Late-Term Abortion Practitioner LeRoy Carhart Faces Investigation

State   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Apr 25, 2011   |   11:31AM   |   Germantown, MD

Late-term abortion practitioner LeRoy Carhart, who moved from Nebraska to Maryland after a new state law banning abortions after 20 weeks went into effect, now faces an investigation from the state medical board.

Carhart is under investigation by the Board of Physicians of the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene based on a complaint filed by a pro-life advocates. Leading pro-life advocates in the greater Washington suburb of Germantown, where Carhart is employed at the Reproductive Health Services abortion business, will be holding a press conference on Tuesday to address the new investigation. The group will also conduct a prayer vigil outside of Carhart’s late-term abortion center after the news conference.

According to information provided to LifeNews, a letter sent by the Board of Physicians states “… “…a full investigation has resulted from your complaint.” Also, sworn testimony has been taken by the Board of Physicians in their investigation of Carhart and his late abortions.

Rev. Patrick J. Mahoney, the director of the Christian Defense Coalition and one of the organizers of the protests Carhart faced in January, told LifeNews, “We are gratified the Board of Physicians of the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene is taking the complaint against LeRoy Carhart very seriously and has opened a full investigation.”

“We will continue to use every peaceful and prayerful avenue available to protect human rights in Maryland and see that women are no longer being diminished by LeRoy Carhart,” Mahoney said. “The faith community will also continue to work and pray to ensure that Maryland does not become the late-term abortion capital of America and that the violence of all abortions will end.”

The probe revolves around complaints that Carhart possibly misled the Maryland medical board when applying for his license in the state.

Allegations in the complaint include:

• Carhart misrepresented his practice on his Maryland medical license application when he indicated he was an emergency room physician and university professor. In reality, Carhart has not had an affiliation with a hospital since 1987, and was stripped of any formal duties with the University of Nebraska in the late 1990s.
• Carhart’s Maryland application omits his decades of job history as owner and abortionist at the Abortion and Contraceptive Clinic in Bellevue, Nebraska, and 12 years of employment at Women’s Health Care Services in Wichita, Kansas, where he specialized in late-term abortions.
• Carhart conducts risky late-term abortions in Maryland without hospital privileges.
• Carhart has a history of involvement in multiple botched late-term abortions during his employment in Kansas, including the third trimester death of 19-year old Christin Gilbert.

He applied for a license to practice medicine in Maryland in September 2010 and the pro-life group Operation Rescue alleges he intentionally concealed the true nature of his risky late-term abortion practice from the Maryland Board of Physicians. The group recently received a redacted copy of Carhart’s application for Maryland licensure, obtained through a Maryland Public Information Act request.

On page two of the application, Carhart lists his current position as Medical Director and Staff Physician of “Bellevue Health/Emergency Clinic, Inc.” located at 1002 West Mission Avenue in Bellevue, Nebraska. That’s the address of his abortion business, the Abortion and Contraception Clinic of Nebraska.

“Why use a dummy corporation instead of the actual name of his abortion business? It is obvious that Carhart attempted to deceive without technically lying. It shows a devious attitude that poses a danger in the field of medicine,” said the group’s president, Troy Newman.

Carhart does not mention on his application that he worked for late-term abortion practitioner George Tiller for more than a decade doing late-term and late abortions on pregnant women near and after viability for the unborn child. Newman says that omission and the lack of any information about the abortions Carhart has done in other states, helps to conceal the truth about the nature of Carhart’s late-term abortion business.

“Looking at his Maryland medical license application, there is no mention of abortion anywhere,” Newman says. “One is lead to believe that Carhart is an emergency room physician and university professor. There is no indication on that application that he is the most notorious late-term abortionist in the nation.”

“When the most notorious abortionist in the world tries to cover up what he does for a living, you know he has something to hide,” he added.

Operation Rescue has submitted to the Maryland Board of Physicians documentation on Carhart’s involvement in the death of a mentally disabled Texas girl, Christin Gilbert, who was 19 year-old at the time of her death from the abortion Carhart did at the abortion center Tiller ran in Wichita, Kansas before he was killed.

“We intend to press the issue with the medical board and other authorities until women are safe from Carhart’s deceptive and exploitive abortion practices,” said Newman last year.

Carhart is the abortion practitioner who frequently used the partial-birth abortion procedure in Nebraska until the Supreme Court upheld the ban Congress approved. He then performed late abortions until Nebraska lawmakers approved legislation to ban abortions after 20 weeks based on the scientific evidence that unborn children feel pain. Although he retains an abortion center in Omaha, Nebraska legislators largely drove him from the state when they passed a law banning abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy based on the scientific evidence showing unborn children feel pain at that age.

In Maryland, according to Vicki Saporta, president of the National Abortion Federation, Carhart is doing abortions in the second trimester and he is reportedly only doing abortions after viability if the woman or unborn child faces a life-threatening condition.

In March, two pro-life groups banded together to open a new office across the street from the Reproductive Health Services abortion facility. Operation Rescue and the Maryland Coalition for Life announced they leased office space directly across the parking lot from the abortion clinic.

“Locating an office like this across from the most notorious late-term abortionist in the country was a high priority for us. We wanted to do more than just ask women not to abort their babies. We wanted to provide them with practical assistance, spiritual guidance, and true friendship so that abortion would no longer be a consideration. This office will do all of that,” said Operation Rescue president Troy Newman.

“This Center is going to have a profound impact on Germantown by offering women a life-affirming alternative directly across the parking lot from Carhart’s late-term abortion mill. The churches and the community of Germantown have really come together to make this a reality,” said Michael Martelli, director of Maryland Coalition for Life.