Notorious late-term abortionist LeRoy Carhart dies at 81
Abortionist Leroy Carhart, one of the few providers in the United States willing to conduct abortions once an unborn child can survive outside of the womb who once called unborn children a "parasite," has died at the age of 81.
Carhart's daughter confirmed the news of her father's death in a Friday social media post after reports surfaced this week that he had been placed in hospice. Carhart operated the CARE-Clinics for Abortion & Reproductive Excellence clinics in Maryland and Nebraska, both of which advertise abortions up to 35 weeks of pregnancy.
"Lee had a very simple belief that patients know what is best for their life plan and was there to support them," his daughter Janine Weatherby wrote in the Facebook post.
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"He founded his first Clinic specializing in Abortion in 1992 with a mission to provide abortion care in a compassionate, comfortable, and personal environment. He and his staff cared for all patients with kindness, love, justice, and respect."
According to Weatherby, her father's clinics will continue operating through staff and doctors at Maryland and Nebraska CARE locations.
Pro-life advocates reacted to the news of the late-term abortionist's passing, praying that Carhart experienced a conversion on his deathbed and was saved.
Michael New, an associate scholar at the pro-life research organization Charlotte Lozier Institute and associate professor at the Catholic University of America, believes that the main priority of pro-lifers after an abortionist passes away should be prayer.
"History has given us many examples of abortion doctors who quit performing abortions and became powerful defenders of preborn children," he told The Christian Post in a Friday statement. "These include Dr. Bernard Nathanson, Dr. John Bruchalski, and Dr. Anthony Levatino. It is possible that Leroy Carhart and other abortion doctors experienced deathbed conversions prior to their passing."
"Pro-lifers should also pray for the families of the abortion doctor and also for the victims of abortion, specifically the mothers who have been hurt and the preborn children whose lives were lost," New concluded.
Students for Life of America President Kristan Hawkins noted in a Friday tweet that she doesn't believe it is a "coincidence" that Carhart died on the feast of St. Gianna Beretta Molla, the patron saint of physicians and unborn children.
During a late-term abortion, known as an induction abortion, the abortionist typically injects digoxin or potassium chloride through the woman's abdomen or vagina to cause the unborn to experience cardiac arrest. The process usually takes a few days and ends with the abortionist inducing labor and having the woman deliver a dead child.
The abortionist admitted in a 2019 BBC interview that he would conduct late-term abortions based on the woman's financial circumstances or social health. During the 30-minute report titled "America's Abortion War," journalist Hilary Andersson appeared surprised that Carhart would refer to the unborn fetus as a "baby," with him revealing that he uses the word with his patients.
After Andersson asked whether he had a problem killing a baby, the abortionist answered: "I have no problem if it's in the mother's uterus."
In a 2005 interview with "60 Minutes Australia," Carhart said that he does just under 2,000 abortions per year and that he doesn't believe abortion is the taking of a life.
"One has to decide where life began, and I think my belief is that an unborn child is a parasite," he said. "And I think it has no rights. ... I think life begins when the mother's heart says it begins."
At least two women are known to have died after Carhart performed a late-term abortion on them.
In 2005, 19-year-old Christin Gilbert died after undergoing a 28-week abortion performed by Carhart at George Tiller's facility in Kansas. Operation Rescue, a national pro-life watchdog group, obtained a copy of the autopsy report. The report states that Gilbert died of complications from the abortion.
Operation Rescue also obtained a copy of 29-year-old Jennifer Morbelli's autopsy report, a woman who died of complications in 2013 from an abortion she underwent at Carhart's Maryland clinic.
The Chief Medical Examiner of Maryland ruled that Morbelli died from "Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation," which was likely caused by the amniotic fluid in her womb spilling into her bloodstream and preventing her blood from clotting. As USA Today reported in February 2013, Morbelli, who was 33 weeks pregnant, had undergone an abortion due to a fetal abnormality.
Operation Rescue contends that the young woman's family made multiple attempts to contact Carhart as Morbelli began experiencing complications, but the abortionist was unreachable. An obituary written by the woman's family after her death reads: "Jennifer McKenna-Morbelli of New Rochelle, passed away suddenly on Thursday February 7, 2013 at age 29 with her baby girl Madison Leigh."
The pro-life watchdog group has documented numerous complaints against the abortion provider, including allegations of him talking on the phone while conducting abortions and falling asleep while administering an injection to a patient.
As The National Catholic Register reported in September 2019, Carhart received a medical degree while serving in the U.S. Air Force and began learning how to perform abortions in 1988 after hearing about the procedure in medical school.
After an arsonist set fire to his home in 1991, Carhart went from wanting to be just a provider to becoming an "activist." It's unknown if the fire was started by people who considered themselves pro-life.
The provider also worked alongside another late-term abortionist, George Tiller in Kansas, whom he started working for as an associate physician in 1998. Tiller died in 2009 after Scott Roeder, an anti-abortion radical, shot him.
In addition to performing abortions beyond the point of viability, Carhart also generated headlines when he sued the state of Nebraska for passing a law banning partial-birth abortions. During the procedure, a provider partially delivers the unborn child alive via the woman's vaginal area before killing him or her.
The U.S. Supreme Court sided with the abortionist in 2000, ruling that the ban was "unconstitutional." After Congress passed the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act in 2003, Carhart brought the suit again, but the Supreme Court upheld the ban.
Samantha Kamman is a reporter for The Christian Post. She can be reached at: [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter: @Samantha_Kamman
