Late Term Abortions

Todd Stave did not set out to be an activist. But because he is the son of an abortion provider, activists have thrust themselves upon him. When he was 16, his father's office was firebombed in the middle of the night. When he was in college, his father called and asked if his roommate could bring him a welder: Some protesters had broken through security and chained themselves to his operating table. And though Stave, now 44, grew up to become an airplane salesman and an energy entrepreneur, he inherited his father's reproductive-health clinic in suburban Maryland.

Todd Stave did not set out to be an activist. But because he is the son of an abortion provider, activists have thrust themselves upon him. When he was 16, his father's office was firebombed in the middle of the night. When he was in college, his father called and asked if his roommate could bring him a welder: Some protesters had broken through security and chained themselves to his operating table. And though Stave, now 44, grew up to become an airplane salesman and an energy entrepreneur, he inherited his father's reproductive-health clinic in suburban Maryland.

TOPEKA, Kan. — Lawmakers in the Kansas House came two votes short yesterday of overriding the governor’s veto of a bill regarding late-term abortions. Republican supporters of the measure said they would seek to reconsider Governor Mark Parkinson’s veto on Monday. No doctor in Kansas is known to have been performing late-term abortions since the slaying last year of Dr. George Tiller. The measure would require doctors to give the state more details about abortions performed after the 21st week and involving fetuses considered viable.

New Hampshire House lawmakers have tried and failed to revive a bill to ban late-term abortions. The House voted in March to ban abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy except when necessary to save the mother's life or avert serious, permanent physical impairment. After the Senate refused to go along, House lawmakers brought the proposal back again Thursday, adding it to another bill related to health screening tests for newborns. The amendment was defeated, however, after lawmakers raised concerns that passing it would effectively kill the underlying bill.

New Hampshire's Senate is taking up bills that would ban late-term abortions and require pregnant women to wait 24 hours before getting an abortion. The Senate Health and Human Services Committee is recommending studying a bill that would ban abortions after 20 weeks and to kill one requiring the 24 hour waiting period. The committee recommends passing a bill that bans a procedure called "partial-birth" abortion which already is prohibited under federal law. The Senate is scheduled to vote on the House-passed bills Wednesday.

WICHITA, Kan. -- The Kansas attorney general, a vocal abortion opponent, charged a well-known abortion provider with illegally performing late-term abortions, but a Sedgwick County judge yesterday threw out the charges after less than a day. Judge Paul W. Clark dismissed the charges against Dr. George Tiller at the request of Sedgwick County District Attorney Nola Foulston, who said her office had not been consulted by Attorney General Phill Kline....

WICHITA, Kan. — An antiabortion zealot convicted of murdering a prominent Kansas abortion doctor was sentenced yesterday to life in prison and won’t be eligible for parole for 50 years — the maximum allowed by law. Scott Roeder, 52, faced a mandatory life prison term for gunning down Dr. George Tiller in the back of Tiller’s Wichita church in May. Tiller was one of the few US doctors who performed late-term abortions. Sedgwick County District Judge Warren Wilbert could have made Roeder eligible for parole after 25 years, but gave him the stronger...

WICHITA, Kan. - The Wichita clinic of slain abortion provider George Tiller, one of only a handful of clinics in the country that provides third-term abortions, will be permanently closed, his family said yesterday. Operations at Women's Health Care Services Inc. had been suspended since Tiller's death last month, and the clinic's future was uncertain. In a statement released by his attorneys, Tiller's family said it will close permanently, and relatives would honor Tiller with charitable activities instead.

OMAHA - A Nebraska doctor said yesterday that he will perform third-term abortions in Kansas after the slaying of abortion provider George Tiller, but declined to say whether his plans include opening a new facility or offering the procedure at an existing practice. Dr. LeRoy Carhart declined to discuss his plans in detail during a telephone interview, but insisted "there will be a place in Kansas for the later second- and the medically indicated third-trimester patients very soon.

WICHITA - Religious conservatives have dusted off a largely forgotten 1887 state law that allows citizens to launch grand jury investigations, and they are using it to help turn Kansas into one of the nation's biggest abortion battlegrounds. A grand jury that was impaneled Jan. 8 by way of a citizen petition drive is investigating Dr. George Tiller, a Wichita clinic operator abhorred by antiabortion activists because he is one of the nation's few physicians who perform late-term abortions.

