New Jersey's Board of Medical Examiners has suspended Brigham's license, his sole remaining one, according to the Associated Press. The action, on Oct. 13, followed by about six weeks Maryland's order to Brigham to stop performing abortions in the state.
The New Jersey board acted after it found Brigham was initiating late-term abortions in his Voorhees, N.J., clinic and finishing them in his Elkton, Md., clinic, AP reported. For years, Brigham has been starting abortion procedures in the Voorhees clinic and sending women to one of his clinics in another state to complete them, the Philadelphia (Pa.) Inquirer has reported. New Jersey bars his clinics in that state from providing abortions after 14 weeks because they fail its medical safety standards.
"Dr. Brigham has consistently and repetitively engaged in manipulative and deceptive behavior designed to circumvent the requirements of the board's termination of pregnancy regulation and to eviscerate the protections that those regulations seek to afford to New Jersey patients," the New Jersey board said in its decision, according to AP.
Brigham has a long history of run-ins with state authorities, according to the Inquirer. He has surrendered his medical license or had it rescinded or temporarily suspended in five states during the last 18 years. He operates 15 abortion clinics in Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Virginia.
Elkton police launched an investigation into Brigham's clinic in their town after a woman who was injured during an abortion there filed a complaint, according to the Inquirer. An Aug. 17 police raid of the Maryland clinic uncovered frozen aborted babies as much as 36 weeks gestation.
Compiled by Baptist Press Washington bureau chief Tom Strode.
Copyright (c) 2010 Southern Baptist Convention, Baptist Press www.BPNews.net
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