Abortionist Steven Chase Brigham could lose license, would close 8 abortion facilities

Administrative Law Judge Jeff Masin has recommended that the notorious abortionist Steven Chase Brigham should have his last remaining medical license revoked and pay a fine of $30,000 along with other costs after hearing evidence that Brigham engaged in a pattern of deception, engaged in illegal late-term abortions, and operated in Maryland without being licensed in that state.


“A measure of justice may finally be coming to Brigham, who has learned from over 30 years of legal trouble very creative ways to circumvent laws that are meant to protect women from scofflaws of his ilk,” said Troy Newman, president of Operation Rescue. “It is our position, however, that Brigham is a habitual offender whose behavior cannot be amended through traditional discipline. We believe the only way to stop him from victimizing more women and their babies is to put him in prison. Until then, he will continue to find ways to run amok over the lives and health of women in other states.”


Judge Masin stated in his 86-page decision, “He has suffered license revocations. He has run afoul of the licensing authorities in New York, Pennsylvania and Florida. He has a conviction for failure to file income taxes. And here, he has demonstrated a willingness to play fast and loose with the law in Maryland.”


Masin when on to say, “However, it seems that Dr. Brigham has finally cut enough corners.”
The final decision will be made by the New Jersey Board of Physicians. If they vote to revoke Brigham’s license as recommended, he would be forced to shut down his eight New Jersey abortion facilities operating under the American Women’s Services banner since New Jersey law requires that only licensed providers can operate medical clinics.


However, Brigham’s nine other abortion facilities in Virginia, Florida, and most recently in Delaware would not be affected by revocation of his New Jersey medical license because they allow non-licensees to own abortion facilities.


Brigham sets up in Delaware
Operation Rescue confirmed this week that Brigham is secretly attempting to expand his abortion chain and recently opened an abortion facility in Wilmington, Delaware, called Premiere Ob/Gyn. A receptionist answering calls at that facility told an under-cover caller from Operation Rescue that it is part of a 17-clinic chain that included Brigham’s well-known New Jersey facilities.


Operation Rescue also suspects that he could be operating other illicit abortion facilities in other states and is concealing his ownership from authorities, as he is doing in Delaware, and attempted to do last year in Pennsylvania.


“Brigham’s secret expansion of his substandard, seedy abortion business must be stopped. It is up to the authorities in each state to take steps to shut him down in order to protect the public from his unscrupulous, corners-cutting operation that endangers the lives of women,” said Newman.


Horrific botched abortion draws police attention
The New Jersey disciplinary case stems from a 2010 incident that involved a bi-state scheme to conduct late-term abortions. Brigham’s New Jersey facilities were legally limited to abortions under 14 weeks. New Jersey law does allow for later abortions as long as they are done in a hospital setting, but Brigham holds no hospital privileges.


Instead, he concocted an elaborate bi-state abortion scheme to circumvent New Jersey abortion laws.
Brigham’s scheme involved initiating late-term abortions at his flagship abortion center in Voorhees, New Jersey. He would later caravan his abortion patients if full labor to Elkton, Maryland, where the abortions would be completed. Brigham held no medical license in Maryland.


Brigham’s scheme became public after he and his associate, Utah abortionist Nicola Riley,botched a late-term abortion so badly on an 18-year old patient at an under-the-radar abortion facility in Elkton, Maryland, that she required emergency surgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore to save her life. Due to the suspicious behavior of Brigham and Riley when they delivered the injured woman to the emergency room, physicians in Elkton and her surgeon on Baltimore reported the incident to the police and medical board respectively.


Brigham’s Elkton facility was raided by police, who discovered a blood-smeared freezer that contained the bodies of 35 late-term babies. Brigham and Riley were arrested and charged with murder, but the charges were later dropped after an expert witness that would have testified that the babies died in Maryland dropped out of the case.


Dispute over illegal abortion jurisdiction
The prosecution argued that because drugs were administered in New Jersey that caused fetal demise of babies well beyond the legal limit, that Brigham was engaged in illegal late-term abortions in that state. However, the judge did not agree and said that the abortions were illegal because the surgical portion of the abortion was done in Maryland where Brigham was not licensed.


“Victim” status
Brigham has battled legal issues throughout his entire career, having had his licenses revoked in New York and Florida. He surrendered this Pennsylvania license under pressure and was ordered to never again hold ownership of an abortion facility in that state again – an order he violated last year by opening an abortion facility in Philadelphia, which was soon closed by the state after pro-life activists complained.


Brigham continually argued that he was the victim of anti-abortion persecution, however, Deputy Attorney General Jeri Waraftig, who prosecuted Brigham twice in her career, noted in legal papers that, “His desire to create a [victim] persona . . . has blinded him to his lack of qualifications.”
“Brigham’s own pattern of dishonesty, deception, and incompetence have been the true source of all his problems. His refusal to take responsibility for his actions proves that he will continue to pose a danger to the public as long as he is allowed to participate in any way in the abortion business. We appreciate the steps New Jersey prosecutors have taken to put an end to his horrific practices, however, like a cockroach that runs for cover at the switching on of a light, Brigham will only scurry off to the next jurisdiction and continue to defy the law. I recommend that prosecutors find a way to criminally charge him, or his reign of mayhem will never end.”
Reprinted from Operation Rescue.


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