Radical anti-choice groups have found a disturbing ally in Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning, whose public statements reveal strong support for their agenda. Also read Wendy's tweets from the Carhart clinic here.

Wendy Norris, a Denver-based journalist, is working on assignment for Rewire to cover anti-choice movements at the state level in the West. She is currently reporting from Bellevue Nebraska where she is covering the anti-choice movement’s efforts to close Dr. Carhart’s clinic. She will be tweeting updates at @rhrealitycheck, and will be writing articles posted here throughout the weekend.

The expected refocusing of radical anti-choice protests from

Wichita, Kan., to suburban Omaha, Neb., following the murder of Dr. George

Tiller has found a disturbing ally in a top state elected official.





Sex. Abortion. Parenthood. Power. The latest news, delivered straight to your inbox. SUBSCRIBE

Twelve days after Tiller was gunned down at his church by

militant anti-abortion activist Scott Roeder, Nebraska Attorney General Jon

Bruning reportedly told KETV, reacting to news that Tiller’s friend and

colleague, Leroy Carhart, M.D. intends to begin providing late-term abortions

in his Bellevue, Neb., clinic, stated:

“I’m disgusted and I’m saddened, and

I hate it that he’s here in Nebraska and I hate it that he’s in America,”

Bruning said. “I mean, this guy is one sick individual.”

The stunning remark evoked a firestorm of controversy on the

KETV Omaha television station Web page, summarized by this comment from

“tomh”:

I find it shocking that any reputable

public official would express such hatred for a law-abiding individual. To be

sure some people do not like abortion. However, there are times when a woman,

perhpaps [sic] to save her own life, has to undergo such a procedure. What makes

this situation even worse is that as the state’s Attorney General he should not

be encourageing [sic] the types of activity that we witnessed at the church in

Wichita or the museum in Washington.

The progressive political blog, NewNebraska.net, demanded

Bruning retract the statement and issue an apology. According

to the site’s managing editor, Kyle Michaelis, neither has been forthcoming.

The propriety of the state’s top legal adviser making such

an incendiary comment now casts a shadow over the attorney general’s office,

which acknowledged recently accepting a formal complaint by anti-abortion

groups demanding an investigation of Carhart’s clinic.

Bruning spokeswoman Leah Bucco-White told the Omaha

World-Herald that the complaint was filed by local activists Rescue the

Heartland and Nebraskans United for Life and national groups Operation Rescue

West and the Christian Defense Coalition — the very same absolutist

anti-abortion faction organizing the Aug. 28-29 mass protests at the Carhart

clinic. The letter was referred to the state Department of Health and Human

Services.

Health department press agent Marla Augustine cited state

confidentiality laws when contacted about the details of the politically

charged accusations. News accounts have alluded to the longstanding strategy by

the anti-choice movement to repeatedly make vague, spurious claims against

physicians well after they have been discredited.

Augustine did confirm that no previous complaints against

Carhart have resulted in state disciplinary action. She declined to estimate

the time frame for completing the probe.

Bucco-White did not respond to an inquiry about the

incongruity between Bruning’s personal comments and his office’s need to

impartially review the facts of the investigation.