In The Press

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. - South Dakota can require doctors to warn women seeking abortions that they face an increased risk of suicide if they go through with the procedure, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday.

Inspections of the abortion clinic revealed they were continuing to violate state health and safety laws after the initial violations that prompted the state investigations in the first place.

The inspections were prompted by a letter from seventeen Maryland House Delegates raising concerns about abortion clinic safety after Jennifer Morbelli. Investigators discovered a second abortion-related patient death had occurred at one of Brigham’s abortion clinics in Baltimore that is located in a residential condominium complex. The woman was said to have had a previous health condition that contributed to her suffering cardiac arrest at the time of the abortion.

According to the Baltimore Sun, “The physician who performed the abortion at Associates in OB/GYN Care LLC on North Calvert Street wasn’t certified in CPR and a defibrillator at the facility did not work, state officials said in a letter Friday to the General Assembly.”

Troy Newman of Operation Rescue, who has been closely following Morbelli’s death and the aftermath, commented on the suspensions.

“Ignoring a health condition that might contraindicate abortion, one of Brigham’s shoddy abortionists proceeded with surgery at a residential condo unit without the necessary certification or emergency equipment required to treat the patient in the event a complication arose. Because of this negligence, he was unable to provide emergency care that could have saved her life. It is beyond belief that the State of Maryland would allow these dangerous Brigham affiliates to continue to operate in the state,” he told LifeNews.

Newman also provided background information on Brigham and previous problems he has had killing and injuring women at his abortion clinics and violating health laws.

Brigham and another abortionist, Nicola I. Riley, were arrested and charged with murder after police raided a secret late-term abortion mill they were illegally operating in Elkton in 2010. A botched abortion that resulted in a ruptured uterus and other injuries alerted authorities to the site where 35 corpses of viable late-term babies were discovered in a freezer. The charges were dropped after an expert witness for the prosecution bowed out of the case under pressure from the abortion lobby.

It was that incident that instigated the new abortion clinics licensing law that took effect in July, 2012.

The two other abortion clinics that were suspended by the state were American Medical Group affiliates in Cheverly and Silver Spring. A representative of the clinics told the Baltimore Sun that they are owned by Integrity Health in Pennsylvania and are listed on Brigham’s American Women’s Services web site only because “they help with our online presence and other marketing efforts.”

However, Operation Rescue previously discovered that Integrity Health is a shell organization that Brigham placed in a family member’s name after Brigham was banned by the State of Pennsylvania from operating or controlling any abortion clinics in that state citing violations that endangered the public after the discovery of a series of botched abortions and illegal practices. He has a history of hiring troubled abortionists that are among the worst in the country. (Read about their backgrounds.)

“Brigham is playing a shell game with authorities to keep open abortion businesses that are dangerous to women. Brigham has repeatedly shown an arrogant disregard for the law that has caused him to be expelled or suspended in every state where he ever held a medical license,” said Newman.

Currently, Brigham holds a medical license only in the state of New Jersey, which remains under suspension.

An abortionist associated with the suspended Cheverly clinic, Mehrdad Aalai, was criminally convicted of Medicaid fraud in 1993, and more recently had his license temporarily suspended in 2011 over a horrifically botched late-term abortion that nearly killed a patient.

The license suspension of the three clinics means they can no longer do surgical abortions until the violations are corrected, however, they can stay open and provide nonsurgical services.

“These abortion mills should be permanently closed. We appreciate Maryland taking steps to inspect, but they authorities there need to take a harder line against these abortion clinics that operate under shady circumstances at the expense of the lives and health of women,” said Newman.