ANNAPOLIS, Md. — The Maryland Board of Physicians has cleared abortionist Leroy Carhart of responsibility for the death of a 29-year-old woman following a late-term abortion at his business, saying her death was unrelated to Carhart’s actions.

“Based on this review, the board has decided to close this matter without further action. Since the board has closed this matter, it does not consider any action pending against you,” stated the Oct. 10 letter to Carhart obtained by The Washington Post.

“The board’s review included your response, patient medical records and other materials contained in the board record,” it said.

Jennifer Morbelli of White Plains, N.Y., died on Feb. 7, following a late-term abortion of her unborn child 33 weeks into her pregnancy at Carhart’s Germantown, Md., facility. Carhart and medical examiners have stated that the unborn infant had medical abnormalities that were not detected until late in pregnancy.

The board’s letter followed an investigation by state health officials completed in May that reported there were “no deficiencies” in Carhart’s handling of the situation, even though he is said to have left the state less than 24 hours after Morbelli’s abortion. As a result, he was unavailable to speak to emergency room staff or Morbelli’s family as her condition deteriorated.

The Maryland Office of the Chief Medical Examiner’s autopsy reported the death was caused by disseminated intravascular coagulation, or the body’s inability to clot blood properly. This condition, the report stated, was a result of amniotic fluid embolism, or the entrance of the amniotic fluid that surrounds the baby in the womb into the mother’s blood stream, following Morbelli’s abortion.

Even though the condition followed the abortion, the report said that the “manner of death is natural” and could have happened during birth as well.

The pro-life advocacy group Operation Rescue, which publicized the case and filed the complaint against Carhart, said that the board’s decision to clear the late-term abortionist reveals a failure to act on “their duty to protect women from Carhart’s dangerous abortion practices.” It alleged that Carhart’s abortion practice also claimed the life of another woman back in 2005.

“This tragedy was completely avoidable and illustrates the dangers of fly-by-night abortionists who come into town with no hospital privileges, do dangerous abortion procedures, then fly out immediately afterwards, leaving others to clean up their messes,” said Troy Newman, president of Operation Rescue.

He said that procedures such as Carhart’s “must be stopped, along with the below-standard practice of inducing labor on women who are nearly term, forcing them into labor without supervision in hotel rooms, then releasing them from ill-equipped abortion clinics before they have stabilized.”

He criticized the Maryland Board of Physician’s dismissal of the complaint against the abortionist, saying that “all the board has done is ensure that Carhart will kill again.”