Author: Tech

Brigham and Women’s Hospital has been in the news recently when five nurses alleged that the staff abortionist threatened to kill them over some forms reportedly missing from the nurses’ station. Now, then, is an apt time to look at a previous Brigham and Women’s abortionist: Joan Golub.

First, we’ll look at the allegations of a patient I’ll call “Julie,” who went to Brigham and Women’s for a cone biopsy by Golub:

Julie was admitted for the cone biopsy on July 20, 1981. She said that she was not informed of the risks of a cone biopsy during pregnancy, and that staff did not wait for the results of a pregnancy test before proceeding with the biopsy.

After the procedure, Julie said, she was told that she “had been pregnant but that she was no longer pregnant due to the biopsy.”

Julie said that she never would have consented to a cone biopsy had she known of the pregnancy and of the risks to her fetus. Subsequently, however, she learned that the fetus evidently hadn’t died; she was still pregnant, but the “pregnancy was significantly compromised by the anesthesia, blood loss and other effects of biopsy.” Julie said that Golub told her that an immediate abortion was necessary, and Julie consented to have Golub perform the recommended abortion.

Julie had consulted with Golub, she said, after another doctor had told her that she might have cervical cancer. The defense argued that Julie would have consented to the biopsy anyway, and that due to her extreme anxiety over the possibility of having cancer, she probably would not have been able to carry the pregnancy to term anyway.

Due to persisting gynecological problems, Julie had to have a hysterectomy.

Source: Suffolk Superior Court Complaint No. 69630

Golub also had faced previous allegations about treatment of a patient at Bill Baird Center:

A patient I’ll call “Starleigh,” age 21, said that she had a 6-week abortion performed by Golub June 9, 1979, at the Bill Baird Center. She experienced excruciating pain during the procedure, and, as she said later, she asked Golub to stop “because I was losing consciousness.”

“Afterward,” Starleigh said, “I could not get up.”

Starleigh said that she was kept in the recovery room 1 1/2 hours, but was not examined by a doctor before she was discharged.

She returned to the clinic July 2, reporting pain and cramps. She also said that her period had not yet resumed. She was fitted with a diaphragm, and commented of Michael Rees, the doctor who saw her, “He was very condescending and his whole demeanor was one of arrogance.

Early in August, Starleigh called to report that she was still not menstruating, but they told her not to worry. She returned August 20 for a pregnancy test, which came back positive.

Starleigh said that Don Jaffe, another doctor at Bill Baird Center, told her, “I was at least 15 weeks pregnant, that I was having twins and that they only aborted one and not the other. He told me the best thing to do would be to go into the hospital and finish the job that was started.” Golub arranged this second abortion.

Starleigh said that while awaiting this second abortion, she suffered “anxiety attacks, insomnia, nightmares, periods of depression, and doubts about the upcoming operation.” She was admitted August 27 for the second abortion and discharged the next day.

Afterward, Starleigh said, she suffered from nightmares and depression. “I was hysterical and crying on and off much of the time, and after the second abortion for several months.” She added, “I have suffered from extreme anxiety since the second abortion.” She reported personality changes: “less friendly, less ambitious and energetic and more lethargic.” She sought psychiatric care and dropped out of school.

“At first I lost forty pounds. Now I am overweight and I care less about my appearance. I am more indifferent toward education and I am afraid of doctors,” Starleigh said of the aftermath of her abortions.

Golub and the Center each separately argued the lack of an enforcable contract between themselves and Starleigh, and won defense verdicts.

Source: Suffolk Superior Court Action No. 55286

Credit: Christina Dunigan

 

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On February 12, 2004, abortionist Ronald Stevenson was convicted on two counts of aggravated harassment of his customers. He had plea bargained more serious sex abuse charges.

He was originally charged with one count of second-degree felony sex abuse and four counts of third-degree misdemeanor sex abuse regarding his patients, but entered an “Alford plea,” where the defendant does not admit guilt, but takes advantage of a plea bargain offered by the district attorney’s office. The plea is legally viewed as a conviction.

