Notorious East Coast abortionist Steven Chase Brigham lost a major lawsuit earlier this month when a judge awarded a former patient $6.5 million for a botched abortion.
Now, his abortion chain’s Englewood Women’s Services in New Jersey is filing for bankruptcy, NJ Advance Media reports.
The patient filed a lawsuit against Brigham, partner abortionist Vikram H. Kaji and other defendants after she had an abortion at their Frederick, Maryland facility in 2012. The abortion failed, resulting in the birth of a child with significant health problems, LifeNews previously reported.
The medical malpractice case ended on Aug. 5 with Judge J. Frederick Motz awarding the woman $6.5 million against Brigham, Kaji and the other defendants, Asbury Park Press reports.
Brigham recently was banned from practicing medicine in New Jersey, in addition to several other states. However, this week, the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office accused Brigham of still being illegally involved in the operations of the American Women’s Services abortion chain in the state.
The bankruptcy paperwork also lists Brigham as the owner of the Englewood abortion facility, according to local news reports. The facility is more than $51,000 behind on rent and an eviction is pending, court documents state. Brigham also owes New Jersey more than $500,000 in fines and other costs, according to the state attorney general’s office.
In March, Operation Rescue’s Cheryl Sullenger explained the details of the medical malpractice case. According to her report, the woman, Christy O’Connell, went to Brigham’s Maryland abortion facility on July 26, 2012, seeking an abortion when she was about 10 weeks pregnant. She was given the drug methotrexate, a cheap but dangerous chemotherapy drug that abortionists sometimes use in an off-label application for early term abortions, Sullenger explained.
Here’s more from the report:
Even according to the ever-dubious protocols developed by the National Abortion Federation, the continued use of methotrexate to induce abortions carries grave concerns and is not recommended for abortions beyond 56 days gestation. The NAF notes that due to the high failure rate, the few NAF abortionist that will actually still use methotrexate will not use it after 50 days gestation.
… The failure rate of methotrexate and misoprostol actually doubles when used after 49 days of pregnancy. The dangers are so severe that the NAF advises that patients must have “ready access” to a telephone, emergency medical care, and transportation. The facilities administering the abortion drugs must also be capable of conducting surgical abortions in the likely event that the medications should fail.
O’Connell was actually 68 days pregnant when [Brigham employee abortionist Iris] Dominy administered methotrexate and misoprostol to end her abortion. A failed or incomplete abortion was nearly assured.
Later:
After receiving the abortion drugs on July 26, O’Connell returned to Brigham’s Frederick abortion clinic on August 17, 2012, for a follow up appointment. At that visit, she indicated she was still experiencing symptoms of pregnancy.
She was given a trans-abdominal ultrasound, (once again by an unqualified clinic worker), and told that no intrauterine pregnancy could be detected. She was told there was “no need” for a blood or urine pregnancy test because the ultrasound exam was “conclusive evidence” that she was not pregnant. O’Connell was told to visit her primary care provider in three months, handed a prescription for birth control pills, and sent on her way.
O’Connell continued to live her life believing she was not pregnant. She stayed on all her prescription medications, which included anti-depressants, asthma medication, and other drugs.
On October 5, 2012, O’Connell visited her primary care physician for a routine “well-woman” check-up. That was when her doctor discovered that O’Connell was still pregnant – now more than 18 weeks along.
When O’Connell reached about 28 weeks into her pregnancy, she was admitted to the hospital suffering from preeclampsia, a potentially dangerous condition involving extremely high blood pressure that can only be cured by the delivery of the baby.
On December 19, 2012, baby O’Connell was born and rushed into the Neonatal Intensive Care Unity where he remained for almost two months. The child suffers several medical conditions, some of which are due to his prematurity and some to the dangerous abortion drugs given his mother. He continues to be treated for hearing loss, developmental delays, heart defects, and “other problems.”
Despite his disgraceful reputation, Brigham still openly runs abortion facilities in Maryland and Virginia, according to his business website.
In April, Virginia health inspectors discovered more than 52 pages of violations at another Brigham-run abortion facility, LifeNews reported. State health officials later shut down that facility.
In 2011, Maryland prosecutors charged Brigham with murdering viable late-term babies at a secret abortion clinic; however, the charges were dropped because some said he had killed the unborn babies in New Jersey instead. The state also closed several of Brigham’s clinics in 2013 after discovering repeated health and safety violations that put women in danger, LifeNews reported.
