Nebraska physician vows to keep Tiller’s abortion clinic open McClatchy (6/1/09):

Women’s Health Care Services, the clinic that has been bombed, blockaded and vandalized for more than 20 years because late-term abortions are performed there, will be closed this week to mourn the slaying Sunday of founder George Tiller.

But 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.”

And it’s not the first time:

On 6 September 1991, the day of the passage of the Nebraska Parental Notification Law, arsonists targeted Carhart’s farm, setting fire to his home and a 48-stall barn, along with two other buildings and numerous vehicles. The attack killed two family pets and 17 horses. The fire, which had started in seven different locations on Carhart’s property, was never deemed arson and no one was prosecuted. Carhart received a note the morning after the fire claiming responsibility and likening the deaths of his animals to the “murder of children”. At the time of the fire, abortions had been a small part of Carhart’s surgical practice; afterwards, determined not “cede a victory to the antis”, Carhart began performing abortions full-time.

Pro- or anti-choice, you have to recognize that Carhart is harder than you are. He’s also more of a patriot than any elected official 2001-present. Confronted with terrorism, Carhart has basically made it his business to offer up the middle finger to those terrorizing him.

Had Obama, Bush and/or Cheney been in the abortion business, they would be shutting down their clinic, capturing/torturing members of a totally unrelated group (like Native Americans or Shriners) and burning all the evidence.

Maybe Carhart should be named National Security Advisor.