The abortionist will be on probation for five years. He also had sexual molestation charged filed against him in October 1997.

Reference: “News Notes: Abortionist Convicted.” The Wanderer, February 26, 2004, page 3.

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Oregon State’s Board of Medical Examiners revoked abortionist Philip S. Alberts’ license in May of 1995, after it had received complaints from about one hundred women claiming that he had sexually abused them.

The Board ruled that he had committed sexual misconduct. Alberts also was charged with sexual abuse in a 29-count criminal indictment involving 18 victims.

The 62-year-old longtime Portland abortionist died of a stroke on May 29, 1995, before he could be tried on any of the charges. This meant that the 89 women who had agreed to testify against him would not get their say in court. The statute of limitations had expired on all but 29 incidents. Women stated that he had been molesting them right from the beginning of his 36-year medical career.

When, at the beginning of his medical career, he worked at the old Portland Air Base as a captain, some women said Alberts told them they shouldn’t complain about his actions because he could make life difficult for their husbands, who held lower ranks. Ilena Lacaden said that “I was absolutely terrified when he propositioned me. I didn’t think I had any power at all. I spent months just sitting in a closet, coming out just to take shower after shower, and trying to act normal around my husband. I wish I’d had the courage to do something years ago.”

On August 11, 1995, after a trial in Multnomah County Circuit Court, a jury awarded Terri Hunt $865,000 because Alberts had performed an unneeded hysterectomy, leaving her sterile and causing major bladder problems.

When Alberts died, he was also the defendant in five civil lawsuits, including two for alleged sexual abuse and one for allegedly taking unneccessary photographs of a patient’s genitals. It was unlikely that any of the victims would recover any damages, since the abortionist filed for bankruptcy in 1994.

Alberts was a fellow in the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology, former chief of staff at Woodland Park Hospital and former vice president of the Multnomah County Medical Society. He was also Secretary of the Gynecologic Laser and Advanced Technology Society.

Typically, in more than a dozen articles written by reporters for the Portland Oregonian – including two front-page stories – not a single one mentioned the fact that Alberts was an abortionist. The Oregonian did consider it newsworthy, however, to report all kinds of irrelevant details -that Alberts asked that his patients call him “Phil;” that he preferred maroon lab coats; that he wore Birkenstock sandals; that he had a private pilot’s license; that he drove a 1988 Saab with license plates “PMSRX” that is, the prescription for premenstrual syndrome; and that he wore a chain around his neck with a medallion of what appeared to be a vulva.

Not a single one of the pro-choice or feminist groups in the Portland area condemned Alberts’ actions.

References: Rick Bella and Steve Woodward. “State Ready to Revoke M.D. License of Alberts.” The Oregonian, January 20, 1995, page A01; Rick Bella. “Dr. Alberts Goes from Pinnacle to Pit in a Few Years.” The Oregonian, January 22, 1995, page A01; “Gynecologist’s Civil Lawsuits Will Come After Criminal Trial.” The Oregonian, January 25, 1995, page B05; Rick Bella. “Woman Sues Alberts About Genital Photos.” The Oregonian, February 25, 1995, page F03; Rick Bella. “Prosecution Plans to Call 71 Witnesses in Alberts’ Trial.” The Oregonian, March 17, 1995, page C01; Steve Woodward. “Medical Board Backs Away from Voluntary Limitations.” The Oregonian, March 20, 1995, page A08; Rick Bella. “More Women Will Testify in Sex Trial.” The Oregonian, April 21, 1995; Nena Baker. “Women Say Alberts Case Raised Public Awareness.” The Oregonian, June 1, 1995, page D01; “Woman Wins Claim Against Dr. Alberts for Unneeded Surgery.” The Oregonian, August 12, 1995, page D02.

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Dr. Joe Bills Reynolds was sued for fatally botching an abortion on 21 year old Gaylene Golden on September 30, 1985. But he really started doing damage when he began performing plastic surgery and liposuction.

