Carhart Gets Away With Murder: No Punishment for Killing Woman in 33-Week Abortion

National   |   Cheryl Sullenger, Steven Ertelt   |   Oct 16, 2013   |   9:36AM   |   Germantown, MD

The Maryland Board of Physicians has decided not to take action against late-term abortionist LeRoy Carhart for the death of Jennifer Morbelli, a 29-year old woman who suffered fatal complications from a very late 33-week abortion.

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. The medical examiner’s office confirmed a botched 33-week abortion killed the young woman.

“We are horrified at the decision of the Maryland Board of Physicians to let Carhart get away scot-free with Morbelli’s death,” said Troy Newman, president of Operation Rescue. “The Board has failed in their duty to protect women from Carhart’s dangerous abortion practices that have take the lives of two women, including that of Christin Gilbert in 2005. All the Board has done is ensure that Carhart will kill again.”

A complaint was filed by Operation Rescue after it received detailed information about the patient death on February 7, 2013. That complaint prompted the Board’s 8-month review. The Board notified Carhart of their decision to close the case without action in a letter dated October 10, 2013, according to the Washington Post.

According to an autopsy report, Morbelli died from Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation “due to or as a consequence of Amniotic Fluid Embolism following Medical Termination of Pregnancy,” making it clear that the abortion was the event that led to her death. But it was Carhart’s elusive behavior after the abortion that was most troublesome.

After Morbelli’s abortion, while still appearing “weak and pale” according to witnesses, Carhart released her to return to her hotel. He then left town. As Morbelli’s condition worsened, in the ensuing hours, Carhart could not be reached by family members or later by hospital emergency room staff. Operation Rescue alleged in their complaint that Carhart’s conduct amounted to patient abandonment, which delayed emergency care that may have saved her life.

“This tragedy was completely avoidable and illustrates the dangers of ‘fly-by-night’ abortionists who come into town with no hospital privileges, do dangerous abortion procedures, then fly out immediately afterwards, leaving others to clean up their messes,” said Newman. “That practice must be stopped along with the below-standard practice of inducing labor on women who are nearly term, forcing them to labor without supervision in hotel rooms, then releasing them from ill-equipped abortion clinics before they have stabilized. How the Maryland Board of Physicians can accept these dangerous and shoddy practices is cause for further concern.”

In May, Maryland health officials quietly released a report exonerating Carhart and saying an investigation found “no deficiencies” in Morbelli’s care at Carhart’s abortion facility. The abortion clinic itself was found to have problems, but none of them reportedly life-threatening.

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.”

The chief medical examiner in Baltimore 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.

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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.

“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 Newman. “If Mrs. Morbelli had not sought an abortion from LeRoy Carhart, she would be alive today.”

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.

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.

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.