Doc Backs Abortion Rights Within GOP

The Republican Party platform calls for a constitutional amendment to ban abortions under all circumstances.

That hard-line stance has led to an abortion rights advocate to emerge from within the GOP.

It might not have been the hot ticket this week, but hundreds of Republicans turned out for a Planned Parenthood reception to promote abortion rights.

The star attraction was not a Hollywood celebrity or GOP heavy hitter but a soft-spoken doctor from Nebraska.

This summer at the Supreme Court, Dr. Leroy Carhart successfully overturned the ban in Nebraska on controversial late-term abortions, one of the court's most important abortion rulings in years.

Carhart seems an unlikely man to carry the pro-abortion rights banner: An Air Force veteran who once considered divinity school.

He retired to private practice in '89. His practice, though, includes abortion.

Every day Carhart is greeted by a small chorus of taunting protesters at his Omaha clinic.

On some days he performs more than 20 abortions, because he is just one of three abortion providers in Nebraska.

Some women drive hundreds of miles to see him.

He wishes doctors weren't so reluctant to perform abortions, saying. "The first thing we have to do as providers is be proud of what we do and make it a legitimate part of medicine and make it a fundamental part of medicine, and I don't think we can do that if we're uncomfortable talking about what we do."

Sometimes it gets more than uncomfortable. In 1991, a fire of undetermined origin destroyed Carhart's ranch, killing 17 horses.

Security is a constant concern at the clinic, with both his wife and daughter working by his side.

So Carhart says he decided to become just as visible as those who oppose him.

Carhart says, "There's no doubt, I think the fire that we had was the absolute turning point in my life."

During the Supreme Court case, Carhart spoke out in national magazines and major newspapers fully realizing the risk of being so public.

He says he is willing to give his live for this cause, if he has to.

Abortion rights advocates lost the platform battle at this year's convention, but they hope to win the long-term war.

Abortion rights activists promise to put pressure on the next president when it's time to make new appointments to the high court.

The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in the Nebraska late-term abortion case.