(PRESS RELEASE) Dr. LeRoy Carhart, a Nebraska abortion provider, issued a statement regarding the two abortion bills signed into law yesterday by Governor Dave Heineman. One law bans abortion after 20-weeks of pregnancy. The other requires doctors to perform extensive screenings of women for any "risk factors" before providing an abortion.
"I am extremely saddened that my state has passed two laws that seriously jeopardize women’s health under the awful pretense of protecting them.
"Under one law, even a woman who has been hospitalized and diagnosed suicidal or a young girl who has been raped, even raped by a close family member, would not be able to obtain an abortion after 20-weeks of pregnancy. A second law would put any questionable medical study that has ever been published above a doctor’s informed medical judgment and expertise.
"These laws will make it harder for patients to get an abortion when they really need them, when they are under the most desperate of circumstances and even when they are clearly medically, morally and religiously justified. This latest anti-woman and anti-health legislation merely strengthens my commitment to fight for women’s reproductive health and rights."