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2 Md Abortion Physicians Charged With Multiple Murder Counts
Baltimore may have its own version of the “Shop of Horrors” abortion clinic run by Dr. Kermit Gosnell in Philadelphia. Gosnell has been charged with multiple counts of first degree murder and is in jail awaiting trial and faces the death penalty.
And now, under what are disturbingly similar circumstances to those in Philly, police in Maryland have charged doctors Steven Chase Brigham, 55, of Voorhees, N.J., and Nicola Irene Riley, 46, of Salt Lake City, Utah with a number of serious crimes including first-degree murder. Brigham faces 5 counts of the top murder charge as well as 5 counts of second-degree murder. Riley faces 1 count of first-degree murder and 1 count of second-degree murder. Both face a single count of conspiracy to commit murder. Brigham is currently in custody at the Camden County Jail in New Jersey and Riley is in custody at the Salt Lake County Jail in Utah. Both are awaiting extradition to Maryland where all of the charged crimes occurred. Until they are arraigned the indictments have been sealed so information is still sketchy.
Here is what we know so far. Last August a New Jersey teenager underwent an abortion at the American Woman’s Services clinic on East High Street in Elkton, Md. As a result of the procedure she suffered serious complications including a ruptured uterus and other internal injuries. Riley put her patient in Brigham’s rented Chevrolet Malibu and drove her to Union Memorial Hospital in Elkton. According to the physician board investigators she sat in slumped in a wheelchair, nearly unconscious, outside the emergency room, while Riley argued with hospital staff, demanding their identities before treating the woman. Later in the day the patient was flown to Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore.
She survived her injuries and the pair are not charged with harming her as far aw we know. An investigation into the circumstances of her care was undertaken by the Maryland Board of Physicians as well as its counterpart in NJ. Law enforcement also became involved. During the investigation it was discovered that Brigham was shuttling patients down from New Jersey clinics he owned to clinics here in Maryland. He did this to circumvent the tougher NJ laws which prohibit late term abortions. Md allows the procedure. Brigham would begin the preparation of the patient in NJ, including dilation of the cervix, then pile the women in vehicles for transport to his Md clinic(s) where Riley performed the abortion procedure.
Elkton police executed a search warrant at the Elkton clinic location and discovered 35 fetuses in the freezer, some from 20-35 weeks gestation. Anything over 14 weeks places an abortion done in a physician’s office outside of the law in NJ. It would appear that Brigham’s practice of beginning treatment in NJ and moving the patient’s to Md would be a violation of NJ abortion laws. The precise basis for the Md murder charges is unclear, but they do appear to be related to fetal deaths.
Both NJ and Md suspended the medical licenses of the two physicians, each of whom has had disciplinary action taken against their license in the past. State authorities say Brigham ran a string of clinics in several states, including Pennsylvania and New York. His Maryland clinics were located in Elkton, Baltimore, College Park, Frederick and Cheverly. Once the indictments are unsealed we will report on the particulars.
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- Abortion Doc in Philly Charged With 8 Counts of Murder in Shop of Horrors
