The same anti-choicers who long targeted Dr. Tiller found a new victim after Tiller’s murder: Dr. LeRoy Carhart in Nebraska.
Opponents of abortion, who had devoted decades to trying to stop Dr. Tiller’s business with protests and calls for investigations, are now turning their efforts to stopping Dr. Carhart. Troy Newman, the president of Operation Rescue, an anti-abortion group, said he had traveled from the group’s headquarters in Wichita, Kan., to Nebraska six times in recent months, portraying this suburb of fewer than 50,000 as a new battlefield in the abortion fight.
“We’re trying to get criminal charges against him, to get his license revoked, and to get legislators there to look at the law,” Mr. Newman said of Dr. Carhart.
It seems like wherever Troy Newman and Operation Rescue go, violence, harassment, assault and murder follow. But I’m sure that’s just a coincidence. Dr. Carhart, though, is taking precautions:
Still, in the months since the killing, Dr. Carhart has made changes at his clinic and to his lifestyle as he has openly moved to take up Dr. Tiller’s cause.
Visitors to the clinic here must pass through a metal detector, new security cameras scan outside the building and a security consultant is employed full time. Dr. Carhart says he goes out publicly only on short, unscheduled trips and rarely eats out (and when he does, he says he stays less than 30 minutes). Dr. Carhart, an Air Force veteran, said his daughter was wed this fall on a nearby military base, mainly for security and privacy.
“We do everything differently now,” he said.
Of course, these are people who aren’t below shooting you dead in church, so there’s only so much he can do. Needless to say, he is an exceedingly brave man.
Anti-choicers, naturally, claim to deplore violence, even while they make Carhart their next target. God-willing nothing will happen to him, but I can guarantee that if he is ever assaulted, or if his clinic is ever bombed, or if he or his employees are ever shot at, the anti-choicers who launched this campaign and intentionally made Carhart #1 on the Pro-Life Most Wanted List will profess their innocence.
Late-term abortion rights divide even pro-choice people, and there is too often a lack of nuance in discussing what Dr. Carhart actually does. These are not purely elective abortions. No one wakes up in the 23rd week of pregnancy and decides, “Hmmm, I think I don’t want a baby anymore.” Nebraska has very strict abortion laws; in order to terminate a pregnancy that late, you have to jump through a series of hoops and prove that there are serious complications or threats to your health. The first commenter on the Times story illustrates why this service is crucial to women in need:
What a brave and selfless man. Having once faced the horrifying possibility of a late-term abortion due to a grave prenatal diagnosis, I know too well what a valuable service Dr. Carhart is performing for women at a devastating juncture in their lives. He is risking his life and reputation to offer an option to parents faced with an unimaginable crisis. Any mom who has received a devastating prenatal diagnosis late in a much-wanted pregnancy knows the depths of darkness that Dr. Carhart is helping women navigate. He is to be commended for standing for a deeply unpopular position because he believes it is the right thing to do.