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unlicensed nurse. In 2010, New Jersey’s medical board found that
he began late-term abortions on women in that state and then drove
them to Maryland to complete the procedures, in an attempt to skirt
state law. One woman allegedly suffered life-threatening injuries as a
result. They found no medical records for her. At Brigham’s Maryland
clinic, police say they found 35 late-term fetuses in his freezer — but
records for only two.
Brigham declined comment for this article.
Abortion opponents have followed the activities and whereabouts
of Brigham for years; he became a kind of anti-poster boy for their
cause, and they’ve protested outside his clinics since the mid-’90s.
Choice advocates, on the other hand, see Brigham — and Gosnell
— as rare exceptions who prove how little state oversight exists when
it comes to abortion providers. “The state knew about Gosnell. They
know about Brigham,” says Vicki Saporta, president of the National
Abortion Federation. “There were many complaints about both of
these providers, yet they were allowed to remain open.”
g
In fact, these choice advocates have wanted Brigham shut down
as badly as the anti-abortion activists do.
osnell’s clinic had hardly been unknown among women’s
health advocates who warned the state. The same advo-
cates say they’ve long sounded alarms about Brigham
— not, they say, to much avail. “Nobody understands
why all these complaints came through with Gosnell
and Brigham’s clinics, and [the state] couldn’t figure
out a thing to do about it,” says the ACLU’s Petraitis.
Sarah Dittoe, who worked as a patient advocate at Brigham’s clinic
American Women’s Services–Pittsburgh in 2004, says she contacted
the health department numerous times about various incidents she
says she witnessed, including one in which she says a doctor refused
to call an ambulance when a patient began bleeding profusely.
“An hour and a half passed before he finally called 911,” she says.
Dittoe says she shared all this, and more, to the state investigator.
But, she claims, “He ... stopped returning my calls and following up
with me.”
Eli Kuti, another former employee of Brigham’s who worked as
the office manager of American Women’s Services–Pittsburgh from
2000 to 2003, says she, too, contacted the health department after,
she claims, discovering improperly stored medical waste. “I know
Choice
advocates
have wanted
Brigham shut
down as badly
as abortion foes.
PLENTY OF WARNING: Carol Petraitis of the Pennsylvania ACLU says
the state ought to have done something about Brigham long ago.
PHOTO BY NEAL SANTOS
the naked city
that everything has to be registered and properly disposed of,” says Kuti.
Kuti says she wrote five or six letters detailing this allegation, as well as many
feature
others, to state officials. But, she claims, “There was no follow-up.”
Claire Keyes, who was longtime director of Allegheny Reproductive Health Center
before recently retiring, says the health department hasn’t thoroughly handled
a&e | the agenda | food | classifieds
complaints from fellow abortion providers, as well: The “state either did not, or could
not, respond” to the 20-plus complaints she filed on behalf of patients, she says.
But then last year, in the wake of the Gosnell case, women’s advocates became
hopeful that change was on the way. Then-Gov. Ed Rendell ordered inspections of
all the state’s abortion clinics, and Dr. Evi Avila, the Department of Health’s acting
secretary, later said at a public hearing in early 2011, “The department has instituted
measures to ensure that such a public health breakdown does not occur again in our
commonwealth,” adding that new procedures are in place “to investigate all complaints
promptly” and that “complaints will be taken from any source, even anonymously.”
Months prior to this, in July 2010, the health department had ordered that Brigham
could not have a “controlling ownership” or “equity interest” in any abortion clinic
in Pennsylvania, citing the fact that he routinely employed unlicensed medical per-
sonnel. The order also prohibited Brigham from “directly, or indirectly” registering
any abortion facility in the state. (Brigham has appealed this ruling.)
Abortion-rights advocates throughout the state say they were relieved, thinking
the order would finally stop Brigham’s operations. It would not.
b
y November 2010 — five months after Brigham was sent packing — the
state’s 24 clinics were finally inspected by health officials.
Brigham’s “old” facilities were under “new” ownership, but they still
racked up new notices of violations of state law.
In December 2010, the health department sent Allentown Medical
Services six pages of “deficiencies” — more than any other open abor-
tion clinic received — which the state released to City Paper.
The state’s letter to Allentown Medical Services reveals that the facility “failed to
ensure that each patient was supervised constantly while recovering from surgery
or anesthesia.” Several pieces of equipment “had not been inspected, certified for
use and not calibrated.” Many, many records were also missing.
Jen Boulanger, executive director of Allentown Women’s Center, calls the missing
records “very disturbing.” She says, “There is no evidence that this office monitored
patients during surgery nor afterward,” adding, “the patient’s health would be at
risk if she has any difficulty breathing during the procedure.”
Dittoe, who now is employed at another Pittsburgh abortion clinic, says the missing
records are especially troubling given her experience working at Brigham’s clinics:
“Any time there was a complication, the chart ended up missing,” she says. In a letter
of response to the health department, the clinic’s “operations coordinator,” whose
name was redacted, wrote that “the Department’s letter involve only record-keeping
»»» continued on page 12
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the naked city
issues. … There is no evidence that any of the issues referred to by the
Department resulted in any patient harm.”
feature
Meanwhile, CP has found proof that the “new” management isn’t new at all.
