February 14, 2013/Germantown, Maryland/Operation Rescue --
By Cheryl Sullenger
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has ties to late-term abortionist LeRoy Carhart, who was involved in the 33-week abortion death of Jennifer Morbelli on February 7, 2013, in Maryland, that raise concerns that she may attempt to interfere in ongoing investigations involving Carhart.
Operation Rescue obtained photographs of a secret party held by Sebelius in 2007 while serving as Governor of Kansas that honored late-term abortionist George Tiller and his entire abortion clinic staff. Carhart and his wife, Mary Lou, were present at that party, which was held while they were under investigation by the State Attorney General's office for suspected illegal late-term abortions.
Operation Rescue also has documentation that indicates that Sebelius interfered in a medical board investigation into the death of another of Carhart's third-trimester abortion patients, Christin Gilbert, on January 13, 2005. An investigation was launched by the Kansas State Board of Healing Arts based on a complaint filed by Operation Rescue. Gilbert's death prompted the Kansas Legislature to pursue a law that year, which would have regulated abortion clinics in Kansas. Sebelius adamantly opposed any regulation or accountability for abortion clinics, having vetoed similar laws in previous years.
After a Board investigation was opened, Sebelius wrote to her appointee, KSBHA Ex. Director Larry Buening (who was later forced to resign his position), asking for him to report to her on Gilbert's death investigation and to give her an opinion about how the proposed new law would have affected her care. The pro-abortion political climate created by Sebelius, along with her personal interjection into the investigation, led the Kansas Board of Healing Arts to prematurely and publicly "clear" Tiller and Carhart of any culpability in the death of Gilbert a full five months before the politically sanitized autopsy report was even completed. It is no coincidence that the Board's opinions on the Gilbert death were released the same day that an important vote on the clinic regulations bill was scheduled in the Senate.
Operation Rescue helped convene a citizen-called grand jury to look into Gilbert's death. During that investigation, Carhart dodged a subpoena for his testimony by staying out of Kansas while the grand jury was in progress. He never testified. The Grand Jury disbanded without handed down indictments. (Read more about this.)
"It is regrettable that political corruption in Kansas that was orchestrated and controlled by Sebelius thwarted efforts to hold Carhart accountable in the death of Christin Gilbert. If she had not interfered and an honest investigation had been allowed to proceed, Jennifer Morbelli might be alive today. In a very real sense, the blood of Mrs. Morbelli is on Kathleen Sebelius' hands," said Troy Newman, President of Operation Rescue and Pro-Life Nation.
Now the concern is that Sebelius, with her added power as Secretary of Health and Human Services in the pro-abortion Obama Administration, will also interject herself into the ongoing investigations into the death of Jennifer Morbelli in order to protect her friend, Carhart.
"Our experience with Sebelius is that her number one priority is protecting and promoting abortions - even if it means the death women and their babies that our laws are supposed to protect," said Newman. "We call on all authorities investigating the death of Jennifer Morbelli to conduct independent and honest investigations that are free from the influence of Sebelius and her pro-abortion cohorts in the Obama Administration."