He performed breast implants, a hysterectomy, and numerous liposuction procedures on his wife. His 60-year-old anesthetist had originally been hired as a janitor, and an untrained orderly was acting as his nurse. His operating room was littered with dirty cups and papers. He tried to collect $500,000 on his wife’s life insurance after she bled to death after he opened a 25-inch incision in her abdomen, ostensibly for liposuction, on September 7, 1989. Reynolds would not allow paramedics to aid her until he had finished stapling the huge incision. He told his wife’s father that she was assisting in surgery and just “fell dead.”

He was found guilty of second-degree manslaughter and voluntarily surrendered his Oklahoma medical license. Reynolds allegedly had two suits filed over liposuction malpractice, including the near death of his housekeeper Betty Adams August 11, 1989, due to perforated intestines.

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Abortionist Clarence J. Washington killed Mary Ann Dancy, the mother of five by lacerating her cervix during an abortion at the Fleming Center. She went home that evening, her condition worsened, and she died that night after emergency surgery at Halifax Memorial Hospital.

News articles claimed that he botched at least two other abortions.

Reference: Raleigh News & Observer, July 29, 1992 and July 21, 1993.

Source: Abortionviolence.com

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Abortionist William E. Brenner, a member of the National Abortion Federation (NAF) Standards Committee, was charged with overstating fetal age in order to charge more for abortions at his Triangle Women’s Health Center abortion clinic.

After Brenner was sentenced to 4 months in federal prison for tax evasion, his son told a reporter Brenner “was vacationing in the Bahamas before going to prison,” and that “his father hoped to continue practicing while incarcerated.” News articles said that Brenner allegedly “avoided paying thousands of dollars in taxes by diverting income to foreign corporations and bank accounts,” and that “he wrote off several personal items as business assets.”

Brenner was a former teacher at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He opened the Triangle Women’s Health Center abortion mill in 1982. He had his medical license suspended for one month in 1990 for improper disposal of aborted preborn babies, and for overbilling of insurance companies.

References: Raleigh News & Observer, August 29, 1992; Chapel Hill News, March 24, 1993; “North Carolina Abortionist Loses Medical License.” The Abortion Injury Report [American Rights Coalition], May 1993, page 1.

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When New York legalized abortion on demand in 1970, Abortionist Jesse Ketchum immediately set up shop in a Buffalo motel suite.

On May 28, 1971, Ketchum did a D&C abortion under general anesthesia on Ellen K. Lawler of New Baltimore, Michigan, in his Buffalo office. Only later, at an undisclosed time, did Mrs. Lawler discover that Ketchum had lacerated her uterus, anterior cul-de-sac, right broad ligament, and peritoneum.

He had told her the abortion had been uncomplicated.

Ketchum was convicted of criminally negligent homicide after killing 25-year old Margaret Louise Smith on June 16, 1971. A pathologist determined that Margaret bled to death from “laceration of the entire length of the cervix, lower segment of the uterus, and the broad ligament.”
J
ust a few months later, one of his abortions killed a woman who traveled from Ohio for a vaginal hysterotomy abortion in Ketchum’s office. She was admitted to a hospital, in shock, the next day, and died of hemorrhage during a laparotomy on October 20, 1971. The coroner noted that “At autopsy, removal of sutures which completely closed the cervix revealed a laceration extending the length of the cervical canal into the uterus and the right uterine artery.”

This latter case led to his conviction on charges of criminally negligent homicide on October 26, 1973. His petition to overturn conviction on constitutional grounds was denied. Abortionist Milan Vuitch testified in Ketchum’s defense.

Of two doctors known to have been performing outpatient hysterotomy abortions in New York City in the early 1970s, Ketchum performed 18 of the 19 outpatient hysterotomies reported. Both reported deaths from outpatient hysterotomies (Margaret Smith and Carol Schaner) were Ketchum’s patients, giving his outpatient hysterotomy practice an 11% mortality rate.

