As Anti-Choice Zealots Gather, Nebraska AG Lends Them Support

Posted by Wendy Norris, RH Reality Check at 3:00 PM on August 28, 2009.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Radical anti-abortion forces are expected to gather this weekend outside the clinic of Dr. LeRoy Carhart of Bellevue, Nebraska. Carhart is one of few doctors, following the murder of George Tiller, M.D., who still performs late-term abortions. Operation Rescue West, together with three other groups, has requested an investigation of Carhart's clinic, a request accepted by Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning, who has called Carhart "a sick individual."

The expected refocusing of radical anti-choice protests from Wichita, Kan., to suburban Omaha, Neb., following the murder of Dr. George Tiller has found a disturbing ally in a top state elected official.

Twelve days after Tiller was gunned down at his church by militant anti-abortion activist Scott Roeder, Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning reportedly told KETV, reacting to news that Tiller's friend and colleague, Leroy Carhart, M.D. intends to begin providing late-term abortions in his Bellevue, Neb., clinic, stated:

"I'm disgusted and I'm saddened, and I hate it that he's here in Nebraska and I hate it that he's in America," Bruning said. "I mean, this guy is one sick individual."

The stunning remark evoked a firestorm of controversy on the KETV Omaha television station Web page, summarized by this comment from "tomh":

I find it shocking that any reputable public official would express such hatred for a law-abiding individual. To be sure some people do not like abortion. However, there are times when a woman, perhpaps [sic] to save her own life, has to undergo such a procedure. What makes this situation even worse is that as the state's Attorney General he should not be encourageing [sic] the types of activity that we witnessed at the church in Wichita or the museum in Washington.

The progressive political blog, NewNebraska.net, demanded Bruning retract the statement and issue an apology.  According to the site's managing editor, Kyle Michaelis, neither has been forthcoming.

The propriety of the state's top legal adviser making such an incendiary comment now casts a shadow over the attorney general's office, which acknowledged recently accepting a formal complaint by anti-abortion groups demanding an investigation of Carhart's clinic.

Bruning spokeswoman Leah Bucco-White told the Omaha World-Herald that the complaint was filed by local activists Rescue the Heartland and Nebraskans United for Life and national groups Operation Rescue West and the Christian Defense Coalition — the very same absolutist anti-abortion faction organizing the Aug. 28-29 mass protests at the Carhart clinic. The letter was referred to the state Department of Health and Human Services.

Health department press agent Marla Augustine cited state confidentiality laws when contacted about the details of the politically charged accusations. News accounts have alluded to the longstanding strategy by the anti-choice movement to repeatedly make vague, spurious claims against physicians well after they have been discredited.

Augustine did confirm that no previous complaints against Carhart have resulted in state disciplinary action. She declined to estimate the time frame for completing the probe.

Bucco-White did not respond to an inquiry about the incongruity between Bruning's personal comments and his office's need to impartially review the facts of the investigation.

Wendy Norris, a Denver-based journalist, is working on assignment for RH Reality Check to cover anti-choice movements at the state level in the West.  She is currently reporting  from Bellevue Nebraska where she is covering the anti-choice movement's efforts to close Dr. Carhart's clinic.  She will be tweeting updates at @rhrealitycheck, and will be writing articles posted here throughout the weekend.

Tagged as: abortion, anti-abortion, nebraska, late-term abortion, operation rescue, leroy carhart, jon bruning, nebraska attorney general

Wendy Norris blogs at RH Reality Check.