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NRLC's State Legislative Strategy
Conference Will Dispel Abortion Myths Part Two of Three By Dave Andrusko I will chalk it up to coincidence that LeRoy Carhart, who performs abortion late in pregnancy, will begin plying his trade next week in his new home in Germantown, Maryland the day before NRLC's State Legislative Strategy Conference and in a clinic only miles from where the conference will take place. But whether happenstance or otherwise, Carhart's move into Maryland from Nebraska speaks volumes about the need to bring the equivalent of Nebraska's "Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act" to states across the country. Why will Carhart begin performing abortions at the Germantown Reproductive Health Services next week? It's apparently a combination of push and pull. The push takes the form of Nebraska's "Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act" that prohibits abortion after 20 weeks gestation based on compelling evidence that by 20 weeks, if not before, unborn children have the capacity to experience pain. The pull is described by Gazette newspaper reporter Danielle E. Gaines: "Carhart chose the Maryland location because the state's abortion laws are more permissive than many others, including Nebraska, where his practice has been based since 1985." There are two additional issues that intersect with Carhart's expansion to Maryland (and apparently into Iowa) and NRLC's State Legislative Strategy Conference. Writing in the Baltimore Sun, June Torbatti connects the dots which helps the reader understand why pro-lifers fear Maryland is becoming a mecca for abortionists who perform abortions late in pregnancy. "Carhart's move to Maryland comes amid an investigation into the practices of a New Jersey doctor, Steven C. Brigham, whom authorities ordered in August to stop practicing medicine in the state after it was revealed he was having patients drive from New Jersey to perform late-term abortions on them in Maryland, where Brigham had no medical license," she wrote. "One of those patients suffered a ruptured bowel and uterus during a botched abortion by Brigham and his Maryland colleague Nicola I. Riley in August, and had to be transported by helicopter to Johns Hopkins Hospital for emergency surgery. "Riley's license was suspended in August, and the Maryland Board of Physicians last week revoked the license of another of Brigham's colleagues, George Shepard, Jr., for practicing medicine with Brigham in the state," according to Torbatti. In addition, among other items of business, NRLC's December 7 conference will document that it is a myth to believe (a) that there are few, if any, abortionists who perform abortions late in pregnancy, and (b) that such abortions are "rare." As explained in more detail in Part Three, there are at least 140 abortion providers willing to abort a pain-capable unborn children at 22 weeks LMP (Last Menstrual Period)--which is 20 weeks post-fertilization. And according to a May 2010 briefing by the Guttmacher Institute, 1.5% of the estimated more than 1.2 million elective abortions performed annually in the United States are on unborn children at 21 weeks LMP (19 weeks post-fertilization) or older. This translates to roughly 18,000 abortions annually – a substantial number of which probably occur at 22 weeks LMP or later. The sad truth is abortions in the fifth month of pregnancy and later are widely available in the United States. Part
Three -- How Many Late Term Abortions and Abortionists Are There? |