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The abortion debate intensified in Nebraska after the murder in May of prominent Kansas abortion provider Dr. George Tiller, one of the few U.S. doctors
-- along with Nebraska's Dr. Leroy Carhart -- who provided third trimester abortions. Anti-abortion groups have staged protests outside Carhart's clinic in Bellevue in recent months. Operation Rescue, the Wichita-based anti-abortion group, is pressing Nebraska lawmakers to investigate the clinic, said the group's president, Troy Newman. When introducing the bill last month, Flood cited Carhart's practice as one reason the state needs to restrict abortion rights. "With Dr. Leroy Carhart performing and advertising such late-term abortions here in Nebraska, the state needs to recognize the reality of what's going on," Flood said. Carhart, 67, has twice challenged abortion bans before the Supreme Court, successfully defeating a Nebraska late-term abortion ban in 2000 because the state didn't provide for a woman's health, and losing as part of a broad challenge to the 2007 federal ban on the so-called partial-birth procedures. Abortion rights proponents are worried anti-abortion groups, by tying Carhart's name to the current debate, are making him more of a target. "I am worried, after Dr. Tiller's assassination, that any group should be targeting any abortion provider. It is very dangerous," Crepps said. Carhart, through the Center for Reproductive Rights, declined to comment. "He is deeply troubled by not only the assassination of Dr. Tiller but what that means to women who need abortion services," Crepps said. "His place in this is to, hopefully, continue to provide services that women need." ___ On the Net: Nebraska Legislature: http://nebraskalegislature.gov/ Center for Reproductive Rights: http://reproductiverights.org/ National Right to Life: http://www.nrlc.org/ Operation Rescue: http://www.operationrescue.org/ NARAL Pro-Choice America: http://www.naral.org/
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