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Behind Abortionist's
"Secretive late-term abortion clinic" Part Two of Three By Dave Andrusko
The above headline is
taken from another in a series of investigative stories written
by Marie McCullough of the Philadelphia Inquirer into the shady,
shadowy world of abortionist Steven Chase Brigham. Her work is
measured, meticulous, and paints a picture of a man whom
regulatory agencies in five states have been unable to stop for
decades. [www.philly.com/inquirer/health_science/daily/20100921_Brigham_behind_secretive_late-term_abortion_clinic.html] "For more than a year online, 'Grace Medical Care' has advertised abortions up to the last few weeks of pregnancy. It said it's located in a Philadelphia suburb, yet kept the address secret. And it has operated without the knowledge of state regulatory authorities. Now, for the first time, the New Jersey Attorney General's Office says the person behind the clandestine enterprise is Steven Chase Brigham, the physician being investigated by New Jersey and Maryland on suspicion of licensing and criminal offenses." Worth noting is that Brigham's attorney "did not return a call or e-mail requesting comment." In one of the great understatements of this or any other story, McCullough notes that Brigham's "been in and out of trouble for much of his two-decade career." According to her story "American Women's Services" is the name under which operates at least a dozen abortion clinics in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia. We've written several TN&V, based on some of her earlier stories. Her work is outstanding. To appreciate his latest brush with the law, in order to circumvent rules about out-patient surgery, Brigham reportedly starts abortions in one state and finishes them in another. "The latest inquiry was launched after one of Brigham's bistate abortions went awry," McCullough writes. "An 18-year-old New Jersey woman who was 21 weeks pregnant suffered life-threatening complications Aug. 13 and had to be airlifted from Elkton to Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore." Investigators subsequently determined that he'd never had a medical license in Maryland. "They also seized 35 frozen fetuses and fetal parts from Elkton, but they could not find medical records for 33 of those abortions either in Elkton [Maryland] or Voorhees [New Jersey]." After two decades of playing cat and mouse with authorizes, Brigham has a medical license only in New Jersey. According to McCullough he has a hearing next month to see if the New Jersey Board of Medical Examiners takes that away. "Pennsylvania, New York, and Florida took away his practice privileges in the 1990s," she writes. It's unfair to paraphrase an entire, lengthy story, so let me strongly encourage you to go to www.philly.com/inquirer/health_science/daily/20100921_Brigham_behind_secretive_late-term_abortion_clinic.html. Let me also leave you with this incredible paragraph, which begins about a third of the way into the story. "Although Grace Medical Services was a regulatory phantom, it caught the attention of other abortion providers last summer," McCullough writes. "They were startled because its online ad explicitly offered 'abortions up to 36 weeks' - two weeks shy of a full-term delivery - a risky procedure most doctors are loath to perform. The website said payments had to be in cash, while practically all providers accept health insurance. And not only was no address listed, but Grace Medical's phone receptionist would not readily divulge it. … the secrecy seemed intended to hide the clinic, not protect it, said Vicki Saporta, president of the National Abortion Federation." Even NAF drew the line at Brigham. |
