Lawsuit against abortionist reveals woman needed hysterectomy after botched 23-week abortion

Abortionist LeRoy Carhart, one of few in the U.S. committing abortions through all nine months of pregnancy, is making news again. Pro-life watchdog group Operation Rescue has reported grisly details from a malpractice suit filed on July 12 against Carhart, one of his collaborators, and one of his facilities. 

Plaintiff Haimanot Aragaw filed the suit after experiencing injuries from a gruesomely botched late-term abortion at Carhart’s facility in Bethesda, Maryland, which is ironically named CARE — an acronym for “Clinics for Abortion and Reproductive Excellence.” Excellence is far from what Aragaw claims to have received, however, when she presented at the facility to abort her 23-week preborn child, who had been diagnosed with Down syndrome. 

According to court records, Anh-Chi Dang Do, an abortionist working at Carhart’s facility, improperly attempted to use the suction aspiration abortion procedure, which is only meant to be used during the first trimester. After that point, the preborn child is too large and well-developed to be killed via suction aspiration. Following the first trimester, the dilation and evacuation/D&E or dismemberment method is generally utilized. At 23 weeks, the age of Aragaw’s child, suction aspiration was not the industry standard.

READ: Late-term abortionist ‘mangled’ two patients and their babies so badly that ER staff were traumatized

Abortion Procedures: 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Trimesters

Court records report that Aragaw experienced severe bleeding during Do’s attempted suction abortion — “to the extent that the Defendants and members of the support staff became covered in blood.” At this point, Carhart was called in to assist, but “they were unsuccessful in completing the suction abortion and in controlling the excessive bleeding.” Fire and Rescue was called, and Aragaw was taken to the hospital. By the time she arrived, she was reported to be “in critical condition from the excessive loss of blood and injury to her uterus.”

Emergency surgery was performed for suspected uterine perforation/rupture and “retained fetal parts.” The surgery revealed that Aragaw’s uterus had been torn “from 2 to 10 o’clock” around the circumference of the cervix. Her appendix was also permanently injured. The preborn child was still present, as well, partially inside of the uterus, and partly outside; the child’s head was “loosely attached to [the] thorax,” and the child’s arms and one leg had been ripped off. In order to save Aragaw’s life, it was necessary to perform a complete hysterectomy.

This is hardly the first time a woman has been severely injured by Leroy Carhart or one of his cohorts. At least two women, Christin Gilbert and Jennifer Morbelli, have died from complications related to Carhart’s abortions; to date, he has escaped justice for his role in both deaths. In 2020, a whistleblower revealed the horrific details of two botched late-term abortions performed by Carhart a mere nine days apart. In both cases, the preborn child had been “shoved through” massive uterine tears. The whistleblower indicated that hospital staff charged with repairing the damage were so disturbed by what they had seen that “the surgeon witnessed the need to send out an e-mail … acknowledging their trauma while caring for this woman.”

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