No Charges Filed Against Doc Who Killed Woman in Botched Abortion

National   |   Steven Ertelt   |   May 14, 2013   |   12:11PM   |   Germantown, MD

While abortion practitioner Kermit Gosnell was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the death of patient Karnamaya Mongar, who died after a botched abortion, another abortionist who killed a patient will face no charges.

The official death certificate for Jennifer Morbelli confirms the young woman died on February 7, 2013, from complications to a 33-week abortion done by late-term abortion practitioner LeRoy Carhart. But the Maryland county police closed their investigation Monday without filing criminal charges.

Meanwhile, the Chief Medical Examiner has declined to release the final autopsy results and no results of an inquiry have been released by the Maryland Mental Hygiene’s Office of Health Care Quality.

Jennifer McKenna Morbelli, a 29-year-old woman from New Rochelle, New York died from a botched 33-week abortion on February 7. The medical examiner’s office confirmed a botched 33-week abortion killed the young woman.

Now, county officials have closed their investigation and Carhart will face no charges in connection with Morbelli’s death. From a local news report:

“Our investigation is closed,” said Public Information Officer Rebecca Innocenti. “We found nothing criminal.”

Resolution of a separate inquiry by the Maryland Department of Health & Mental Hygiene’s Office of Health Care Quality, however, remained unclear. In an email, a spokeswoman said the agency “will be releasing information in the near future,” but provided no further details.

A call Monday to the home of Morbelli’s parents, Kevin and Lisa McKenna, went unanswered.

A message for Carhart left at the Germantown clinic was not immediately returned.

Operation Rescue has obtained the official death certificate. The document confirms that Morbelli died at 12:25 p.m. on February 7 at Shady Grove Adventist Hospital. Section 23a indicated that the cause of death was Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation “due to or as a consequence of Amniotic Fluid Embolism following Medical Termination of Pregnancy.”

While “Fetal Anomalies” is also listed in the same section, the certificate clearly states that this entry refers to the “Disease or injury that initiated events resulting in death.”

“There have been some erroneous reports that the fetal anomaly suffered by Mrs. Morbelli’s baby led to or contributed to her death, but her death certificate sets the records straight. It clearly was the diagnosis of her baby’s health problems that served as the catalyst to events that led Mrs. Morbelli to seek the abortion that killed her,” said Troy Newman, President of Operation Rescue and Pro-Life Nation. “If Mrs. Morbelli had not sought an abortion from LeRoy Carhart, she would be alive today.”

Newman says the death certificate confirms the information first uncovered by Operation Rescue and reported by LifeNews and it indicated Morbelli was pregnant and that she delivered a dead baby on February 6, the day before her death.

Morbelli was a 29-year old kindergarten teacher that lived with her husband in White Plains, New York. She was pregnant with their first child, who they had already named Madison Leigh. While in her 31st week of pregnancy, Morbelli received news that her baby suffered from an apparent seizure syndrome, which led her to seek an abortion two weeks later.

Operation Rescue made a formal request of the Montgomery County State Attorney for Carhart to be charged criminally for abandoning his patient, an act that led to a delay in her seeking emergency medical care. Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation, the clotting condition that led to her hemorrhaging to death, is known to be treatable if caught in time.

This is the same condition suffered by another Carhart patient, Christin Gilbert, who died from complications to a late-term abortion she received from him in 2005.

“Jennifer Morbelli’s death certificate only reinforces our strong belief that the negligent actions of LeRoy Carhart caused her tragic death. We call on the authorities in Maryland to hold him accountable and prosecute him to the fullest extent of the law before he kills again,” said Newman.

LeRoy Carhart, the Maryland abortion practitioner who recently killed a woman in a failed legal abortion is now under investigation by Maryland officials on the state health board.

A letter from seventeen members of the Maryland House Delegates raising concerns about abortion clinic safety led to state officials looking into Morbelli’s death has uncovered the death of yet another woman from a legal abortion in Maryland.

The chief medical examiner in Baltimore has confirmed Morbelli died when amniotic fluid seeped into her bloodstream, according to new entries on her death certificate. The entry lists “amniotic fluid embolism following termination of pregnancy” as one of two causes of death. The second is “disseminated intravascular coagulation,” a condition during which small blood cots form in blood vessels.

As LifeNews reported, papers uncovered in trash bins outside the abortion facility where a woman was killed in a botched late-term abortion are leading to questions about whether she was instructed to not go to a local emergency room after the failed abortion.

CLICK LIKE IF YOU’RE PRO-LIFE!

 

Following a new probe started by local officials, the Maryland Attorney General has opened an investigation into the late-term abortion practitioner who killed a Morbelli. The Maryland Attorney General’s office is not specifically looking into Morbelli’s deathbut it is looking at illegal dumping by the abortion clinic that could result in fines or other form of punishment.

Among the papers was a document instructing women not to go to the ER in the event of an emergency, but instead to “call and we will meet you at the clinic,” which is clearly dangerous medical advice. The number given in the instructions has now been connected to a business Carhart owns.

The Maryland Attorney General’s office notified the Maryland Coalition for Life and Operation Rescue that is has late-term abortion practitioner LeRoy Carhart and Germantown Reproductive Health Services under an active criminal investigation for illegal dumping, based on complaints made by both groups last year. This investigation is separate to ongoing investigations into Morbelli’s death, OR informed LifeNews, that are currently underway by the State Medical Examiner, the Montgomery Police Department, and the state’s Office of Health Care Quality.

In July, 2012, Operation Rescue filed a formal complaint with the Environmental Crimes Unit and released edited video and photographic evidence that showed GRHS and Carhart engaged in the illegal dumping on a routine basis. Evidence included:

1. Documents containing private patient information concerning birth control prescriptions and abortion procedures, as well as copies of patient driver’s licenses.
2. Bloody refuse blood clots and possible human fetal remains.
3. Drug control violations.

“For years we have documented Carhart’s abortion abuses. This time we pray authorities will quickly act before he has the opportunity to kill again,” said Sullenger.

Other incidents documented by Operation Rescue include the 2005 third-trimester abortion death of Christin Gilbert in Kansas, unsafe abortion practices reported by former Carhart employees in Nebraska, and the falsifying of information to gain licensure in Maryland.

Sullenger continued, “The tragic death of Mrs. Morbelli from a botched 33-week abortion may be the catalyst that will finally bring Carhart to justice. It’s too bad that a woman had to die before authorities would sit up and take notice.”