Guest Columnist The Heroes of Sundance

Feb 18, 2013

Less than two weeks ago, the Sundance Film festival “canonized” the work of late term abortionists in the United States, and gushed unbounded praise and admiration for their heroic “care of women.” The centerpiece of this hagiographic exercise was the documentary film “After Tiller,” by directors Lana Wilson and Martha Shane. The movie uncritically portrays the lethal practice of four late term abortionists: Warren Hern, who performs late-term abortions in Boulder, Colo., Shelley Sella and Susan Robinson who do their killing in Albuquerque, N.M., and the infamous “Butcher of Germantown” (Md.), LeRoy Carhart.

These “heroes” were all taught the deadly art of late term abortion by George Tiller. The partisan media has been heaping praise on the horrid reality of abortion, and now we get this: LeRoy Carhart, one of the four “heroes” depicted in the film, performed a third trimester abortion in Maryland this week, and in a Feb. 8 press conference the Maryland Coalition for Life reported that as a “direct result of complications experienced” from Carhart’s abortion, a 29-year-old woman was pronounced dead in a Germantown hospital.

The press conference in Germantown, Md., reported that the procedure, which commenced Sunday, Feb.3, quickly developed into a medical emergency. The woman had to be revived several times by medical personnel on Thursday but “… due to immense blood loss and hemorrhagic shock…” the medics could not save her life. They reported also, that Carhart was nowhere to be found and could not be contacted by the woman’s family as she lay dying in the hospital.

This is the work of the heroes of Sundance.

Michael Martelli of the Maryland Coalition for Life was quick to point out what the media and movie lovers of Sundance are never told. This is not the first woman who has died after one of Carhart’s lethal procedures. “He already killed Christin Gilbert in Kansas in 2005, and now another senseless tragedy has come as a result of Carhart’s so-called ‘women’s healthcare’ and the apathy of the pro-abortion Maryland State Government,” Martelli said.

The yet-to-be released film, “After Tiller,” makes one wonder: Who are these filmmakers who have dedicated themselves to glorifying late term abortion?  The mere existence of “After Tiller” begs another question: Who are the people who could be so callous as to sit through 85 minutes of this propaganda?  When – indeed if – we as a nation wake up from the deadly stupor created by the propaganda of the pro-abortion lobby, what will history and the next generations have to say about us? The institutionalized discrimination against the unborn is corrupting science, politics, and culture in our Nation and the world, in a manner chillingly reminiscent of more recent crimes against humanity.

I know LeRoy Carhart. I confronted him every Monday morning for over a year at his abortion mill in Germantown, Maryland. This terrible place is owned by brother and sister, Todd Stave and Nancy Samuels of Potomac, Md. For over a year, I tried in every way to negotiate and warn Mr. Stave and Ms. Samuels that bringing in a man like LeRoy Carhart would sooner or later result in the death of one of these women in crisis. I have seen them, in the latter stages of their pregnancies, crying, confused, in crisis, being coaxed into Carhart’s death chamber.

Stave and his sister have a long tradition in the abortion industry. The clinic now staffed by Carhart was left to them by their father, who owned the abortion mill before them. One wonders if a dead woman will cause this lethal pair to cease and desist. It is high time Todd Stave and Nancy Samuels stop hurting the women of Maryland. The carnage they have brought to Maryland exceeds 1,000 babies dead and now a young mother.

Maybe now upstart film directors Wilson and Shane will come to Maryland to add a final chapter to “After Tiller.” Carhart has been described to me by his own staff as the “most evil person” they have ever encountered.

Even Mr. Stave, who continues to be instrumental in the damage and death of women and babies in Maryland, has described how he loathes Carhart. But, I guess Carhart pays the rent. 

Does “After Tiller” report that Carhart’s own staff member had lodged a formal complaint against Carhart for his misrepresentations in his medical license application, or that he conducted risky abortion procedures without any hospital privileges? Does “After Tiller” report that Carhart has been involved in multiple botched late-term abortions, including the death of 19-year-old Christin Gilbert in his Kansas clinic?

I have stood outside of Carhart’s mill and seen teenagers crying while practically being dragged into Carhart’s abortion mill. I can only describe filmmakers Shane and Wilson’s praise of Carhart and his practice as a work of fiction.

“They’re helping women…they help them grieve for their loss…” said Shane.

Shane and Wilson should come and grieve with any of the 208 families of women who have died from abortion.

Maybe New York Governor Cuomo would like to join them, as analysis by the Catholic Center has shown that his so-called Reproductive Health Bill would permit unlimited late term abortion on demand. It would also “allow non-physicians to perform abortions,” and “preclude reasonable regulations on abortion.”

