steven brigham 2010

8/9/2019 Steven Brigham 2010

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Posted on Wed, Jul. 21, 2010 APRIL SAUL / Staff Photographer

Stephen Chase Brigham's company, American Women's Services, has headquarters andone of its six New Jersey clinics at 1 Alpha Ave., Voorhees.

More trouble for abortion doctor, thistime in PennsylvaniaBy Marie McCullough

Inquirer Staff Writer

Steven Chase Brigham, a physician whose medical license has been revoked,relinquished, or temporarily suspended in five states, is now facing regulatory and taxtroubles that could jeopardize his chain of 15 abortion clinics.

The Pennsylvania Department of Health this month ordered Brigham to permanently shuthis four clinics in the state for repeatedly employing unlicensed caregivers.

Lawyer Julia Gabis, who represents Brigham in the Pennsylvania case, contends that theorder violates his constitutional rights and reflects selective enforcement against abortionproviders. The department rejected those arguments.

"We intend to appeal this decision to the Commonwealth Court," Gabis said in an e-mail.

Brigham also has to deal with the IRS. In April, it placed $234,536 in liens against himfor failing to pay payroll taxes from 2002 to 2006.


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His company, which does business as American Women's Services, has six clinics inNew Jersey, including the headquarters at 1 Alpha Ave., Voorhees.

John Zen Jackson, a lawyer in Warren, N.J. who represented Brigham in a lawsuit againsthim by his accounting firm, did not respond to requests for comment on the liens.

Brigham, 53, has rarely given interviews about his legal scrapes, which go back as far as1989 and have pitted him against medical boards, creditors, landlords, patients, andothers. He declined to be interviewed for this article.

Brigham graduated from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in1986. By 1990, when abortion became the focus of his practice, he was licensed inPennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, California, Florida, and Georgia, public recordsshow.

Pennsylvania was the first setback. In a confidential 1992 settlement, Brigham agreed to

permanently give up his license amid an investigation of his practice in Wyomissing.Despite this restriction, Brigham continued to own and expand his abortion business inthe state.

In 1994, New York took his license, finding him guilty of "gross negligence" and"inexcusably bad judgment" involving two late-pregnancy abortions. The patientssuffered life-threatening bleeding and required emergency hospital operations, publicrecords show.

Brigham maintained offices in New York through 1995 but failed to file state business

taxes, a misdemeanor for which he was sentenced to 120 days in jail and $8,188 inrestitution, public records show.

In Florida, Brigham lost his license for not disclosing New York's action. California puthim on probation and ordered extra training; instead, he let his license lapse, as he did inGeorgia.

New Jersey suspended Brigham's license in 1993, citing the same botched abortions asNew York, plus other charges. After three years of defending himself against an action bythe state Attorney General's Office, Brigham won full reinstatement of his medicalprivileges.

Pennsylvania's latest disciplinary action came July 7 when Deputy Secretary of HealthRobert Torres permanently banned Brigham and any corporation in which he has acontrolling interest from providing abortions in the state. Torres' order cites repeatedviolations of the state's medical licensing rules.


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American Women's Services does about 3,600 abortions a year in Pennsylvania, staterecords show. It has clinics in Pittsburgh, Allentown, Erie, and State College.

Until last month its website also listed 11 locations in Philadelphia, Bristol Borough,King of Prussia, and Willow Grove where patients could rendezvous for "free

transportation" to a clinic.Vicki Saporta, president of the National Abortion Federation, said this week, "Weapplaud Pennsylvania's decision."

Her trade association, which has 400 abortion providers that meet its clinical standards,has long criticized the quality of care at Brigham's clinics.

The most recent violation cited in the July 7 order occurred in 2008, when a woman whowas not a nurse worked as one in the Pittsburgh clinic, according to Health Departmentcharges.

During hearings early last year, Brigham contended he had been duped. He testified thathe did not know the applicant's name when he verified the license number she providedto his office administrator. As a result, he verified the wrong person's license.

Asked why he did not specifically check the applicant's name, he said, "It didn't dawn onme. I mean, I just, I didn't. . . . I don't know. I guess I don't have a good explanation."

In his legal pleadings, Brigham argued that even if there were a licensing violation, it wasminor. Shutting him down, he contended, would be "excessive" and "drastic."

But the 2008 violation was far from minor, health officials decided, in the context of hisprevious lapses.

In 1997, Brigham employed an obstetrician-gynecologist who was under suspension for,among other things, sexually molesting patients.

"We contacted Dr. Brigham, and he said he wasn't aware that the license was suspended,"recalled Kenneth Brody, the department's chief counsel. The department accepted thatexplanation and did not discipline Brigham.

In 2004, Brigham again pleaded ignorance. He said he was unaware that a physician who

had done more than 1,600 abortions at American Women's Services clinics inPennsylvania had previously retired his license and thus was not paying into the state'smedical malpractice insurance fund.

That time, Brigham had to promise the department that from then on, his company wouldgo to special lengths to verify medical credentials. He agreed that any further slip-upswould be grounds for barring him from having abortion facilities "directly or indirectly"in the state.


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In issuing the shut-down order last week, Torres rejected one last legal argument thatBrigham added to his pleadings early this year: He claimed the case had become mootbecause in January, he transferred ownership of his Pennsylvania clinics to a newlycreated company headed by a 70-year-old woman in Toledo, Ohio.

Permission to run abortion clinics "may not be transferred as part of a sales transaction,"Torres ruled. Any transfer "would be void."

During Brigham's travails, his enterprise has continually evolved. Over the years, he hascreated at least 20 corporate entities - some with names such as Peaceful Corp., GoodnessInc., and Kindness Corp. - and added clinics in Virginia and Maryland.

The IRS now has a big claim against all of it.

"We have made a demand for payment of this liability, but it remains unpaid," say AprilIRS notices demanding $234,536 for unpaid payroll taxes. "Therefore, there is a lien in

favor of the United States on all property and rights to property belonging to this taxpayerfor the amount of these taxes, and additional penalties, interest, and costs that mayaccrue."

Contact staff writer Marie McCullough at 215-854-2720 or [email protected] .

steven brigham 2010

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