Late-term abortion practitioner LeRoy Carhart has gone back and forth about opening new abortion centers in the Midwest or Southwest following the death of George Tiller and there is new indication he may be moving forward.
Carhart is based in the Omaha, Nebraska area and he was good friends with Tiller, who did late-term abortions at his business in Wichita, Kansas before he was shot by someone over abortion but who was not affiliated with the pro-life movement.
With the Tiller family announcing that it will permanently close his abortion center, Carhart has been considering his future plans for more than a year.
In September 2009, he appeared intent on opening a new abortion center in Wichita to replace Tiller’s and that he would open it in Tiller’s memory. But he appeared to back off with the passage of a new Nebraska law — that bans abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy because unborn children can feel pain — because it may hamper his efforts.
Yet, today, the Facebook page of Trust Women Movie, a pro-abortion propaganda film made to honor Tiller and promote Carhart, has a posting saying Carhart “is working on opening two new clinics” and it asks abortion advocates to donate to help support their “trip to film this.”
Update: KETV has confirmed Carhart is saying he will open three new abortion centers in December — including in southeastern Council Bluffs, another in Maryland and one in Indianapolis, Indiana.
Maryland is the site of the latest brouhaha concerning the problems at a chain of abortion centers run by abortion practitioner Steve Chase Brigham, who has stop doing abortions in three states because of violations of health and safety laws.
Julie Schmit-Albin, the director of Nebraska Right to Life, responded to the posts in an email to LifeNews.com.
“If LeRoy Carhart is opening two new abortion facilities, one wonders if they will be outside of Nebraska in order to escape our newly enacted law which bans abortion at 20 weeks based on babies feeling pain,” she said. The other potential is that “Carhart will leave Nebraska altogether for a state(s) that have fewer abortion restrictions on the books.”
Before the update, the Nebraska Right to Life director speculated New Mexico, Kansas and a short move to Council Bluffs, Iowa — a suburb of Omaha — could be potential destinations for Carhart.
“Perhaps he is confident some states won’t bother his late term abortion business,” she said. “However, the fetal pain ban is attracting legislators from many states to want to enact it probably because the Nebraska law has not been challenged and other states see an opening to do the same.”
Schmit-Albin said the fetal-pain abortion ban was not subject to a lawsuit and that leaves Carhart open to prosecution under it.
“Our opponents apparently do not have a plaintiff ready to legally challenge LB 1103 and keep it from its implementation,” she explained. “The next step of course is enforcement of the law and Carhart has to know that we will be vigilant in our efforts to ascertain whether he is complying with the law.”
