The case of Dr. Steven Chase Brigham grows ever more disturbing. Brigham has a long history of jumping from state to state in an attempt to collect as much cash as possible for the termination of not only viable fetuses, but baby’s that would almost certainly have survived because of their advanced growth and development. The doctor has faced charges, license revocations, and clinic closures in Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey, Florida, and New York, yet has still maintained his deadly operation simply by packing up and moving.
Mental Recession readers have already been briefed on how the Democratic political machine in Albany, New York, allowed Dr. Brigham to escape relatively unscathed, being charged only with fraud despite evidence that abortions had been performed on fetuses that exceeded 24 weeks.
Details are emerging about his recent arrest for murder and they are not good. This is a man that knows the laws of the states in which he operates his clinics, and knows them well. So much so that Brigham had developed a scheme in which he started abortion procedures in his New Jersey clinic, then ferried patients to his clinic in Maryland where the laws on late-term abortions were a little more relaxed.
The Times Colonist has reported that the crux of this murder investigation centers around one such case.
The investigation began in August 2010, when a young woman sought an abortion from the pair.
The abortion was induced in New Jersey and the patient was then transported across state lines into Maryland, according to the Elkton police statement.
Operation Rescue, which has done a fantastice job of tracking the murderous trail left behind by Dr. Brigham, has a copy of his indictment, which includes 5 counts of first-degree murder, and 5 counts of second-degree murder.
More chillingly, they have obtained logs of the abortions that were performed in Brigham’s Maryland clinic. They include several abortions performed on fetuses that had developed well over 8 months, including one seen below that had been documented at 36 weeks!
And if you’re thinking that this doesn’t indicate much of anything since Brigham’s name is not on the patient log, think again. The ‘Dr. Shepard’ in the above referenced document was nothing more than a cover according to Operation Rescue President, Troy Newman.
“Shepard was used as a pawn in this scheme in order to give the appearance of legality,” said Newman. “In reading through his interview with the Maryland authorities, we got the strong impression that his mental capacities were beginning to fail. He was a patsy for Brigham, nothing more.”
Not only were his mental capacities diminishing, but Shepard was physically unable to perform these procedures. Shepard is, after all, 88-year old George Shepard, Jr, a man with an arm so disabled, it makes it impossible to do abortions.
Questions continue to abound regarding Brigham’s case in Albany. If his Maryland clinic clearly shows that abortions were performed on fetuses well past 24 weeks of development – a violation of New York’s fetal homicide law – is there any question that he was doing the same in Albany?
Why were witness accounts pertaining to the clinic essentially ignored – including victim statements, an undertaker interview claiming one fetus had developed to 8 months, and a Medical Conduct Board interview in which a nurse claimed that one case involved “a 26- to 28-week pregnancy”?
John Meekins, a former assistant attorney general who worked the case stated he “encountered political pressure against the investigation from the Albany Democratic machine, including a judge who had ties to the Colonie clinic’s landlord.”
Who were the Democrats involved in the suppression of the investigation into Dr. Brigham back in 1996? Was the case reduced to fraud charges under former Attorney General, Dennis C. Vacco, or former Attorney General, Eliot Spitzer, who took over the case in 1998? Who were the supervisors that Meekins claims told him to “stick with just the Medicaid fraud”? And who was the judge that pressured Meekins to drop the investigation?
More importantly, should these political operatives alleged to have hindered the investigation, be held as accessories to murder?
The deaths of 35 fetuses in Maryland, and countless other untold deaths, may have been prevented by the Albany Democrats that Meekins is calling out.
While we may never know the answers to these questions, the lives lost at the hands of Dr. Brigham certainly deserve an answer.
Rusty can be contacted at his site, The Mental Recession
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