Nebraska physician vows to keep Tiller's abortion clinic open

[tomm2thumbs]

Source: Wichita Eagle / McClatchy

...the clinic will resume normal operations next Monday, said LeRoy Carhart, a Nebraska physician who has been coming to Tiller's clinic on a rotating basis for more than 10 years now. "What people need to know is... the women's services that we provided for 30 years are not going to change," Carhart said. "The same abortion services will remain available in Wichita."

Carhart said he drove to Wichita last night. He met with clinic staff members and Tiller's wife and daughters Monday morning.

"It was a really, really good meeting," Carhart said. "It was a chance to go over all the important things and the good things George had done for each of us, and ways that we could appreciate all that he's done for the community and the women of this country. "His daughters and his wife are doing far better than I would be doing if I just lost my life partner or my mother or father," he said.

. . .

"Starting next Monday we should be back to 100 percent," he said. Carhart said he and two other out-of-state doctors have been rotating weekly shifts at the clinic, and that will continue.

Read more: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/251/story/69212.html

---

This news truly made my heart soar- it represents that women's health cannot be intimidated back into the alleys, back into shame and regret. Real choices women have to make - personal choices - are too important to be abandoned by anyone.

[elleng]

1. 'Abortion clinic?'

Its a DOCTOR'S OFFICE.

[BanzaiBonnie]

4. I want the media to call it a clinic

That's what it is. A clinic where necessary health procedures are performed.

[sandnsea]

6. abortion, abortion, abortion

Women need them. Moral abortion doctors perform them. At abortion clinics. Say it until people stop squirming over it.

[create.peace]

21. ITA it is NOT a dirty word, I am a Liberal, I have had an abortion, I am antiwar.

We are NOT the ones who should be ashamed. Btw, a friend of mine in Wichita emailed me when she saw my pic on the front page of the Eagle (that same mcclatchy paper) and said she had worked with him in hospital for years, that he was a great person and will be missed personally and professionally more than she could say. She totally supported his work.

[meowomon]

16. You are so right

Many of these clinics also provide other services for women. Birth control, pap smears, family planning, testing and treatment of STD's and other medical issues that women face. Abortion is only one of the services provided in many of these clinics.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

2. A hero ...........

This is great. This is what I hoped would happen.

Eric Holder has offered all kinds of security for these heroes. I hope Dr. Carhart and his colleagues will take him up on that offer.

Heroes.

And, yes, it's a "women's clinic," not an "abortion clinic." They serve women's needs there, not just abortions......................

[valerief]

3. The National Guard should be protecting women's clinics. nt

[sandnsea]

5. National Network of Abortion Funds

"In 45 states the number of providers has gone down, as have the opportunities for training - only 12% of ob/gyn residency programs require training in first trimester abortions. It is the most common ob/gyn surgical procedure in the U.S. today, yet one-half of ob/gyn residents have never performed one. Only 7% of residency training programs require training in second trimester procedures. Many hospitals do so few abortions they could not be appropriate training sites."

We have to stop being afraid of the word abortion, abortion doctor, abortion clinic. We aren't even going to have doctors to perform them if we don't stand up.

http://www.nnaf.org/intro.html

[marybourg]

7. Doesn't give me a real high opinion of recent generations of .

ob/gyns. If they didn't intend to serve the needs of women, maybe they should have become pediatricians.

[saigon68]

9. become pediatricians. NO They could look up each others

Ass Holes for fun

[merwin]

10. I see those numbers differently than you.

First, as compared to other procedures that an OB might perform, it is one that they are less likely to perform unless they were going to work for a clinic. This makes it more of a specialist area.

Second, (correct me if I'm wrong) most women who have abortions do so at clinics... I don't see clinics as having a large residency program. The basics of abortions have to come up at some point during residency even if an actual patient never came in for one, and a resident who is interested in performing abortions will have no trouble learning the procedures.

Third, how do you go about teaching this procedure on live subjects? It is a very private situation and I don't see how there could be many volunteers. It is more of a procedure that is taught as it happens and not part of the curriculum. There are a lot more people willing to let residents sit in on or perform a c-section than an abortion.