According to the Department of Health’s July 2010 order, Brigham is
not supposed to have a “controlling ownership” or “equity interest” in any
classifieds | food | the agenda | a&e
abortion clinic in the state. But Brigham’s present role in two clinics here is
unclear. The Maryland State Board of Physicians says that Brigham owns
American Women’s Services, which operates more than a dozen abortion
clinics throughout the region and is allegedly headquartered in Voorhees,
N.J. The company’s two clinics in Pennsylvania go by the names Allentown
Medical Services and American Women’s Services–Pittsburgh.
But Brigham’s attorney, Julia Gabis, says he owns neither. And the
Department of State apparently agrees. Records show that in early 2010,
he transferred ownership of the two clinics to Rose Health Services Co.,
owned by Judith Fitch. (Fitch also declined comment, through Gabis.)
In February, the Inquirer reported that Fitch is Brigham’s mother.
What’s more, CP has found that Brigham still holds a managerial role
at those two clinics. When CP first asked two of Brigham’s lawyers, Gabis
and Joseph Gorrell, if he’s had a role at either of the two Pennsylvania
clinics following the ownership transfer, they declined comment.
Then, several sources told CP that, to their surprise, they saw Brigham
last week at a mandatory health department meeting for abortion providers.
Allentown Women’s Center’s Boulanger says that at the meeting, “Brigham
introduced himself to our medical director as the Allentown office’s CEO.”
Holli Senior, a Department of Health spokeswoman, described the meeting’s
attendants as the “heads of their facility” but wouldn’t release names.
Asked again about Brigham’s role, attorney Gabis said, “Dr. Brigham
… does provide occasional managerial oversight. He has no ownership
interest in or board position with Rose Health Services.”
b
righam has made similar arguments before. In October 2010,
he stood before the New Jersey Board of Medical Examiners
over allegedly beginning late-term abortions in that state
and then driving women to Elkton, Md., to complete them.
According to the Inquirer, Brigham argued that he didn’t
need a Maryland license because he was simply “engaging
in consultation” at the Elkton clinic. But he admitted, “I did the care.”
According to state documents obtained by City Paper, other management
within Allentown Medical Services remains unchanged: Donna Smith is
the district manager; according to newspaper reports, she was its director
City Paper,
M A R C H 3 1 - A P R I L 6 , 2 0 1 1 | C I T Y PA P E R . N E T
meanwhile, has
found proof that
the “new” man-
agement isn’t
“new” at all.
12 | P H I L A D E L P H I A C I T Y PA P E R |
BRICK AND MORTAR: The clinics formerly owned by Brigham
are allegedly headquartered in Voorhees, N.J.
PHOTO BY NEAL SANTOS
as far back as 1999. City Paper asked the health department why Brigham is allowed
to remain a manager at the two Pennsylvania clinics despite the July 2010 order, as
well as why his mother is permitted to be the “owner.” Spokeswoman Senior said that
because Brigham appealed the order, “It has not yet been imposed.” She declined to say
if the health department is not enforcing the order by choice, or to comply with state law
or a judge’s ruling. That Brigham has been allowed to play an apparently “managerial”
role was news to everyone in the pro-choice community with whom City Paper spoke.
“If a judge had ordered [not to impose the order], then why not tell [the media]?
… The Department of Health should be doing everything in its power to protect
the lives and health of women in Pennsylvania,” says the ACLU’s Petraitis. “The
part that I don’t understand ... is that the state really did have the opportunity to
shut his clinics down.”
Meanwhile, as Brigham’s fate here remains in legal limbo, women continue to have
abortions at Allentown Medical Services and American Women’s Services–Pittsburgh.
Though Brigham’s name has been all over the news for years, it’s still easy for women
to not know of his involvement in American Women’s Services: The company’s website
doesn’t list his name. It also has the lucrative number 1-888-ABORTION.
Says Saporta, of the National Abortion Federation, “He shouldn’t be allowed to own
or operate abortion clinics in any state in this country.”
i
n the grand jury’s 2011 report on Gosnell, investigators lay a great deal of
blame on the Department of Health’s lack of inspections. In the mid-’90s, it says,
under pro-choice Gov. Tom Ridge’s administration, the department “abruptly
decided, for political reasons, to stop inspecting abortion clinics at all.”
This provided an ostensibly easy way for the health department to solve
the problem: Start inspecting clinics again, which it promptly did last year.
But women’s health advocates argue that Brigham’s case proves that the health
department’s problems run deeper than just the need to do inspections.
Keyes, the former director of the Allegheny Reproductive Health Center, says the health
department’s persistent problems are somewhat a result of it losing funding years ago.
When this happened, she says, the department “shrugged its shoulders and moved on”
from abortion clinics, partly because of society’s stigma toward the procedure.
“I don’t think it was malevolent,” she says. “It was just easier to ignore.”
Ironically, women’s rights advocates say this same stigma is what continues to drive
women to Brigham’s clinics: “People think they don’t have many choices. Abortion is
still a dirty word,” says Kuti. “They think ... ‘I deserve to go somewhere shitty.’”
The Department of Health, meanwhile, “is taking the necessary steps to ensure
the health and safety of women seeking these services in the commonwealth,” says
spokeswoman Senior, noting that it has recently “adopted new procedures” to do so.
Some of these procedures are good news to abortion rights advocates — others
are not. But a case like Brigham’s, they argue, should be clear-cut: “If women’s lives
are at risk,” asks Petraitis, “why is it taking so long?”
(holly.otterbein@citypaper.net)