A controversial abortion billin Utah meant to prevent planned assaults on unborn children may have opened a loophole that could allow women to be charged with murder if their reckless behavior causes miscarriages.

Gov. Gary Herbert has not indicated whether he will sign the bill into law or veto it, although supporters of the bill say they expect him to approve it. If Herbert does nothing by March 8, the measure automatically becomes law.

KANSAS CITY (Reuters) - A man accused of gunning down one of America's few late-term abortion providers was found guilty of first-degree murder on Friday after he said he had to act to stop the doctor from performing more abortions.

Scott Roeder, 51, was convicted of first-degree murder and aggravated assault by a Wichita, Kansas jury which deliberated for just over 30 minutes. The case attracted anti-abortion protesters from around the nation to support Roeder.

Roeder will take the witness stand to testify on his own behalf, attorney Steve Osburn said in an interview after a heated hearing about what defense evidence the jurors will be allowed to hear.

Osburn said the defense expected to present its case in a single day today.

Roeder, 51, is charged with premeditated, first-degree murder in the May 31 shooting of Dr. George Tiller, one of the nation's few late-term abortion providers.

Prosecutors are expected to present evidence Monday that a Missouri man meticulously planned the murder of one of the nation's few late-term abortion providers by stalking the doctor and gunning him down inside a Kansas church.

Scott Roeder is on trial on charges of first-degree murder and aggravated assault for the May 31 death of Dr. George Tiller, who was shot while serving as an usher at his church. Roeder publicly admitted killing Tiller, saying he did so to save unborn children. He has pleaded not guilty.

WICHITA, Kan. -- Prosecutors are expected to present evidence Monday that a Missouri man meticulously planned the murder of one of the nation's few late-term abortion providers by stalking the doctor and gunning him down inside a Kansas church.

Scott Roeder is on trial on charges of first-degree murder and aggravated assault for the May 31 death of Dr. George Tiller, who was shot while serving as an usher at his church. Roeder publicly admitted killing Tiller, saying he did so to save unborn children. He has pleaded not guilty.

WICHITA, Kan. ? On the 37th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, prosecutors who charged a man with killing one of the nation's few late-term abortion providers managed to get through the first day of testimony without mentioning the word abortion in front of jurors.

Instead, they tried to focus on the facts ? a doctor gunned down in his church ? rather than allow the trial to become a debate over abortion.

But what lawyers simply called the "a-word" when the jury was not present was the most contentious issue in court Friday. Prosecutors have said they do not even want abortion mentioned.

In a faceless building by the freeway, George Tiller performed thousands of abortions a year. Some of his patients were well advanced in pregnancy -- seven, eight, even nine months along. And so his clinic became a battleground.

Fewer than 1% of all abortions in the U.S. -- perhaps 1,000 a year -- are performed late in the second or third trimester. But they are a potent symbol of a deep cultural divide. In the abortion debate, little elicits more emotion than the idea of killing a viable fetus, weeks or even days from birth.

With the slaying Sunday of Dr. George Tiller, one of the nation's few late-term abortion doctors, supporters of abortion rights are questioning whether there is a connection between his death and the rhetoric of the abortion opponents' movement.

I have two friends who had to make the heartbreaking decision to fly to Kansas for a late term abortion. These were not women who were sloppy with birth control or didn't desperately want to have children. As with many of the women who visited Dr. George Tiller, they had found out after their amnio tests that the babies they were carrying would be horribly deformed.

Amnios, which test for abnormal chromosomal problems, usually takes place between 14-16 weeks of a pregnancy and then it's usually another week before the diagnosis.

A look at recent cases of abortion-related violence:

_ May 31, 2009: Prominent late-term abortion provider George Tiller is shot and killed in a Wichita church where he was serving as an usher. The gunman fled but a city official said a suspect is in custody.

_ April 2007: Authorities say Paul Ross Evans placed a homemade bomb in the parking lot of the Austin Women's Health Center in Texas. A bomb squad disposes of the device, which contained two pounds of nails. There are no injuries.