Two of Iowa’s top-rated radio personalities compared the man suspected of murdering Kansas doctor George Tiller with 19th Century abolitionist John Brown.

WHO-AM radio hosts Jan Mickelson, left, and Steve Deace.

WHO-AM radio hosts Jan Mickelson, left, and Steve Deace.

Steve Deace, who hosts a drive-time show on WHO-AM, said society helped create Scott Roeder, the man in custody for the killing of Tiller Sunday morning, by refusing to stop abortion by legal methods.

“Maybe the fact that we have a lawless society that has not protected these babies from infanticide created the Scott Roeders of the world, who in very John Brown-like fashion, illegally took matters into his own hands,” Deace said. “Saying that if the system will not deal with an evil, then to Hell with the system.”

A radical abolitionist, Brown led a gang that brutally killed several pro-slavery figures in Kansas and later led a violent attack upon the United States Arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Va. He was eventually arrested, charged with treason, and executed.

Deace danced the line throughout his program between celebrating the fact that Tiller is dead and condemning murder. At one point he discussed vengeance, and how the Bible says vengeance “doesn’t belong to us, it belongs to [God.]”  But he admitted being conflicted, saying he is happy that “babies in Kansas are safer today than they were yesterday while George Tiller was still taking in oxygen.”

He expressed anger at anti-abortion groups expressing remorse for Tiller’s family.

“I don’t feel grief for his family, unless it’s grief that they’re in the same family has him,” Deace said. “How many of their bills were paid over the years by the blood on daddy’s hands. I don’t have a lot of sympathy for that. Maybe I should.”

Earlier in the day, another of WHO-AM’s conservative hosts, Jan Mickelson, also discussed the similarities between Tiller’s murderer and John Brown.

But ultimately, Mickelson’s biggest concern was that the murder would tip the scales in the debate of issues ranging from hate crime legislation to the nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to the U.S. Supreme Court.

“We’re within the mantle of a lot of cultural clash and friction points,” he said. “This murder is already being used as justification for ‘Fill in the blank.’”

Mickelson did not get into specifics about how Tiller’s murder would effect debate of these issues.