Also, since there are specialized clinics and abortion is (usually) a scheduled procedure, doctors can give referrals. Those that aren't probably wind up in an emergency room where the procedure would be far from textbook... more about saving the mother's life than extracting the fetus.

That being said, there should be more hospitals and OB's performing abortions than there currently are. I attribute this to doctors being scared shitless of getting harassed, losing their business due to protests or their anti-abortion clients leaving, etc. That is the reason abortion clinics exist... and have crazy security now.

I just don't see the problem with having specialist clinics for abortion, considering the crazy asshats who go after anyone who has an abortion or performs the procedure. They have the proper security measures in place and can provide the level of privacy and empathy that women deserve in such a hard time. I know my wide and I would feel safer at a clinic than a hospital if we ever had to go through that.

However, my brother is in his last year of emergency medicine residency at the hospital at Ft Lewis in WA. He joined the Army to pay for his med school. I will ask him what his experiences have beem regarding abortions. Might be interesting as it is an Army hospital... he has also done several stints at various Army and non-Army hospitals during that time.

If anyone is interested, feel free to PM me and I will be sure to let you know as well as reply to this topic (which will not show up in the recent posts by the time i talk to him).

PS- I don't mean to offend anyone with my post... just sharing my opinion and feelings, right or wrong. I have a difficult time putting thoughts to word sometimes and it often comes across poorly to some. Hopefully the disclaimer will help :)

[sandnsea]

12. Abortion as a specialty

Is a lot more of a specialty than I think even women know. I have been looking for a piece I ran across a long time ago about the loss of knowledge of rare abortion techniques because they aren't written up in medical journals. Nobody wants to be known as an "abortion doctor" so people are afraid to even do the training in medical school. Remember how much grief Howard Dean took over the possibility he might have done an abortion?

Most residents aren't interested in learning abortions because they don't have the time anyway, and who needs the grief? It never occurred to me that every gynecologist didn't have to learn how to perform abortions, maybe observe at least one? But they don't. I think it's shocking, there's no excuse for it.

I don't have a problem with abortion clinics either. I don't have a problem with calling them abortion clinics. I do think it's terrible when a teen-ager from South Dakota has to travel all the way to Kansas though.

[merwin]

13. I don't think my brother has gotten a full night's sleep in

about 3 years... It really is like ER in that you're always hunting for a few minutes of rest whenever you can find it.

I also agree that there is limited material available about abortion, but for someone who has gone through residency and knows a woman's reproductive system inside and out (no pun intended... well, not much anyways), a first trimester abortion should be a fairly simple procedure... as the article that i replied to states, is similar in difficulty to removing tonsils.

I don't think the rate of hospitals teaching the procedures will increase in the forseeable future mostly due to most of them being for-profit and not wanting to risk the bad publicity and general chaos that could potentially surround them.

I see this issue as more of a problem with people than hospitals. If abortion clinics were not being harassed and attacked regularly, more would be willing to put more of a focus on teaching at least the material even if it is not on live patients. I think that the residency programs mostly avoid it due to my reasons stated above and because it is safer for them to avoid it.

[bertman]

8. This doctor and the clinic staff are heroes of the highest order. Their bravery and

dedication to providing quality health care to women in need is astonishing and inspiring.

[donheld]

11. That's great news

[Vidar]

14. That takes courage & conviction.

[Heidi]

15. Thank you, Dr. Carhart.

:kick:

[dugaresa]

17. I hope more physicians step up the plate to take up the mantle of Dr. Tiller

[Judi Lynn]

18. He is courageous. Hope there will be others waiting behind him, as well.

We can't afford to let the terrorists win.

Hoping for a long, healthy life for Dr. Carhart.

[No Elephants]

19. Doctors have taken an oath. Glad to see some intend to keep it.

[sorrowspath]

20. Agree, it's a clinic not an abortion clinic

I hope they stop calling it the abortion clinic after all conservatives squirm when we call them Nazi sympathizers.