also, a couple of the physicians who are now practicing in another state, the anti- choice organization Operation Rescue has vowed to go and try to shut them down.

So, I think this is a real and true threat to physicians across the country.

MADDOW:  What‘s the best way to fight back?

BURKHART:  I think the best way to fight back is that we have to have boots on the ground in states, all the states across the U.S.—states like Oklahoma, Mississippi, Nebraska—where legislators are working on a daily basis to roll back women‘s rights.  We have to work to change the language that permeates our society, such as “baby killer” and “murderer.” Those are not acceptable terms and that does not describe physicians who are providing reproductive health care services.

MADDOW:  Julie Burkhart, head of the Trust Women PAC, worked with Dr. George Tiller for eight years—I know this is a hard time to talk. Thanks for joining us tonight.

BURKHART:  Thank you very much.