LeRoy Carhart Wants to Open Late-Term Abortion Business in Wichita, Kansas
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
August 4, 2009
Wichita, KS (LifeNews.com) — Nebraska-based abortion practitioner LeRoy Carhart wants to pick up where late-term abortion practitioner George Tiller left off. Tiller was shot and killed weeks ago by a gunman unaffiliated with the pro-life movement and now Carhart says he wants to start a new abortion center to replace Tiller’s.
Tiller had run an abortion facility in Wichita, Kansas that attracted people from across the country who wanted abortions late in pregnancy.
He had been accused of violating state laws requiring a second, independent physician to sign off on the validity of the abortions as supposedly medically necessary under state law.
At the time of his shooting death, Tiller was facing an investigation from the state medical board, which could have revoked his medical license and effectively shut down his abortion business.
Carhart did abortions at Tiller’s center and was a close friend of the slain abortion practitioner. On Monday, he said he wanted to carry on Tiller’s abortion business and said he would prefer to open a new center in Wichita, where Tiller’s family closed down his abortion facility following his death.
Carhart had been considering training the staff at his Bellevue, Nebraska abortion center, located just outside Omaha, to help him do late-term abortions. But, on Monday, he said his "main choice" is to operate in Wichita.
His comments about opening a new late-term abortion center came on the same day Operation Rescue announced a new pro-life campaign to stop Carhart from opening a new abortion center in Wichita, or elsewhere.
Carhart previously told local media outlets he promised to either open up his own abortion center in Kansas to replace the one Tiller’s family shut down.
To combat that from happening, Operation Rescue told LifeNews.com on Monday that it has started the "Keep it Closed" campaign.
Joining with other pro-life groups, including Rescue the Heartland and Nebraskans United for Life, OR will sponsor a pro-life rally in Omaha later this month which will include protests at Carhart’s abortion center in Bellevue.
"We are dedicated to working through every legal means to stop LeRoy Carhart from following through on his threats to open a late-term abortion clinic to replace Tiller’s clinic," the group’s president, Troy Newman, told LifeNews.com.
Newman says he can’t imagine the residents of Nebraska or Kansas would support a new late-term abortion business since polls show such abortions are opposed by 93% of the American people.
"We have vast experience gained over years of legally and peacefully closing abortion clinics around the nation and will be putting that experience into practice in new and creative ways in the coming weeks and months," said Newman.
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