Dr. LeRoy Carhart had ample television time to further his cause against "domestic terrorism" on the news program Anderson Cooper 360 on Monday night. Anderson Cooper, the anchor, asked Carhart some direct questions, but failed to press Carhart on the answers, and didn't interview anyone from the mainstream anti-abortion movement.
After a brief news segment concerning Scott Roeder, Cooper asked Carhart, "You probably heard from Ted Rowland's piece some of the things this man Scott Roeder [the man charged with the murder of abortionist George Tiller] has said. He said he called the closing of this [Tiller's] clinic quote ‘a victory for unborn children.' How do you respond?"
Staying clear of the words "children," "unborn," or the question all together, Carhart responded, "Well I think, you know, the closing of the clinic, Mrs. Tiller says she is going to close the clinic. But the fact is that we are going to do everything in our power to ensure that women still have an option for late second and early third trimester abortions that are medically indicated."
Dr. Carhart is one of the few late-term abortion doctors in the country and is known as a close friend to George Tiller. He was able to use this opportunity on Anderson Cooper 360 to advertise his further business plans. "We're ready to start a practice tomorrow if we come across the building and the equipment to do that."
Cooper then asked, "And can you, to those people who abhor this procedure or disagree or maybe don't understand it, what do you say? Why would you choose to do this procedure when you are one of only a handful?"
Once again, Carhart steered the conversation back to his agenda, saying:
Well, first of all, to the people that abhor, I would suggest that they don't have it done. I think the women who need it certainly are the women I'm worried about. We hear, we see protesters that number in the tens, twenties and maybe the thousands sometimes. Dr. Tiller and I see thousands of patients every year. We have a very vocal terroristic minority of people that are anti-choice. They have chosen to take the law in their own hands. It's vigilantism. They have murdered Dr. Tiller. They have murdered four providers before him. The question is how long is the country going to allow this terrorism to continue before they crack down and before we have the right to perform a perfectly legal procedure.
In addition to Carhart, the other interview for the segment was the attorney for the Tiller family, although Cooper quoted Dr. Alveda King, the niece of Dr. Martin Luther King:
I want to ask you about a quote that you gave to ‘The Washington Times' that has raised some eyebrows. You said Dr. Tiller's murder is quote ‘the equivalent of Martin Luther King being assassinated.' I think you were talking about its effect upon those who support abortion rights. One of Dr. King's nieces affiliated with the group Priests for Life responded saying, and I quote, ‘for LeRoy Carhart to mention the murder of Dr. Martin Luther King, who worked through peaceful and non-violent means, in the same breath with that of George Tiller, whose work ended peace and brought violence to babies in the womb, is offensive beyond belief.'
Carhart responded, "As you said, she is on the other side. I don't expect anything different. The entire comment that I made, however, was not to compare Dr. Tiller to Dr. King. I said the sinking of the Lusitania, the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the murder of Martin Luther King were turning points in the movement, and this was our turning point, the murder of Dr. Tiller, was the turning point for our movement."
According to Carhart, the pro-abortion movement now has a martyr to rally behind.
"It's a shame that Dr. Tiller will be a martyr, unfortunately for his family, but he has become a martyr for our cause," Carhart said. "I think that the terrorism will stop in this country."
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Same standard
June 10, 2009 - 16:29 ET by KC MulvilleIf the abortion procedure is perfectly legal, so too is the right to protest against it.
Again, they're straining desperately to make a connection between the pro-life movement and violent vigilantes. It lapses into comedy when this guy tries to connect Tiller with Martin Luther King, or this murder with the sinking of the Lusitania, or Pearl Harbor.
When I first started reading the piece, I was steeling myself for what kind of nonsense was going to be offered, all without Cooper giving equal time (Oh yeah, what about that Fairness Doctrine again? and the need for the public to get all sides of the debate? Riiigght ...). But as the piece went on, it just fell into farce. It was one step away from slapstick.
Carhart's clinic in Nebraska is filthy.
June 10, 2009 - 16:51 ET by sevenHis clinic in Nebrasksa is a horrible dump
Pics on Jillstanek web site. Just filthy. No dogs or hogs should go in.
Carhart is not Board Certified
June 11, 2009 - 06:52 ET by allanfI did a quick search at the American College of Obstetrics and Gynocology. Dr. Carhart is not listed as a member. He describes himself as a "General Surgeon" on AMA website. A check of the American College of Surgeons does not find his name listed.
Carharts own website (listed at AMA) starts out with a rant about Bin Laden.
A check of Nebraska licensing records shows that Dr. Carhart is licensed as both a physician and "pharmacy".
It is possible that the record was removed upon his death, but the late Dr. Tiller was not listed as a Board Certified OBGYN either.
I think Tiller was
June 11, 2009 - 06:56 ET by GrannyGrump42I think Tiller was originally a pathologist. I don't have a specialty on Carhart. And the AIM DocFinder is out of service at the moment. You can check later and find out:
http://www.docboard.org/docfinder.html
You gotta hand it to
June 10, 2009 - 17:42 ET by GrannyGrump42You gotta hand it to Carhart. What a media whore! He's probably gonna push for "prochoice" "charities" to underwrite his new "clinic". He desperately needs it, since his old one was in what appears to be an old muffler shop and was shut down by the state because it used an outdoor generator and porta potties.
