Share this
Twitter
Myspace
Digg
Del.icio.us
Reddit
Slashdot
Furl
Yahoo
Technorati
Newsvine
Facebook
Export PDF
Print
E-mail
Tags
BY BOB HOLT
NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM
A New Jersey doctor is one of two doctors facing abortion-related murder charges in Maryland.
Dr. Steven Chase Brigham, 55, of Voorhees is being held in the Camden County jail, while Dr. Nicola Riley, 46, was arrested in Utah. Police said the doctors were indicted by a grand jury after a 16-month investigation.
According to Cecil Whig, the investigation began on Aug. 13, 2010, when Riley brought a woman into the Union Hospital emergency room, seeking emergency care for her after complications from a failed abortion procedure Riley had performed on the woman at nearby 126 East High Street.
Elkton Police learned that the woman had been driven to 126 East High Street from Voorhees for the abortion, and Dr. Brigham and Dr. Riley were on the premises at the time.
ABC News reported that a freezer containing 35 late-term fetuses was found during a search of the High Street clinic. One was believed to have been aborted at 36 weeks, according to police.
CBS News reports that Brigham began the late-term abortions in New Jersey, where he wasn't authorized to perform them after the first trimester, and finished them in Maryland, where laws are more lenient. A 2005 Maryland law calls for murder charges against someone accused of killing a viable fetus.
The abortion that failed in 2010 led regulators to order Brigham to stop practicing medicine in Maryland without a license. His license in New Jersey was also suspended.
Brigham is being charged with five counts each of first-degree and second-degree murder, and a single charge of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder. The other murder charges against Brigham are from other illegal abortions he performed in Maryland. Riley faces one count of first-degree murder, second-degree murder and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, according to police.
"We have been calling for the revocation of Brigham’s license for years and have attended every Board of Medical Examiners Hearing and Administrative law hearing since the mid 1990’s," said Marie Tasy, Executive Director of New Jersey Right to Life in Piscataway.
"We can only hope that Brigham will never be able to hurt, maim or kill another human being again, nor should he be allowed to own or operate clinics that profit from the wholesale slaughter of innocent children and butchering of women."
