Brigham says Board of Medical Examiners cleared him in 1996 when he faced similar charges
Dr. Steven Chase Brigham today as he appears before the Board of Medical Examiners. He is accused of violating state regulations on performing late-term abortions.TRENTON — The state’s physician disciplinary board tonight suspended the license of a controversial abortion doctor accused of unlawfully performing five late-term abortions outside of a hospital or licensed health center and putting his patients’ health at risk.
After nearly a nine-hour hearing in Trenton, the state Board of Medical Examiners medical board concluded Steven Chase Brigham, 54, skirted state law by beginning the late term abortions in New Jersey and sending the women out of state to finish the procedure.
The board stated "his continued practice presents a clear and imminent danger" to the public and his procedures caused "fetal demise and brought patients to the point" where abortion was basically required, according to a statement read by a board member.
The board agreed, at Brigham’s request, to transfer the case in an "expedited" manner to an administrative law judge for futrher consideration.
Attorney General Paula Dow had said Brigham administered labor-inducing and abortion-"commencing" medication to five patients at his office in Voorhees, and then told them to follow him by car to another clinic he owns in Maryland, where the fetus would be surgically removed by another doctor with his "consultation."
The State Attorney General’s Office contends he used the two-state scheme to evade state law prohibiting New Jersey doctors from performing abortions after the 14th week of a patient’s last menstrual period outside a hospital or other licensed medical facility.
But the board had exonerated Brigham in 1996 on similar charges involving his clinics in New Jersey and New York. It decided the surgical removal of the fetus constitutes an abortion, not Brigham’s use of a cervix-dilating device in his New Jersey offices in the hours or days before the surgery.
Deputy Attorney General Jeri Warhaftig argued "there were substantial differences" between the earlier and most recent complaints because he had administered drugs this time that caused "fetal demise."
At his office in Camden County, Brigham inserted a medical device and administered medication to dilate the cervix and induce contractions. A doctor working for him at the clinic he owns in Elkton, Md., performed the surgery to remove the dead fetus, according to Brigham’s attorney Joseph Gorrell of Roseland.
Warhaftig said by administering laminaria, a medical device that started contractions, and other drugs including digoxen that caused "fetal demise," he was "commencing" the abortion and was just as responsible for terminating the pregnancy as the doctor who performed the surgery.
By giving his patients the combination of medications and devices, he put them at "points of no return beyond which an abortion cannot be discontinued," Warhaftig told the board.
Brigham testified that he never thought he was violating any laws based on the medical board’s own decision clearing him of similar charges in 1996 involving trips between his New Jersey and New York offices. At that time, his attorney said, the board concluded the definition of an abortion is "the evacuation of the fetus and placenta from the uterus" and the insertion of the medical device "does not constitute performing an abortion."
Brigham’s latest troubles began Aug. 13, when he and another doctor drove an 18-year-old New Jersey patient 21½ weeks pregnant to a hospital emergency room from his clinic in Elkton, Md. Her injuries from the attempted abortion — a lacerated uterus and bowel — required she be airlifted to Johns Hopkins Hospital for surgery.
Investigators from Maryland and New Jersey revealed she was one of three patients from New Jersey, who, on Brigham’s instructions, followed him in their cars from his Voorhees office to the Maryland clinic that day. Days before, he had given them labor-inducing medication. Investigators found the same pattern involving five patients.
Brigham testified he does not hold a Maryland medical license, but legally performed abortions there — including on one of the five patients in question — until July because they were "in consultation" with licensed doctors, as required by Maryland law. One of those doctors, George Shepherd is a disabled man in his 80s who no longer performs procedures himself.
"Why, when you had the option to perform perfectly legal abortions, you found it necessary to schlep patients to other states?" Board member Paul Mendelowitz asked Brigham.
"I only did these things because I believed I had the approval of the New Jersey Medical Board," Brigham said.
Two obstetrician-gynecologists testified on Brigham’s behalf, saying it was common practice to administer such drugs and dilators a day before removing a fetus. "He cared for these patients properly," Gary Mucciolo, an obstetrician-gynecologist at NYU, told the board.
Brigham operates clinics in four states under the corporate name American Women’s Services. His New Jersey offices operate in Elizabeth, Mount Laurel, Paramus, Phillipsburg, Toms River, Woodbridge and Voorhees.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.