Andrew Glenn, Regional director for Maryland Coalition for Life, sought to review the license applications for abortion facilities in the state. These should be available to the public from the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene under the Maryland Public Information Act.
The documents provided to Glenn were so heavily redacted that very little information could be obtained. One document, however, did have a note from Planned Parenthood requesting that information about the clinic administrator and provider not be released in the event of a public information request.
When Glenn sought to gain additional data, the department sued him to block any release of information related to abortion facilities. He lost the first round in court, but the American Center for Law and Justice, representing him, has filed an appeal, which is expected to be heard early next year.
Maryland’s lax standards attract abortionists, while its veil of secrecy protects them from accountability.
The Quality of Care When Getting an Abortion in Maryland
Maryland’s leniency towards abortionists and their facilities has led to deaths and many medical emergencies. Among those who are or have recently practiced in the state are:
Iris Dominy had her license suspended in 2013 for allowing unlicensed staff to give patients drugs at a clinic in a residential complex in Baltimore; a patient died after a 13-week abortion.
Romeo Ferrer had a patient die after a dilation and evacuation abortion in her 16th week of pregnancy. He was accused of failing to properly administer anesthesia or monitor her during and after the abortion, and did not properly administer resuscitation. Ferrer surrendered his medical license, rather than have it revoked, and closed his abortion clinic in Severna Park in 2010.
Mansour Panah had his license suspended in 1988 for sexual contact with three patients and again in 1995 for sexual conduct with another patient, and was placed on probation in 2011 for failing to meet appropriate standards for delivery of quality medical and surgical care. Panah, who was in charge of medical care at several Maryland clinics operated by Stephen Brigham, had his license was suspended in 2013, when a postabortive patient died after being left in the care of an unlicensed medical assistant.
Harold O. Alexander was ordered in 2013 to stop performing abortions at his unlicensed Forestville facility, and to stop allowing unqualified medical aids to administer IV drugs and sedation; he also did not have a Registered Nurse on staff when performing abortions as required by Maryland regulations.
Mehrdad Aalai surrendered his license earlier this year and closed his abortion facility in Annapolis, rather than face additional investigations. A patient of his almost died after an abortion when she was discharged without instructions, although her placenta was not fully removed.
Abolghassem M. Gohari, a multi-state abortionist, was ordered by the California Medical Board to surrender his California medical license last year, based upon findings that in Maryland he had engaged in substandard abortion practices and verbally abused two patients during profanity-laced tirades. He continues to practice in Maryland.
Stephen Chase Brigham was found operating a clandestine late-term abortion facility in Elkton in 2010, although he did not have a medical license in Maryland. Later that year, he closed four other facilities in Maryland after a patient died. This year he lost his license in New Jersey, the fifth state in which his license has been suspended or revoked.
LeRoy Carhart, who operates an abortion facility in Germantown as well as in Nebraska, is willing to do very later-term abortions which are illegal in most states. He has had eight abortion-related medical emergencies in the last two years, six at his Germantown facility.
An Abortionist’s Cost of Doing Business
On November 13, the New Jersey Board of Medical Examiners fined Steven Chase Brigham $42,000 to cover the Board’s cost of prosecuting him. Troy Newman, president of Operation Rescue, hopes “that all of Brigham’s assets will be seized and sold to cover this order, including all the equipment in his seventeen abortion facilities.”
Brigham previously had been ordered to pay $140,000 in fines for his negligent and unethical behavior that led the Board to revoke his license, and he owes the federal government $460,000.
Since Brigham no longer holds a valid medical license, his seven New Jersey abortion facilities should be forced to close since that state does not allow non-licensed individuals to hold ownership in medical facilities. His extensive history of criminal activity and disciplinary action can be viewed at www.AbortionDocs.org
Your Prince Georges County Abortionist
Abolghassem M. Gohari, who operates abortion facilities in College Park and Suitland, Maryland, under the Metropolitan Family Planning Institute name, has a history of abortion-related medical malpractice suits beginning as early as 1987. These suits allege patient injuries, including an incomplete abortion, bowel laceration, and ruptured ectopic pregnancy. His website indicates that he operates a third facility in Gaithersburg, but it appears that this location has been closed.
On December 19, 2012, the Maryland State Board of Physicians found that at the Gaithersburg facility Gohari “engaged in unprofessional conduct in the practice of medicine, practiced medicine with an unauthorized person or aided an unauthorized person in the practice of medicine, and impermissibly delegated medical acts to unlicensed office staff persons.”
He was placed on a one-year probation and fined $10,000, a light sanction for endangering patients’ lives. In December 2013, the California State Medical Board ordered him to relinquish his license in that state, based on his performance in Maryland, and stated that he could not apply for reinstatement for at least three years.
[December 2014, Maryland State Council Knights of Columbus ‘Pro-Life News’; Lawrence P. Grayson Editor, Gerald T. Hicks, State Director, Culture of Life Activities]