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Abortionist Nicholas Braemer grossly botched an abortion on August 26, 1987, one of many botched abortions. The California Medical Board found him guilty of “gross negligence, repeated negligent acts and incompetence,” and suspended his license for 90 days. The medical board found that he botched the abortion “through haste, inattention and neglect of his professional medical responsibilities,” all of which Braemer admitted in accepting probation.
Braemer, while aborting a viable preborn baby, managed only to chop one arm off the baby, and the mother miscarried the dead child a day later. The little child was born with only one arm.
The abortionist, who had performed abortions in at least ten locations, agreed to stop practicing medicine on August 1, 2000 under a negotiated settlement with the Medical Board of California.
In 1999, the Medical Board of California formally accused Braemer of gross negligence in a 1996 abortion in Panorama City that left a woman with serious bowel damage. That incident occurred while his medical license was under probation for previous findings of negligence, according to state documents. In the signed agreement to surrender his license, Braemer admitted gross negligence in the 1996 case.
State investigators later added two allegations of negligence and unprofessional conduct, contending that Braemer told another woman that her abortion was successful when she was still pregnant and that he allowed untrained staff to perform and interpret ultrasound pregnancy tests.
The abortionist said that “I chose not to fight it. I agreed to retire. I’m 60 years old, I’m financially OK. I’m ready to do other things.” He also said his abortion businesses will remain open, with another abortion practitioner as owner, but will not do late abortions, as he did, between the 24th and 26th weeks of pregnancy. His abortion clinics, including the one in Chula Vista, are called Clinica Medica para la Mujer de Hoy (Medical Clinic for the Woman of Today). Some also use the names Community Women’s Medical Clinic and Family Planning Medical Center.
Braemer received his California medical license in 1966. According to state records, the medical board in 1983 put him on five years’ probation after a criminal conviction for state Medicaid fraud. He began another five years’ probation in January 1995, on the basis of a 1987 abortion in which he did an incomplete abortion, causing the woman to suffer infection and miscarriage, state medical records say.
After seeking to revoke Braemer’s license in June 1999 because of the 1996 case, the board in November accused him of negligence in a 1998 abortion in Huntington Park for telling the woman that her abortion was successful. Six weeks later she found out that she was 15 weeks pregnant with a severely damaged unborn child, and she had a second abortion, according to records.
On September 16, 2000, medical board investigators posed as patients at four of Braemer’s 10 abortion clinics, including one in Huntington Park, another in Baldwin Park and two in Los Angeles.
On the basis of those visits, another medical board accusation was filed in April charging that Braemer had allowed medical assistants to perform ultrasound pregnancy tests and interpret the results to patients and that this amounted to their practicing medicine without a license.
References: James McCoy. “Not a Back-Alley Clinic: This is Chula Vista.” NewsNotes [San Diego’s Catholic Newspaper], April 1999, pages 1 and 3; “California Abortion Practitioner Gives Up His Medical License.” San Diego Union Tribune, June 22, 2000; “California Abortion Practitioner Gives Up His Medical License.” Steven Ertelt’s Pro-Life Infonet at http://www.prolifeinfo.org/infonet.html, June 23, 2000; Maggie Garcia. “Unlicensed to Kill: Has Notorious Abortionist Really Left the Killing Business?” Los Angeles Lay Catholic Mission, October 2000, pages 1 and 3. |
