Press Release, for immediate release
June 12, 2007

Paul R. McHugh, M.D. of Lawrence, Massachusetts, is visiting Kansas today and tomorrow. McHugh was listed as a witness in the charges filed against George Tiller by former Kansas attorney general (now Johnson County, Kansas district attorney) Phill Kline.

Dr. McHugh has a thirty page curriculum vitae available on request. He attended Harvard Medical School and was the Psychiatrist-in-Chief of the Johns Hopkins Hospital from 1975 through 2001.

In December of 2006, Dr. McHugh reviewed the medical records that were at the center of the 30 charges Kline filed against Tiller dealing with 15 late-term abortion from 2003. The records Dr. McHugh reviewed were the complete records kept by Tiller's clinic for those abortions. 

During an interview Monday, June 11, McHugh said that, in his professional opinion, information in the records does not meet the criteria required by Kansas law for abortions of viable (able to live outside the womb) babies.  That criterion is that without the abortion the woman will suffer "substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function."

Former Kansas Attorney General Carla Stovall's issued an opinion interpreting that statute in 2000. In it, the term "bodily function" was said to include mental health, while maintaining that the threatened impairment must be "substantial and irreversible" to justify the abortion.

Today at a Lenexa, Kansas studio, Dr. McHugh recorded a statement about the medical records at issue during an interview set up by Women Influencing America, an ad hoc group critical of the Tiller situation. He said determinations of mental health to justify late-term abortions of viable infants were not professionally done by either Dr. Tiller or the legally required "second doctor."  (Kansans for Life Note: Neither George Tiller, nor Kristin Neuhuas (allegedly the "second doctor" in the 2003 records) are board certified OB-GYN's, and both have worked mainly as abortionists. Nor are either known to have any mental health training.

Dr. McHugh said that the Tiller/Neuhaus diagnoses in the records of "major depression/single episode" and "adjustment disorder" were in no way "irreversible" and that, in fact, the field of psychiatry exists in order to successfully overcome such problems. 

Dr. McHugh explained that the information in the records, as provided by the women involved, showed that they might be "demoralized and disheartened and discouraged," but, as such, did not constitute 'single episode major depression and adjustment disorder'.  McHugh added that such a disorder could not be construed without a more extensive medical history and significant patient interviews to provide the necessary information. He also wondered why, if indeed the women had suffered from such diagnoses, there was no evidence of any follow-up care, or plans for such care.

McHugh stated categorically that there was no psychiatric condition for which abortion was a cure. 

According to McHugh, Tiller's practice relating to late-term abortion clients seems set up to justify any reason for such abortions while reinforcing a young woman's negative view of her circumstances, rather than encouraging a healthier, long-term positive approach. Tiller's approach circumvents substantive exploration of the pregnant woman's alternatives, support structures, legal rights, adoption possibilities, and education opportunities yet available after the birth of a baby.

McHugh specifically mentioned one Tiller patient record that included a notation that, without the abortion, the woman's education opportunities would cease to exist and studies showed she would inevitably have more pregnancies.  Dr. McHugh called these prejudicial social predictions, not psychiatric diagnoses.

He noted another Tiller patient record showed the suicidal ideation might increase without the abortion, yet all studies show that pregnancy actually reduces the risk of suicide.

Tuesday evening's forum is open to the media and the public.

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