GERMANTOWN, MD, February 8, 2013, (LifeSiteNews.com) – Pro-life activists are demanding that Maryland shut down Leroy Carhart’s late-term abortion facility following the death of one his clients during an extremely late-term abortion this week.
“The state of Maryland has to shut down Carhart's killing business,” said Priests for Life founder Fr. Frank Pavone.
“Another woman has been killed by so-called ‘safe and legal’ abortion. It happens constantly, in fact, but the abortion industry usually succeeds in covering it up. And even when they don't, the rest of us succeed in keeping it relatively quiet.
“That has to change today,” he said.
Carhart’s patient reportedly suffered massive internal bleeding into her abdominal cavity, and died on Thursday. According to information obtained by pro-life organizations, Carhart himself left town while the woman was dying.
“Carhart has a long history of abhorrent practices at his late-term abortion facilities. He should have been shut down a long time ago,” said Students for Life of America President Kristan Hawkins. “If he had, this mother and child and countless others would still be alive today. He needs to be stopped immediately.”
This is not the first time that Carhart has been involved in the death of a client. In 2006, Christin Gilbert, a disabled woman, died during a third-trimester abortion under Carhart’s care in Wichita, Kansas.
“It is time for medical boards to put an end to these horrifically dangerous and barbaric third trimester abortions,” said Operation Rescue President Troy Newman. “If they do not, we can only expect Carhart and his associates to send more women to the morgue.”
Pro-life leaders are planning on holding a prayer vigil outside Carhart’s clinic early next week.
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“It is so tragic that this family had to lose not only their nearly full-term child, but also their wife, daughter, and sister,” said Michael Martelli, Executive Director of the Maryland Coalition for Life, whose group is organizing the vigil. “What is most appalling is that the State of Maryland refused to hear the pleas of this community, and has allowed this man to continue to butcher women and children.”
The prayer vigil, memorial, and press conference will take place outside Carhart’s Germantown facility at 9am on Monday, February 11.
Carhart is one of the country’s most notorious late-term abortionists. Recently he was profiled in the film After Tiller, which debuted at the recent Sundance Film Festival, where Carhart himself put in an appearance. The filmmakers have stated that they hope the film will “humanize” the four late-term abortionists featured in the film.
Carhart was forced to move his late-term abortion business to Maryland in 2010, after his home state of Nebraska passed legislation banning the gruesome and dangerous procedure after 20 weeks.
At the time, Nebraska’s Attorney General Jon Bruning described Carhart as “one sick individual.”
“I'm disgusted and I'm saddened and I hate it that he's here in Nebraska, and I hate it that he's in America,” Bruning told KETV7.
During a preliminary injunction hearing in a U.S. District Court in 1997 on the issue of late-term abortions, Carhart testified that he would sometimes dismember advanced-stage unborn babies during abortions, while the babies were still alive.
Carhart described in detail the process of grasping the limb of the baby to be removed, and then twisting it off. When asked if the babies usually die during the process of dismemberment, Carhart responded, “I don't really know. I know that the fetus is alive during the process most of the time because I can see the fetal heartbeat on the ultrasound.”
“Not only does Carhart's violent work literally tear women from their children, but it also divides women against themselves,” said Live Action Films President Lila Rose today. “They suffer and mourn for their lost children, yet they are all the while told by Planned Parenthood and other pro-abortion entities that they have no good reason to grieve.”