Doctor slaying thins ranks of third-term abortion providers

ContraCostaTimes.com ^ | 06-02-09 | Eric Olson

[Salvation]

Doctor slaying thins ranks of third-term abortion providers

By Eric Olson
Associated Press

Posted: 06/02/2009 08:22:07 PM PDT

OMAHA, Neb. — Physician LeRoy Carhart wants to continue providing third-term abortions after the brazen slaying of his friend and colleague George Tiller, but the Nebraska doctor doesn't have anywhere to perform them — and he's one of only a handful of providers that will.

snip

Carhart, 67, is one of a handful of remaining doctors in the United States who perform third-trimester abortions, and it is uncertain if a new generation of providers will take over the cause. Schools and universities don't offer many programs to train physicians on how to perform the procedure, and Carhart said younger doctors who might be interested in stepping forward are afraid they or their families will be harmed.

snip

Carhart, a vocal abortion rights advocate who has for years been at the epicenter of the debate on what abortion foes call partial-birth abortions, first met Tiller more than 20 years ago and began working at the Wichita clinic a decade ago. He said he regularly traveled to Kansas for a few days every third week. He performs only third-term abortions in Kansas at Tiller's clinic.

snip

The former Air Force surgeon also operates his own clinic, Abortion & Contraception Clinic of Nebraska,

snip

[Salvation]

Is Carhart going to continue Tiller's killing house at another location since Tiller's Clinic was shuttered???

I saw a headline somewhere indicating that a Nebraks doctor was going to provide third-term abortions in Kansas.

[Army Air Corps]

Dr. Carhart expresses no concern over thinning the ranks of my generation.

[exist]

Doctor slaying thins ranks of third-term abortion providers

Awww.

[umgud]

Tiller had the market cornered. Everybody knew of him and came from all over the country, assuming they had money. He wasn’t doing this to help women, he was quite literally killing for money.

[Salvation]

And it looks like this Carhart doctor is on that same greedy road. Killing for money.

[Salvation]

Here’s the AP headline and byline about Carhart continuing Tiller’s practice.

Neb. doc plans to offer 3rd-term abortions in Kan.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009 5:27 PM EDT
The Associated Press
By MARGERY GIBBS Associated Press Writer

[cranked]

Yeah, from 5 to 4 now. =.=

[Arthur McGowan]

Why are Muslims given Prayer Rooms in government schools? Because some Muslims flew planes into buildings, that’s why.

Everyone deplores the shooting of an abortionist. But every time an abortionist gets shot, a bunch of them quit. And a bunch of them don’t start.

[trumandogz]

I do not see why people are so focused on late term abortions as every abortion kills a child.

[Lucius Cornelius Sulla]

I do not see why people are so focused on late term abortions as every abortion kills a child.

That is correct morally, but late term abortions are treated differently in the law, and there is much less support for it politically.

[tbw2]

Perhaps because many have seen preemies, and these monsters are killing children at a point later than the preemies that they have witnessed, thus there is a complete understanding that these babies could have lived.

[lastchance]

From Stenberg vs Carhart. (SCOTUS)

“The person challenging Nebraska’s law is Dr. Leroy Carhart, a physician who received his medical degree from Hahnemann Hospital and University in 1973. App. 29. Dr. Carhart performs the procedures in a clinic in Nebraska, id., at 30, and will also travel to Ohio to perform abortions there, id., at 86. Dr. Carhart has no specialty certifications in a field related to childbirth or abortion and lacks admitting privileges at any hospital. Id., at 82, 83. He performs abortions throughout pregnancy, including when he is unsure whether the fetus is viable. Id., at 116. In contrast to the physicians who provided expert testimony in this case (who are board certified instructors at leading medical education institutions and members of the American Board of Obstetricians and Gynecologists), Dr. Carhart performs the partial-birth abortion procedure (D&X) that Nebraska seeks to ban. He also performs the other method of abortion at issue in the case, the D&E.

As described by Dr. Carhart, the D&E procedure requires the abortionist to use instruments to grasp a portion (such as a foot or hand) of a developed and living fetus and drag the grasped portion out of the uterus into the vagina. Id., at 61. Dr. Carhart uses the traction created by the opening between the uterus and vagina to dismember the fetus, tearing the grasped portion away from the remainder of the body. Ibid. The traction between the uterus and vagina is essential to the procedure because attempting to abort a fetus without using that traction is described by Dr. Carhart as “pulling the cat’s tail” or “drag[ging] a string across the floor, you’ll just keep dragging it. It’s not until something grabs the other end that you are going to develop traction.” Id., at 62. The fetus, in many cases, dies just as a human adult or child would: It bleeds to death as it is torn from limb from limb. Id., at 63. The fetus can be alive at the beginning of the dismemberment process and can survive for a time while its limbs are being torn off. Dr. Carhart agreed that “[w]hen you pull out a piece of the fetus, let’s say, an arm or a leg and remove that, at the time just prior to removal of the portion of the fetus, … the fetus [is] alive.” Id., at 62. Dr. Carhart has observed fetal heartbeat via ultrasound with “extensive parts of the fetus removed,” id., at 64, and testified that mere dismemberment of a limb does not always cause death because he knows of a physician who removed the arm of a fetus only to have the fetus go on to be born “as a living child with one arm.” Id., at 63. At the conclusion of a D&E abortion no intact fetus remains. In Dr. Carhart’s words, the abortionist is left with “a tray full of pieces.” Id., at 125.

