A Maryland doctor who has been performing abortions in the state without a license is being investigated by the Maryland Board of Physicians and police after one of his patients filed a report following a botched operation last month. The doctor, Steve Brigham, has, had his license "revoked, relinquished or suspended" in five states over an 18 year period, according to an article in the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Brigham's M.O. involves beginning late-term abortions in one of his four Voorhees, N.J., clinics, which don't meet safety requirements to do so, then taking his patients across state lines to an Elkton, Md., clinic to finish the job, the Inquirer reports. A police raid of the doctor's Elkton facility turned up 35 "late-term fetuses and fetal parts"; medical waste records recovered in a second raid of Brigham's New Jersey clinic showed that some of the fetuses were as far along as 36 weeks.
In this latest incident, Brigham began abortion proceedings on an 18-year-old woman who was 21 weeks pregnant in New Jersey on Aug. 12. The next day, he had her caravan with a few other patients down to his Maryland facility--despite promises the operation would take place in Philadelphia--where he would complete the operation.
During the woman's procedure, Nicola Riley, another doctor who had been flying in from Utah every other weekend to help Brigham with the operations, "cut through the patient's uterus into the bowel and vagina," the Inquirer writes. Instead of calling for help, though, Brigham drove the patient to a local hospital. While there, both he and Riley allegedly were evasive about their identities. The two doctors then left to perform abortions on their remaining patients, while the woman was flown to Johns Hopkins because of the severity of her injuries.
To learn more:
- read this Philadelphia Inquirer article
- read this cease and desist order from the Maryland Board of Physicians
- check out this Newark Post piece