Vol. 74/No. 47      December 13, 2010

The Supreme Court ruling in 1973 legalized abortion until the fetus is viable, generally considered to be at 22 to 24 weeks. Supporters of the Nebraska antiabortion law argued that a fetus “feels pain” at 20 weeks.

Carhart is an abortion provider in the greater Omaha, Nebraska, area. He worked for 11 years with Dr. George Tiller, who was murdered in Wichita, Kansas, in May 2009 by antiabortion rightist Scott Roeder.

In a November 10 Washington Post interview Carhart said a legal challenge to the newly implemented law is being prepared. “In the meantime, I need a place for women to go,” he said.

Carhart plans to open a new clinic in the Washington, D.C., area December 6, and another sometime soon in Council Bluffs, Iowa, which is near Omaha. He will work with other doctors in expanding operations at his existing clinic in Bellevue, Nebraska, and at a clinic in Indianapolis to offer other reproductive medical treatments.

“We also considered things like being near the Metro and good transportation and access to airports” for women who are forced to travel long distances to obtain an abortion, he said.

In an interview with the Militant, Erin Sullivan, president of the Nebraska chapter of National Organization for Women, said, “It’s a woman’s choice and he’s letting women have their choice by keeping it available.”

Opponents of abortion rights in Iowa have been going after the Iowa Board of Medicine to end Planned Parenthood’s use of its “telemedicine” program.

Mostly women in rural areas use the program, the first of its kind. A nurse examines a woman who wants the abortion pill. Afterward, the woman has a consultation with a doctor in Des Moines via the Internet who determines if she meets the requirements to take the pill. If so, she is provided with it immediately.

Groups like Missionaries to the Pre-Born Iowa, Iowa Right to Life, and Iowans for Life have attended two of the Board of Medicine public hearings to demand an immediate halt to the practice. They are circulating a petition that they say has some 3,900 signatures. The board says the “general issue of telemedicine is being reviewed.”  
 
 
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