by Grace Carr
Abortion doctor LeRoy Carhart has aborted over 500 second and third trimester babies since opening an abortion clinic in October 2017.
Carhart opened an abortion clinic in Bethesda, Maryland in mid-October 2017, and has performed over 500 abortions to date, according to communications director Chelsea Souder, HuffPo reported Wednesday. Approximately 75 percent of those abortions have been second and third trimester abortions, HuffPo reported.
Many of the women who’ve come to the clinic for abortions are from Mexico, Canada, Europe, South America and Central America, according to Souder. HuffPo calls Carhart “one of the country’s most public and polarizing abortion providers … offering pregnancy termination through roughly 28 weeks’ gestation and sometimes beyond.”
The clinic offers “advanced gestation abortion,” per its website description. The clinic lists its abortion services, which include medication abortions, first trimester surgical abortions, second trimester multi-day abortions, induction abortions, maternal/fetal indication abortions, and self-induced abortions.
Carhart previously performed late-term abortions at a clinic in Nebraska but left the state after it passed a law banning abortions after 20 weeks in 2010.
Maryland’s abortion laws are more relaxed than most states, allowing Carhart to perform abortions up until viability, a flexible definition permitting him to perform abortions through the third trimester.
Roe v. Wade gave women the permission to abort until the point of viability, noting that viability typically occurs somewhere between 24 and 28 weeks. Viability refers to the point at which an unborn baby can live outside of the womb. The U.S. Supreme Court recognized in 1994’s Casey v. Planned Parenthood that viability can occur at or before 23 weeks.
A September 2015 study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), reported that the survival rate for babies born at 23 weeks is 33 percent and 65 percent at 24 weeks.
A woman sued Carhart in September 2016 for negligence and malpractice after he botched her late-term abortion, nearly killing her and causing her permanent damage. The case is still open.
Another patient, Jennifer Morbelli, died in 2013 while undergoing a third trimester abortion.
Carhart said he doesn’t have plans to retire.
The Wildwood Medical Center did not respond to The Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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Grace Carr is a reporter for the Daily Caller News Foundation. Follow Grace on Twitter. Photo “Abortion Clinic” by abortionclinic.org.
