Operation Rescue urges all other states with Brigham abortion facilities to shutter them immediately in light of the New Jersey Board’s findings.
By Cheryl Sullenger
Trenton, NJ – The New Jersey State Board of Medical Examiners voted yesterday evening to revoke the final medical license held by the notorious abortionist, Steven Chase Brigham, noting that he betrayed the trust of the women he exploited.
In New Jersey, unlicensed persons are unable to hold ownership in medical facilities, so the Board’s revocation decision should force Brigham to shut down his eight abortion offices he operates there.
“He dons the mask of caring practitioner but he puts his patients at risk of harm,” Assistant Attorney General Jeri Warhaftig argued.
“Brigham is considered the worst abortionist in America that still held a medical license. His seedy abortion mills operated far below safe medical standards. Even abortion groups thought his dangerous abortion empire should be brought down. His revocation is a victory for women and their babies that were so often illegally aborted by Brigham,” said Troy Newman, President of Operation Rescue, whose groups spent years exposing Brigham’s horrific background and practices and calling for not only his license revocation but his criminal prosecution as well.
Going further than was even recommended by an Administrative Judge, the Board found that Brigham committed violations that placed his patients at risk by conducting a nefarious and secret bi-state late term abortion scheme that started late abortions – evidence shows he aborted babies as old as 36 weeks gestation – at his home office in New Jersey then caravanned women in full-blown labor to a clandestine abortion facility in Elkton where he or an associate would finish the abortion.
However, Brigham held no medical license in Maryland and evidence showed that often he personally conducted abortion at the Elkton facility then attributed abortions to an 87-year old Delaware doctor, George Shepard whose paralyzed arm made it impossible for him to actually do them himself. Brigham used Shepard’s Maryland medical license to shield anyone from discovering his own lack of licensure in that state.
When Brigham’s scheme came to light, he had recently hired and was “training” Utah abortionist Nicola Riley to do the second and third trimester procedures. But in September 2010, the inexperienced Riley tore open the uterus of a young patient during a late-term abortion in Elkton, pulling out a bowel and shoving the remains of the baby into her patient’s abdominal cavity.
Brigham and Riley eventually shuttled the woman, struggling for her life, to a local hospital in the backseat of Brigham’s rental car, then returned to the clinic to continue abortions on their remaining patients.
Hospital staff reported Brigham and Riley’s suspicious behavior to police. During an ensuing raid of the Elkton facility, police made the grisly discovery of 35 late-term aborted baby remains stashed in a bloody freezer. This prompted Brigham and Riley’s arrest on murder charges, which were later dropped after an expert prosecution witness pulled out of the case.
Operation Rescue obtained a large number of documents pertaining to the case through open records requests, including detailed interview transcripts and clinic logs, and published them in a report that detailed for the first time the extent of the deceptive and dangerous practices in which Brigham routinely engaged.
“We never had to vilify Brigham,” said Newman. “He did that to himself. All we had to do is tell the truth about him. His despicable actions speak for themselves.”
Last year, Riley’s Maryland medical license was revoked. Operation Rescue had discovered and obtained military records that showed Riley had lied about a felony conviction and incarceration in order to gain licensure in Maryland and two other states. That revelation eventually forced Riley out of the abortion business for good.
In addition to his most recent revocation in New Jersey, Brigham has had licenses revoked or surrendered in New York, Florida, Pennsylvania, and California.
“If Brigham is not fit to practice in five states, he isn’t fit to practice anywhere,” said Newman. “We are now calling on Virginia, Florida, and Delaware to immediately shut down Brigham’s abortion facilities in those states based on the findings of the New Jersey State Board of Medical Examiners, which found that Brigham’s deceptive and fraudulent practices, which are being replicated at every abortion facility he owns, pose a danger to the public.”

Read about the case that finally cost Brigham his last medical license.
Read more about Brigham’s cohort, Nicola Riley.