Roeder takes the stand and promptly admits to shooting and killing Dr. Tiller.

Scott Roeder, who has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and aggravated assault, was sworn in and made no effort to deny prosecutors’ claims that he killed Tiller in the foyer of Tiller’s Wichita church on May 31. He previously confessed publicly to shooting Tiller.

Asked later by his own attorney about his views on abortion, the 51-year-old Roeder said he believes it amounts to murder.

“From conception forward it is murder. … It is not a man’s job to take life. It is our heavenly father’s. He is our creator,” said Roeder, who is from Kansas City, Mo.

Roeder replied “yes” or “no” to many of the questions he was asked, and his attempts to elaborate drew frequent objections from prosecutors, who say Roeder lacks the medical expertise to describe Tiller’s practice.

When asked to detail the types of abortion procedures he was familiar with, Roeder answered “four or five” and then listed them. In one instance, he described a procedure as the fetus being “torn limb from limb” — a characterization that prompted a quick objection from the prosecution.

Before Roeder took the stand, District Judge Warren Wilbert barred Kansas’ anti-abortion crusading former attorney general Phill Kline from testifying after listening to a preview of Kline’s testimony without the jury present.