By Katie Schubert
OMAHA, Neb., May 22 (Reuters) - Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning on Wednesday filed a petition to revoke the license of the only nurse at a controversial abortion clinic in the state for allegedly providing substandard care and improperly administering drugs.
Bruning, a Republican who received support from anti-abortion groups during a run for the U.S. Senate last year, argued in the petition to the Nebraska Board of Nursing that Lindsey Creekmore delegated the care of 11 women who had abortions at Bellevue Health and Emergency Clinic in suburban Omaha between January 2011 and March 2012 to unlicensed staffers.
Bruning also asserted in the disciplinary petition that Creekmore failed to adhere to guidelines in administering the narcotic painkiller Fentanyl, Pitocin, which induces labor, and Versed, a potent sedative.
Creekmore has been employed at the clinic since September 2009, and has been the only nurse working there since April 2011, according to the petition.
The clinic is run by Dr. Leroy Carhart, a friend and colleague of Wichita, Kansas, abortion provider Dr. George Tiller, who was murdered in 2009.
Bruning says Creekmore's actions endangered the health and safety of the women who had abortions at Carhart's clinic. A disciplinary hearing is set for August 5.
It was not clear what impact Creekmore's possible removal would have on the clinic.
Carhart is a prominent supporter of abortion rights, and has challenged laws restricting so-called partial-birth abortions in court. Nebraska law bans abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy. Bruning's petition makes no mention of the state's law.
The state nursing board is a division of the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services. (Reporting by Katie Shubert; Editing by David Bailey and Paul Simao)
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