New Hampshire's Senate is taking up bills that would ban late-term abortions and require pregnant women to wait 24 hours before getting an abortion. The Senate Health and Human Services Committee is recommending studying a bill that would ban abortions after 20 weeks and to kill one requiring the 24 hour waiting period. The committee recommends passing a bill that bans a procedure called "partial-birth" abortion which already is prohibited under federal law. The Senate is scheduled to vote on the House-passed bills Wednesday.

WASHINGTON - Authorities say two out-of-state doctors who traveled to Maryland to perform late-term abortions have been arrested and charged with multiple counts of murder, an unusual use of a law that allows for murder charges in the death of a viable fetus. Dr. Steven Brigham, of Voorhees, N.J., was arrested Wednesday night and is being held in the Camden County, N.J., jail, according to police in Elkton, Md. Authorities also arrested Dr. Nicola Riley in Salt Lake City and she is being held in a Utah jail.

HARRISBURG, Pa. - Operators of women's health clinics that perform abortions in Pennsylvania braced for new regulations that they said could mean expensive facility expansions and staff additions. The requirements were in a bill that Governor Tom Corbett probably will sign this week following a bitter fight in the state Legislature on the regulation of abortion providers. The debate was spurred by a case in which prosecutors said newborn babies were routinely killed in illegal, late-term abortions performed inside a filthy, now-shuttered West Philadelphia clinic that...

OMAHA - Inspired by a contentious Nebraska law, abortion opponents in five other states have won passage of measures banning virtually all abortions after five months of pregnancy. The late-term bans - based on the premise that fetuses at that stage can feel pain, a view that has been disputed - are among a record wave of more than 80 restrictions aimed at reducing access to abortion, all of them approved this year in state legislatures. Other measures expand pre-abortion counseling requirements, ban abortion coverage in new insurance exchanges, and subject abortion clinics to...

OMAHA — Bolstered by the passage of unique abortion restrictions in his home state of Nebraska, US Senator Mike Johanns is pushing for more federal discussion of the notion of fetal pain. Although doctors are at odds about when during development a fetus can feel pain, it’s an issue that could change the way abortions are regulated in the United States. The Nebraska law that takes effect today bans abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy based on the idea of fetal pain. That is a departure from the standard of viability — when the fetus could...

TOPEKA, Kan. — Lawmakers in the Kansas House came two votes short yesterday of overriding the governor’s veto of a bill regarding late-term abortions. Republican supporters of the measure said they would seek to reconsider Governor Mark Parkinson’s veto on Monday. No doctor in Kansas is known to have been performing late-term abortions since the slaying last year of Dr. George Tiller. The measure would require doctors to give the state more details about abortions performed after the 21st week and involving fetuses considered viable.

HARRISBURG, Pa. - Operators of women's health clinics that perform abortions in Pennsylvania braced for new regulations that they said could mean expensive facility expansions and staff additions. The requirements were in a bill that Governor Tom Corbett probably will sign this week following a bitter fight in the state Legislature on the regulation of abortion providers. The debate was spurred by a case in which prosecutors said newborn babies were routinely killed in illegal, late-term abortions performed inside a filthy, now-shuttered West Philadelphia clinic that employed workers...

LINCOLN, Neb. — Nebraska is expected to become the first state to require doctors to screen women for mental and physical problems before performing abortions. Lawmakers gave final approval yesterday to a measure that would require the screenings. Governor Dave Heineman’s office said he will sign it today. Lawmakers are also considering a bill that would ban abortions after 20 weeks, based on the assertion that fetuses feel pain. Heineman has indicated he supports that measure, as well.

LINCOLN, Neb. — Nebraska is expected to become the first state to require doctors to screen women for mental and physical problems before performing abortions. Lawmakers gave final approval yesterday to a measure that would require the screenings. Governor Dave Heineman’s office said he will sign it today. Lawmakers are also considering a bill that would ban abortions after 20 weeks, based on the assertion that fetuses feel pain. Heineman has indicated he supports that measure, as well.

WICHITA, Kan. — An antiabortion zealot convicted of murdering a prominent Kansas abortion doctor was sentenced yesterday to life in prison and won’t be eligible for parole for 50 years — the maximum allowed by law. Scott Roeder, 52, faced a mandatory life prison term for gunning down Dr. George Tiller in the back of Tiller’s Wichita church in May. Tiller was one of the few US doctors who performed late-term abortions. Sedgwick County District Judge Warren Wilbert could have made Roeder eligible for parole after 25 years, but gave him the stronger...