Leroy Carhart

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Leroy Harrison Carhart, (b. 1941) a doctor from Nebraska, became well-known for his participation in the Supreme Court case Stenberg v. Carhart. After being prohibited by law from performing certain types of abortions, he sued the attorney general of his state, Don Stenberg, and won in the Supreme Court in 2000. Dr. Carhart is a retired U.S. Air Force lieutenant colonel^{[citation needed]}, and one of only three abortion providers in the state of Nebraska.^{[citation needed]} He is a graduate of Rutgers University^{[citation needed]} and a 1973 graduate of Hahnemann Univiversity School of Medicine.^[1]

Dr. Carhart used a new form of late-term abortion which was banned by Nebraska law. The procedure, dilation and extraction (D&X), involves partially removing a fetus from the uterus before terminating it. It was illegal under a law banning partial-birth abortion in the state of Nebraska. The alternative form of later term abortion; dilation and evacuation (D&E) consists of opening the cervix of the uterus and emptying it using surgical instruments and suction. Carhart contended that D&X was often safer than D&E.^{[citation needed]}

On September 6, 1991 arsonists targeted the farm of Dr. Carhart, setting fire to his home and a forty-eight stall barn, along with two other buildings and numerous vehicles. The attack killed two family pets and 17 horses. Despite investigations by both local and state authorities, no arrests were made, and no one has been connected to the attack.^{[citation needed]}