Carhart asks faculty post reinstated BY BUTCH MABIN Lincoln Journal Star
CARHART
Bellevue abortion doctor LeRoy Carhart testified Monday that University of Nebraska officials terminated him from a volunteer medical school faculty position because of political pressure from pro-life activists and others.
Carhart is asking a federal judge to reinstate him and is also seeking unspecified damages for defamation, loss of reputation, injury to his career and violation of his free-speech rights.
School officials favored Carhart's removal to "throw the 'antis' a bone," the doctor said, referring to pro-life activists and legislative opponents of fetal tissue research. "If they got rid of me," he said, "then, perhaps, they'd go easier on fetal research."
Monday was the first day of a two-day hearing before U.S. Senior District Judge Warren K. Urbom on the doctor's motion to be temporarily reinstated until the dispute can be settled at trial. No trial date has been set. The suit was filed on Carhart's behalf in January by the New York-based Center for Reproductive Law and Policy.
The doctor received the volunteer appointment in the Department of Pathology and Microbiology in October 1997. Then, in a letter last September from James O. Armitage, medical school dean, he was told the appointment would end that December.
University officials have said Carhart's termination resulted from a policy initiated by Armitage that affected an estimated 300 volunteer faculty members. About 270 of those names were purged from the volunteer rolls either because they were deceased or inactive, the school said.
The remaining 30, including Carhart, were terminated because they were not assigned to departments consistent with their areas of specialization. The school has said the doctor was invited to apply for an appointment consistent with his specialization.
On Monday, Carhart testified that a supervisor at the medical school told him not to reapply. He also said the supervisor indicated he was under "extreme pressure" to terminate Carhart's position.
The doctor also said Robert Bartee, public relations officer for the medical center chancellor, in a December 1999 meeting told him his resignation "might be in the best interest of the university and research."
Carhart said Bartee was concerned about recent public disclosures that the school was using brain cells for research from fetuses aborted by the doctor. Bartee, according to Carhart, was worried that legislators might cut off funds for the research if Carhart were to remain on staff.
The doctor said he refused to resign. "I said these were exactly like terrorists," he said. "If we give in, they'll only want more."
Bartee testified that he initiated the December 1999 meeting. He said he did not ask the doctor to resign but told him, "I may come to him, at some point, (that) in my political judgment, (he should) step down."
He said he feared fetal tissue research at the school might be jeopardized if it lost support of Nebraskans he identified as "the middle" - voters and legislators who are against abortion but pro-research.
"Part of my job was to see that research was not stopped," he said. The school uses the fetal tissue for research on Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases.
Carhart successfully challenged the state's law banning so-called partial birth abortions. A divided U.S. Supreme Court said in June that the law was unconstitutional because it imposed an "undue burden" on women seeking abortions.
In the pending lawsuit, Carhart alleged his opposition to the law contributed to his termination.
But Lincoln lawyer David Buntain, representing the defendants, noted during cross-examination that Carhart's appointment began four months after he filed the late-term abortion lawsuit. Reach Butch Mabin at 473-7234 or bmabin@journalstar.com.
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