On April 12, 1974, Ketchum was found guilty and fined $50 for sitting in a porno theater, masturbating with his pants around his knees. (2227 – NY Medical board documents)

References: United States District Court for Western New York, Ketchum v. Ward; Journal of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, March 1974; New York State Journal of Medicine, October 1975; Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, March 1974; Western District, New York District Court #Civ-75-79; New York Supreme Court, County of Erie, Index #D88030; New York Supreme Court, County of Erie, Index No. 62821; “Jesse Ketchum: Back-Alley Butcher Gone Legit Join the Discussion.” “Pro-Life Views,” About.com, June 29, 2001.

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On December 5, 1988, Buffalo abortionist Barnett Slepian went wild when several pro-lifers sang Christmas carols outside his home on a public sidewalk. Slepian grabbed a baseball bat and severely injured Ronald Breymeier, 48, by beating him on the head, back, and arms, before smashing out all of the windows on Breymeier’s van.

Slepian surrendered to Town of Amherst police at his home a short time afterwards, and was charged with felony assault and criminal mischief. Abortion clinic owner Marilynn Buckham defended Slepian, telling the Buffalo News “I think it’s [picketing] religious persecution. These ‘good Christians’ don’t respect anyone else’s religion.” Due to this incident, the Amherst Town Board immediately banned the picketing of homes by pro-lifers.

Slepian tragically became a victim of violence himself, shot by a cowardly anti-abortion man who betrayed his convictions by taking the life of another human being. Clinicquotes owners and affiliates vehemently condemn this act of horrible violence. No one who kills another person in cold blood is pro-life. Violence on either side of the abortion debate is contemptible.

References: Paul Likoudis, “Buffalo Abortionist Arrested on Sex-Abuse Charges.” The Wanderer, January 5, 1988, page 1; Associated Press, December 6 and 7, 1988.

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Abortionist Rafael G. Cunanan was director of Planned Parenthood in Niagara County, New York (in Buffalo). In October 1997, the State of New York fined him $1,000 for committing two unasked-for abortions and a mistaken sterilization.

The abortionist was also placed on probation for four years. The State found that Cunanan failed to have pregnancy tests done on women before performing abortions. He had also, without consent, done a tubal sterilization on a young woman in 1984, and then paid her to keep silent.

References: “Doctor Fined Over Abortions, Mistakenly Sterilizing Women.” Buffalo News, October 1, 1997, page A1; American Life League’s Communique, October 31, 1997; Tony Gosgnach. “Cases Reveal a Path of Destruction Through Women, Children, and Society.” The Interim, September 1998; Tony Gosgnach. “Planned Parenthood Exposed.” The Interim, February 2003.

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Abortionist David Benjamin (also know as Elyas Bonrouhi) killed 33-year old Honduran native Guadalupe Negron, a mother of four at the Metro Women’s Center abortion clinic in Queens, New York, on July 9, 1993.

Benjamin’s license had been revoked a month earlier for “gross incompetence and negligence” in rupturing the uteruses of five other women, but medical officials allowed him to continue his practice. But as early as 1980, after he was dismissed from a Utica hospital for substandard work, New York health officials already knew that he was a public health menace.

During Negron’s abortion, Benjamin proceeded to extract pieces of a 20-week old preborn baby without first performing any kind of examination. He lacerated Negron’s cervix and punctured her uterus, causing severe bleeding. The abortion began at 10 AM. The receptionist for the abortion mill testified that Negron was moved into recovery and was not monitored for over an hour. Benjamin’s wife, who acted as an assistant, took her back into the exam room and came out screaming, “Oh my God! Oh my God! Oh my God! Call the ambulance! Call the ambulance!” Benjamin did not summon an ambulance until 1:40 PM. Paramedics found a breathing tube inserted into Negron’s stomach instead of her trachea, causing stomach fluids to travel up the tube, into the mask, and down into her lungs. A paramedic said he found Negron naked and bloody, while a nurse was screaming and trying to revive her in a small, unventilated room with an inadequate oxygen tank and no necessary equipment such as blood pressure cuff. The paramedic stated Benjamin lied about nature of Negron’s problem, hindering attempts to save her. Negron’s autopsy report attributed her death to massive bleeding causing shock and cardiac arrest.

