The House Select Investigative Panel on Infant Lives has issued a subpoena ordering Dr. LeRoy Carhart to answer questions regarding botched late-term abortions at his Maryland clinic. He allegedly sent at least five women to the hospital within a span of about five months due to complications after abortive attempts.
Carhart's clinic, Germantown Reproductive Health Services (GRHS), is one of the few abortion facilities in the United States that performs third-trimester abortions.
Subpoenas have also been issued to staff of his abortion clinic, and other providers who are associated with him.
Carhart will be summoned to court for personal testimony on June 13.
One of the women who died because of abortion complications was Jennifer Morbelli, who was 33 weeks pregnant at the time. Her preborn daughter, named Madison, had a seizure-causing fetal anomaly, which made Morbelli and her family to take the decision of ending the baby's life.
In April this year, two women were also sent to the hospital for complications within a gap of 5 days, while in March, Carhart's clinic sent an underage girl to an emergency medical center after a botched abortion. Abortion complications were also reported from his clinic in January and February this year.
Live Action, an anti-abortion clinic founded in 2004, said that he was suspected of violating laws, and malpractice since 1991.
A clinic employee had filed a complaint against Carhart in 1991, accusing him of altering a patient chart, refusing to follow proper infection control procedures, and falling asleep while administering an injection.
After some years, two other women staff came forward and alleged that several of his employees used illicit drugs and narcotics found in his clinic, and that his clinic remained in unhygienic conditions, with surgical instruments often having blood stains on them.
In 2011 and 2012, his clinic was investigated for dumping biohazardous waste, which included patient records, information about birth-control prescriptions, bloody refuse, partially-full bottles of IV drugs which are classified as controlled substances. The violation of patient confidentiality was reported to the Board of Health by Operation Rescue, a pro-life Christian organization.
Democratic Representatives Jan Schakowsky, Jerrold Naddler, Diana DeGette, Jackie Speier, Suzan K. DelBene, and Bonnie Watson Coleman have written a letter to House Speaker Paul Ryan, telling him to stop investigations and end "unjustified witch hunt against researchers and doctors." They also called for disbanding the panel.
But Marsha Blackburn, the chair of the House investigative panel confirmed that the women were sent to the hospital from Carhart's clinic during the last six months.
"Public reports indicate at least five women have been sent to the hospital since December while seeking an abortion in this clinic. The clinic is one of the few in the nation that performs abortions during the third trimester," said Blackburn.
"Reports regarding the Germantown clinic are deeply troubling, both for the sake of babies whose lives are ended so close to - and possibly even after - birth and for the sake of the women who have been rushed from that clinic to the hospital with increasing frequency," she added.
In 1991, he became target of violence by miscreants claiming to be "anti-abortionists" who set fire to Carhart's family farm, killing his dog, cat, and 17 horses.
In 1992, four horses and two dogs were removed from his property by Humane Society as they were found to be severely malnutritioned because of neglect, and were kept in a barn with insanitary conditions.
