(RNS) The man who murdered an abortion doctor in the foyer of his Lutheran church in Kansas was sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole for 50 years, the longest sentence possible under state law.

Scott Roeder, 52, said at his sentencing hearing on Thursday (April 1) that he killed George Tiller “so he could not dismember another baby.” Roeder also said that he was following “God’s law” to prevent abortions, according to media reports.

Tiller, a member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and an usher at Reformation Lutheran Church in Wichita, was one of the few doctors in the U.S. who performed late-term abortions.