Benjamin was indicted on murder charges due to “depraved indifference to human life.” A paramedic told a reporter “I wouldn’t take my dog there (Benjamin’s clinic).” Benjamin was charged with second-degree murder. A news article indicates that Benjamin’s attorney found fault with the paramedic for presuming the information given to him by Benjamin was complete and accurate. Benjamin’s license was revoked in 1993 over charges pending prior to Negron’s death.

Even the National Abortion Federation (NAF) applauded Benjamin’s murder conviction. “The evidence presented in the case makes clear that Dr. Benjamin’s practices were absolutely unacceptable,” said Vicki Saporta, Executive Director of NAF. “Shoddy and substandard doesn’t even begin to describe his methods. He should not have been practicing medicine.” Strangely, though the NAF had done nothing prior to Negron’s death to stop Benjamin from practicing medicine.

Saporta, however, pointed the finger of blame not on the National Abortion Federation’s failure to take action despite multiple indications that Benjamin was practicing substandard medicine, or even on Benjamin himself, but on pro-lifers.

“The sad fact is that, because of the political controversy surrounding abortion, anti-choice policies exist that make it difficult for women to get basic information about the many safe, quality providers of abortion services … A doctor like David Benjamin depends on the anti-choice extremists of this country who work to make women ashamed and fearful. We should not have back alleys in 1995, but sadly, we do — because anti-abortion forces work to take funding, access and information away from women.”

Benjamin had previously been found guilty of, among other things, gross negligence, gross incompetence, and abandoning or neglecting a patient and failing to keep accurate medical records. His license had been suspended for three months and he had received a period of probation. He had also lost privileges in two hospitals in 1982 and 1983. He applied for hospital privileges in 1989, fraudulently concealed these disciplinary actions. News reports described his abortion mill as a “slaughterhouse” and “dark, filthy, poorly ventilated.” News articles alleged Benjamin also did abortions in the basement of his house, and that he disappeared after an investigation into Negron’s death was begun.

On March 16, 2000, a New York State Court of Appeals upheld Benjamin’s 1995 murder conviction. He will continue serving his 25-year-to-life sentence following the decision by the Appellate Division.

“This is a solid victory for patients and their families who, through the gross and depraved indifference of their medical practitioners, lose their lives,” said Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown, whose office brought the case.

Harold Pokel, who handled Benjamin’s appeal, said he was “very disappointed in the result.” Pokel had argued that testimony about Benjamin’s previous problematic medical history should have been excluded at trial; it was allowed, and prejudiced the jury, he said. He promised to take Benjamin’s case to the Court of Appeals, the state’s highest court.

References: Press release of the National Abortion Federation entitled “Abortion Providers Praise Verdict Against New York Doctor” dated August 8, 1995; PRI Newswire, August 8, 1995; Dave Andrusko. “Doctor Indicted in New York Woman’s Abortion Death.” The Wanderer, September 2, 1993, pages 1 and 6; Paul Likoudis. “Investigators Cast a Wide Net To Find Abortionist’s Murderer.” The Wanderer, December 10, 1998, pages 1 and 10; Dave Andrusko. “[David] Benjamin Indicted On Murder Charges.” National Right to Life News, September 14, 1993, page 5; Dave Andrusko. “Indictment Pending In New York Woman’s Abortion Death.” National Right to Life News, August 11, 1993, pages 5 and 24; New York Daily News, July 11 and 13, 1992, and July 11, 13 and 14, 1993; New York Post, August 11, 1993; Medical Board Order Number BPMC-93-79; New York Times Metro Section, July 18 and 20, 1995; New York Newsday, August 23, 1993; Dave Andrusko. “Benjamin Convicted of Second-Degree Murder in Botched Abortion.” National Right to Life News, August 22, 1995, page 4; “Appeals Court Upholds Abortion Practitioner’s Murder Conviction.” Steven Ertelt’s Pro-Life Infonet at http://www.prolifeinfo.org/infonet.html, March 27, 2000; Associated Press, March 23, 2000.

Credit: AbortionViolence.com

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