RealChoice: Holy oilpans, Batman!
And what did he do in that old clinic?
Read Dr. Leroy Carhart's testimony, in which he was questioned about how he performs his extraction abortions. Carhart indicates that he tried to grab the baby and get it positioned to where he can suck out the brain without taking the baby apart first. But sometimes, he indicates, the baby sticks a limb out through the cervix, and it's just easer to pull that part off and go from there:
fetal heartbeat
June 11, 2009 - 06:16 ET by OuttaMyWayI know that the fetus is alive during the process most of the time because I can see fetal heartbeat on the ultrasound.
"Dr." Carhart, Late term abortionist.
I think we need billboards around the country that just say that.
Now he's comparing the
June 10, 2009 - 17:40 ET by GrannyGrump42Now he's comparing the significance of some mental patient shooting a quack abortionist with the bombing of Pearl Harbor?
Give the man a shovel and watch him dig!
someone explain to me
June 10, 2009 - 19:39 ET by ronif you deprive a terroist of 40 seconds worth of air but spare his life you are a torturer but if you kill babies in the womb depriving them of life you can become a martyr. something is very wrong here.
John Brown
June 11, 2009 - 04:21 ET by sudmufI really don't see any difference between Scott Roeder and John Brown.
Late term abortions...
June 11, 2009 - 10:30 ET by adamsmithReading the posts here by the anti-choice people, one would think that ALL 3rd term abortions were done on viable fetuses. I'd like to know the number of late term abortions per year, and the percentage of them that are so horribly deformed they would not survive once outside the womb. There is way too much emotion in this issue on both sides. Calling Tiller a baby killer is really wrong. He was terminating pregnancies. Children have to be born to be called babies. Having the government make medical decisions will turn most of the populace against you. It is the Achilles Heel in the Republican Party. Anyway......
Having the government
June 11, 2009 - 13:27 ET by moderncommentaries83Funny, because the most pro-abortion president in this nation is a big advocate of having the government take over all healthcare, where a bean counter will make medical decisions for you. And this won't be limited to whether or not you can kill your unborn child. With nationalized healthcare, the government will be the decider in what you eat, how you exercise, and pretty much anything you do with your body in the privacy of your own home (except of course, unfettered sex and abortion...those are unalienable rights).
Um, a "viable fetus" is one that can live outside the womb. With medical intervention, babies born as early as 21 weeks have been kept alive and thrived.
And how is it justified to kill a child who has a serious, or fatal, birth defect? That's no different than putting a bullet in the brain of a toddler, or a 10-year-old, or a 16-year-old because he is injured in an accident. The "Hey, you're disabled and no longer my child" argument is disgusting then, just as it is in the womb.
They are still human begins who deserve to be born and die a natural death as whole human beings. Ever woman I've met in such a situation does not, for a moment, regret carrying their child to term and spending even a few minutes with their child before s/he passes away with actual dignity.
People who advocate for the abortion of disabled unborn children are opening the door to euthanize the elderly, and those who become physically/mentally incapacitated after birth. This is nothing short of genocide and I will not tolerate it.
Aut viam inveniam aut faciam
You can go here and hear
June 11, 2009 - 16:05 ET by GrannyGrump42You can go here and hear him say for himself what his ratio was of healthy fetuses to babies with "anomalies" --
Why he only counted the "fetal anomalies" between 26 and 36 weeks, and all "late terminations" as between 24 and 36 weeks is a bit bewildering. Was it a misspeak, and he meant to say 24 weeks both times? 26 weeks both times? Did he only bother to tabulate a "fetal anomaly" if the baby was older than 25 weeks?
We can't know. He's dead and can't tell us. But we can do simple math. 800 out of 10,000 is 8%.
Tiller said it himself. About 8% of his late term abortion patients were for "fetal anomalies".
Well, first of all, to
June 11, 2009 - 13:20 ET by moderncommentaries83Well, lots of people abhor slavery, but I don't...so I'm going to own a slave to cook and clean for me. And don't you dare lecture me on rights and humanity because I don't think a slave has rights or is a human being.
If you abhor slavery, then don't own a slave. But let me own one.
(And yes, my tongue is firmly planted in cheek).
Second, "medically necessary" late-term abortions. How do they help? And has Tiller's clinic every really proved the medical necessity of late-term abortions?
How will it save a mother's life to suck the brains out of her baby, moments before delivery, rather than deliver the baby alive? Tiller's patients - who were supposedly in medical distress - often spent the days of the abortion at a hotel near the facility, not in a hospital, attended by friends or family and not trained medical personnel. How does that help them medically? Often, these women had the dead and decaying bodies of their unborn child in their supposedly sick systems. How does that help them medically?
The "terrorism" (read: people working for a legal and moral end to abortion) will end when abortion ends. When babies are no longer punished for being inconvienent or otherwise unwanted.
Aut viam inveniam aut faciam