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GERMANTOWN, Maryland, April 26, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Notorious late-term abortionist Leroy Carhart has a new relationship status with the Maryland Board of Physicians: “it’s complicated.” The board has launched a full investigation against the abortionist for allegedly lying on his application to practice medicine in the state when he set up his abortion business.

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The Maryland Board of Physicians sent a letter to a staffer of the abortion watchdog group Operation Rescue, confirming that it has launched a full investigation into Carhart, based upon information laid out in a complaint she had submitted.

“This is a very serious complaint that is being taken very seriously by the Maryland authorities,” said Operation Rescue President Troy Newman. “If charged and convicted, Carhart could face the revocation of his medical license in Maryland.”

OR Senior Policy Advisor Cheryl Sullenger filed the complaint with the Maryland board, outlining substantial misrepresentations and omissions in Carhart’s application to practice abortion in the state.

According to OR, Sullenger testified under oath to the board’s attorney about the veracity of the information outlined in her complaint. These include allegations that Carhart is conducting very late-term abortions in Maryland without hospital privileges, a dangerous situation given his involvement in a number of botched abortions and the death of 19-year-old client during a third-trimester abortion.

Other allegations underscored that Carhart lacks the necessary hospital privileges and protocols to save a woman’s life in case of an emergency, and that he misrepresented his record and qualifications.

The complaint alleges that Carhart falsely told the board in his application that he is an emergency room doctor and university professor, when Carhart has had no hospital affiliation since 1987, and lost all formal ties with the University of Nebraska in the late 1990s.

The complaint also states that Carhart left out his history as a late-term abortion provider both at his former Bellevue, Nebraska clinic, and his twelve years working at George Tiller’s Wichita, Kansas clinic, Women’s Health Care Services.

Newman said that Carhart’s history showed he was a “danger to the public.” He said OR was cooperating with the Maryland state agency to “prevent other women from suffering the same tragic fate as Ms. Gilbert.”

Carhart moved into Germantown Reproductive Health Services as a late-term abortionist in December 2010 after a Nebraska law banning abortion after 20 weeks on the basis of fetal pain went into effect.

Pro-life groups have protested Carhart’s move, saying the abortionist, who performs abortions even when an unborn child is in the third trimester, would make Maryland the late-term abortion capital of the United States.

The Maryland Coalition for Life has proactively responded to Carhart’s move by renting out office space directly across the parking lot from Carhart’s new Germantown facility, offering resources for women in crisis pregnancies or in need of post-abortion healing.

Carhart is determined to go ahead with plans to set up another facility for his late-term abortion business in Council Bluffs, Iowa, right across the border from Nebraska.

The Iowa House of Representatives has passed its own version of the Nebraska law banning abortion after 20 weeks on the ability of the unborn child to feel pain. However, passage has stalled in the state Senate, which has only one week left to hold a vote and pass the bill.

Council Bluffs Mayor Tom Hanafan, a Democrat, wrote a letter to Senate leaders, pleading with them to get the bill out of the Government Oversight Committee, pass the late-term abortion ban (HF 657), and keep Carhart out of the city.

Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal (D-Council Bluffs) has publically conceded that he would allow a vote in the full Senate if it clears committee.

If passed, the bill would certainly be signed into law by pro-life Gov. Terry Branstad, a Republican.

The Iowa legislative session ends Friday, April 29. 

Contact information for the Iowa Senate is available here.