By Cheryl Sullenger
Bellevue, NE – A new Nebraska state law that bans a risky, yet common procedure used to abort babies in the second trimester has gone into effect without legal challenge, but the one abortionist who the law would most affect is denying he uses the procedure – a denial Operation Rescue believes to be patently false.
The new law, known as Legislative Bill 814, bans the use of an abortion process known as Dilation and Evacuation (D&E). That involves slowly dilating a woman’s cervix then removing the unborn baby through dismemberment. Sometimes a drug called Digoxin is used to stop the baby’s heart before the dismemberment begins, but that is rarely done early second trimester abortions when the babies are alive when grasping instruments begin to tear their bodies apart.
However, LeRoy Carhart, who runs an abortion facility in Bellevue that is currently operating under the name Clinics for Abortion and Reproductive Excellence, or C.A.R.E., told the Omaha World Herald that he “changed procedures years ago, in response to a state law that sought to ban another abortion method. That law prohibited a procedure called intact dilation and extraction, or intact D&X, which opponents called partial-birth abortion.”
The Omaha World Herald quoted Carhart as saying, “It’s going to make no difference in what we offer to the populace. We will be able to provide the same quality and level of services we have for many years.”
However, Carhart’s clinic website contradicts his claim.
“A D&E (dilation and evacuation) procedure is performed to end pregnancy between the 14th and 24th weeks from the first day of the last menstrual period (LMP),” the website, AbortionClinics.org, reads. It states that women who are more than 22-weeks pregnant are encouraged to abort by means of the induction abortion method.
That means the banned procedures are being done on women from 14-22 weeks of pregnancy according to Carhart’s own website.
The site makes no mention whatsoever of using Digoxin or any other substance in their D&E procedures to kill the unborn babies before the dismemberment begins.
“The first day of the procedure you will have laminaria (FDA approved dilators) inserted into the opening of the womb that absorb bodily fluid to cause dilation. The second day, the procedure will be performed,” the website states.
“In other words, his website describes the exact procedure banned by the new Nebraska law. But then again, Carhart has never been known for his truthfulness,” said Operation Rescue President Troy Newman. “We have caught him in so many deceptions that we honestly cannot believe a word he says.”
In 2011, the Maryland Board of Physicians issued an “Advisory Letter” to Carhart after Operation Rescue complained that his 2010 license application was filled with lies and deceptive statements that concealed the fact he intended to conduct abortions in that state. For example, in his employment history, he indicated that he was Medical Director and Staff Physician of “Bellevue Health/Emergency Clinic, Inc.,” which is just the name of a dummy corporation he has used to conceal the fact that his “Emergency Clinic” is actually an abortion mill. He holds no hospital privileges anywhere, and hasn’t since the since the early 1980s.
He also claimed on his Maryland medical license application to be an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, Department of Pathology and Microbiology. However, UNMC booted Carhart in 1999 – twenty-one years before his license application was filed.
In 2013, Carhart was again caught lying to an undercover operative with Live Action News about his culpability in the abortion-related deaths of two patients.
In 2009, a pregnant woman provided Operation Rescue with documentation that Carhart had falsified an ultrasound report to indicate an inaccurate gestational age for her unborn baby while working at an abortion facility in Wichita, Kansas. Later, affidavits were submitted to the Nebraska Attorney General’s office by former Carhart employees alleging that they observed him doing the same thing at his Bellevue clinic.
Earlier in his career, the Nebraska Department of Health entered into an “Assurance of Compliance” agreement with Carhart in which he promised he would no longer falsify entries on patient charts – an agreement he apparently never kept. In that same agreement, he also promised to stop using the telephone for non-medical calls during surgical abortion procedures, stop interrupting surgical abortions by falling asleep, and would no longer fail to protect patients from infection or disease.
“We hope the Nebraska Department of Health will closely monitor Carhart for compliance with the new ban on D&E abortions,” said Newman. “For years, Carhart has escaped any culpability for his shoddy abortions and lack of relationship with the truth. It would be great if, for a change, someone held Carhart accountable to the law and professional medical standards that he so often flouts.”
