Abortion

Rogue Abortion Provider’s Medical License Revoked

The New Jersey Board of Medical Examiners found Wednesday that rogue abortion provider Dr. Steven C. Brigham had committed several counts of gross negligence, deception, and official misconduct. Brigham no longer has any valid credentials to practice medicine in the United States.

Steven Brigham no longer has any valid credentials to practice medicine in the United States. Cecil Whig / YouTube

Read more of Rewire‘s articles on Steven Brigham here.

Rogue abortion provider Dr. Steven C. Brigham, whom legitimate abortion providers have been warning authorities about since the 1990s, will no longer be able to legally practice medicine after his medical license was revoked by the New Jersey Board of Medical Examiners Wednesday.

The board heard oral arguments Wednesday morning, and later that evening found that Brigham had committed several counts of gross negligence, deception, and official misconduct.

Brigham was ordered to pay $140,000 in penalties, and he will also have to pay the state’s court costs, which will be determined at another hearing. The court costs are expected to exceed $500,000.

During the hearing, Brigham appealed to the board to “see me for who I am,” reports the Trenton Star-Ledger. Brigham asked the board to see him as someone who has “taken up the cause of women’s rights and women’s freedom.”

Deputy Attorney General Jeri Warhaftig said during the hearing the Brigham put his patients’ health at risk, and that the case was not about abortion rights. “It’s about the substandard care he provided,” Warhaftig said.

Brigham no longer has any valid credentials to practice medicine in the United States. Her will likely have to close all of the eight abortion clinics he operates in New Jersey.

Brigham operated a medical practice that provided abortion services and pushed legal and ethical boundaries.

An 18-year-old patient in August 2010 was left with major internal injuries after what was supposed to have been a routine surgical abortion performed by a Brigham-affiliated clinic. The doctor who performed the emergency surgery on her at a Baltimore hospital contacted the authorities, leading to a raid of the clinic by law enforcement, who found fetal remains in freezers.

Brigham was also performing abortions without medical malpractice insurance, a violation of state law.

Brigham’s medical privileges were suspended in 2010 when the Board of Medical Examiners found that “his continued practice presents a clear and imminent danger.”

Administrative Law Judge Jeff S. Masin recommended in August that the state Board of Medical Examiners revoke Brigham’s license for practicing without a license in Maryland. The recommendation came even as Masin dismissed the attorney general’s claim that Brigham had circumvented a state law requiring that abortions after 14 weeks of gestation be performed in a hospital.

Legitimate abortion providers in states in which Brigham practiced warned officials about the public health threat that Brigham posed in numerous complaints, emails, and phone calls over more than two decades.

Physicians previously provided copies of complaints and logs of phone calls to Rewire, which they claim were mostly ignored by authorities.