Perhaps Michelle Boorstein of the Washington Post, who has been relentlessly cheerleading for Carhart and Todd Stave, the owner of the Germantown abortion facility, would consider joining the upcoming vigil for the tragic death of Carhart’s recent victim.

These abortionists are not doctors. Abortion is a corruption of the art of medicine. Carhart, the “Butcher of Germantown,” as he is known in Maryland, has single-handedly killed over 25,000 babies for money.

And yet, says filmmaker Shane, “My respect for the doctors has increased tenfold…” Carhart, the hero of Sundance, had the gall to say, “At the end of the day, it’s about healthcare. We are providing a service to women.”

A funeral service is what had been provided in Maryland that week.

These are the heroes of “After Tiller,” carrying on, damaging women and killing babies. Robinson, speaking of her mentor Tiller, stated, “We learned at his knee. Kindness, courtesy, justice, love and respect are the hallmarks of a good patient relationship.” How coincidental that both now and when Christin Gilbert died after a Carhart’s abortion, the hero of Sundance, was nowhere to be found.

“After Tiller” also declines to mention, as reported by Operation Rescue, that in 2009 several of Carhart’s employees filed affidavits with the Nebraska State Attorney General’s office with details on Carhart’s practices. The attorney general and the Nebraska Department of Health launched investigations into testimony “…of Carhart’s unlicensed workers illegally performing medical tasks, illegal post-viability abortions, drug violations, financial malfeasance, and that there was often “dried blood on medical instruments.” The testimony also indicated that Carhart “had poor hygiene and rarely washed his hands between patients.”

“After Tiller,” depicting Carhart as a caring medical professional, is a great work of propaganda. During the agony of Christin Gilbert in Carhart’s abortion Nebraska facility, the record shows that when the medics were finally called, Carhart’s staff made sure to tell them, as recorded in the 911 call, “Please, please, please! No lights; no sirens.” And what did the medics discover in our hero’s facility? They found Christin Gilbert lying on the floor in a pool of blood, fluids, and coffee grounds, “in huge amounts.”

But there is more on our hero Mr. Carhart.

The medics found him on top of Christin.  It was reported that he was “…trying to pump fluids from her stomach.  Paramedics reported that they first thought he was a male nurse who may not have known what he was doing. The paramedics ordered Carhart away from the girl but he did not comply… One report indicated that the paramedics may have had to pull Carhart off her.” The report also said that Christin was bleeding from every orifice of her body. So much for the kind, courteous, and loving Mr. Carhart.

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I also recall that, as families and children walked prayerfully back and forth at the Carhart clinic on Halloween Day of 2012, Carhart’s staff came out of the clinic with trick or treat bags and distributed them to the children, some as young as six years old, and in some cases, before their parents realized what was happening.

The bags were filled not with candy and sweets but full of condoms and contraceptive devices.

But there is more. Shane and Wilson also forget to mention that Carhart, at one of his facilities in Kansas, maintained an incinerator inside of the abortion facility. There, indoors, he would burn the bodies of his young victims. After our promise that “Never Again” should such horrors be visited upon humanity, we have now tragically rediscovered in the 21st century, with Carhart and company, the smoke stacks of human flesh, billowing the remains of innocent human beings, in our so-called “civilized society.”

This is the gut wrenching horror of the daily work of the hero of Sundance.

This is what Todd Stave (also a “star” in “After Tiller”) and Nancy Samuels have brought to Maryland. Is this what Sundance’s Shane and Wilson need to glorify in their film? LeRoy Carhart is the man to whom the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, on the same day of this tragic death of his 29-year-old patient, issued a license to the Germantown  facility, “… to perform abortions – without a single inspection of the facility” (Martelli, Maryland Coalition for Life).

LeRoy Carhart has lost all sense of humanity and in 15 years as a priest, I have never encountered a more soulless human being. One need only to come to Germantown, Md., to see what horrors he perpetrates.

Today, the memory of Sophie Scholl, made memorable in the pamphlets of the “White Rose,” which were secretly distributed, during World War II, should reverberate in our souls. Those of us, who still have some sense of humanity and solidarity for every member of the human species, regardless of size, stage of development, race, color, religion, gender, or political affiliation hear her words today.

In the midst of a complete eclipse of reason in her beloved Germany, Sophie Scholl’s resistance movement stated: “Who among us has any conception of the dimensions of shame that will befall us and our children when one day the veil has fallen from our eyes and the most horrible of crimes – crimes that infinitely outdistance every human measure – reach the light of day.”

So much for the heroes of Sundance.