The other procedure implicated today is called “partial-birth abortion” or the D&X. The D&X can be used, as a general matter, after 19 weeks gestation because the fetus has become so developed that it may survive intact partial delivery from the uterus into the vagina. Id., at 61. In the D&X, the abortionist initiates the woman’s natural delivery process by causing the cervix of the woman to be dilated, sometimes over a sequence of days. Id., at 492. The fetus’ arms and legs are delivered outside the uterus while the fetus is alive; witnesses to the procedure report seeing the body of the fetus moving outside the woman’s body. Brief for Petitioners 4. At this point, the abortion procedure has the appearance of a live birth. As stated by one group of physicians, “[a]s the physician manually performs breech extraction of the body of a live fetus, excepting the head, she continues in the apparent role of an obstetrician delivering a child.” Brief for Association of American Physicians and Surgeons et al. as Amici Curiae 27. With only the head of the fetus remaining in utero, the abortionist tears open the skull. According to Dr. Martin Haskell, a leading proponent of the procedure, the appropriate instrument to be used at this stage of the abortion is a pair of scissors. M. Haskell, Dilation and Extraction for Late Second Trimester Abortion (1992), in 139 Cong. Rec. 8605 (1993). Witnesses report observing the portion of the fetus outside the woman react to the skull penetration. Brief for Petitioners 4. The abortionist then inserts a suction tube and vacuums out the developing brain and other matter found within the skull. The process of making the size of the fetus’ head smaller is given the clinically neutral term “reduction procedure.” 11 F. Supp. 2d 1099, 1106 (Neb. 1998). Brain death does not occur until after the skull invasion, and, according to Dr. Carhart, the heart of the fetus may continue to beat for minutes after the contents of the skull are vacuumed out. App. 58. The abortionist next completes the delivery of a dead fetus, intact except for the damage to the head and the missing contents of the skull.

Of the two described procedures, Nebraska seeks only to ban the D&X. In light of the description of the D&X procedure, it should go without saying that Nebraska’s ban on partial-birth abortion furthers purposes States are entitled to pursue. Dr. Carhart nevertheless maintains the State has no legitimate interest in forbidding the D&X. As he interprets the controlling cases in this Court, the only two interests the State may advance through regulation of abortion are in the health of the woman who is considering the procedure and in the life of the fetus she carries. Brief for Respondent 45. The Court, as I read its opinion, accedes to his views, misunderstanding Casey and the authorities it confirmed.”

Nuff said.

[trumandogz]

Again, what makes a baby at four weeks gestation less important than a baby at six months gestation?

[Secret Agent Man]

Gotta love strawmen.

‘young doctors who might be interested’ - ie, nobody knows of any because there aren’t any to be found.

[Salvation]

Doc [from Nebraska] plans to offer 3rd-term abortions in Kansas

[victim soul]

Be on guard: There are a whole lot more late term abortionists out there than the “3” found in their own freestanding clinics!!

Rumor-mongering without investigations( including Bill O’Reilly, who at least had the decency to reveal the despicable side of Mr. Tiller’ s “practice”)

and MSM types willing to go along with this “late term abortion myth” i.e. that there are only 3 abortionists in U.S. who are ready and willing to take the lives of late term viable children in the womb

belies the fact that many hospitals throughout this country have scheduled killing days for the supposedly “defective,”
“wrong sex” and unwanted late term children in utero!

“A nation that kills its own children is a nation without hope!” John Paul II

[Yaelle]

Imagine two scenarios: In each, a baby is born with a serious medical problem or deformity. In one scenario, the baby is loved, kissed, cried over, held, photos taken, treated as precious, even if the baby only has hours or days to live. In the other, shortly after birth the abandoned and unwanted baby who is suffering some kind of problem has his throat slit and is killed and thrown away.

Is there a difference?

Is there anyone who thinks they are morally equivalent?

How could these scenarios possibly be any different if the babies in question were a few weeks younger, and protected by a couple layers of skin and water?

[narses]

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Obama Says A Baby Is A Punishment

Obama: “If they make a mistake, I don’t want them punished with a baby.”

[Salvation]

Thanks for that history.