Maryland Drafts Tentative Abortion Clinic Regulations, Inspired by Abortionist ...

By Dave Andrusko

From the Baltimore Sun Blog yesterday:

“The [new abortion clinic draft] regulations were issued in response to a high-profile incident last fall when a woman was critically injured at an Elkton clinic run by Steven C. Brigham, a man who did not have a license to practice medicine in Maryland. His unorthodox approach involved initiating abortions in New Jersey and instructing patients to drive to Maryland where he completed the surgery.”

“Unorthodox”? More about Brigham in a second. Suffice it to say he has been in legal hot water for decades.

The regulations were a defensive response to stave off legislation. According to a story that ran April 1 in the Maryland Gazette, a number of bills were proposed after the Brigham scandal became public. One proposed bill in the General Assembly would have required abortion clinics to follow the same safety and sanitation guidelines as freestanding ambulatory care facilities.

However “Bills requiring higher safety standards at abortion clinics were shelved after state health department officials promised to craft new regulations to govern the clinics,” according to the Gazette’s Jeff Newman.

In a statement, the  state’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene claimed the draft regulations “reflect the right balance of preserving both safety and access.”

Reading the proposed regulations from you learn that Maryland abortion clinics must show that they have qualified anesthesia providers, develop emergency plans “should procedures go awry” (as the Sun puts it matter-of-factly), have a staff member available 24 hours a day for emergencies, apply for a state license, and, oh by the way, be inspected! Abortion clinics in Maryland are not inspected!

Failure to compile to the draft regulations would generate a $1,000 penalty—or possible loss of license.

No wonder Kansas abortionist LeRoy Carhart relocated to a Maryland suburb: it’s the wild, wild East.

Brigham’s checkered past– Brigham has now had his license pulled, suspended or relinquished in a total of five states– has drawn even the fire of pro-abortion sources. (See here ).  Brigham has been the subject of investigations for botched abortions and other violations in New York, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Florida, and California.

But the behavior that moved even the state of Maryland to take tentative steps is remarkable even by Brigham’s standards.

More about Maryland's Draft Abortion Clinic Regulations |

On Monday we discussed the draft abortion clinic regulations formulated by the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. Today we’ve revisit this development based on more information.

It is universally agreed (as the Baltimore Sun wrote Sunday on its blog) that the “regulations were issued in response to a high-profile incident last fall when a woman was critically injured at an Elkton clinic run by Steven C. Brigham, a man who did not have a license to practice medicine in Maryland. His unorthodox approach involved initiating abortions in New Jersey and instructing patients to drive to Maryland where he completed the surgery.”

Maryland abortion clinics have never been inspected (not all are even licensed by the state) because they fall outside of the definition of an “ambulatory care facility.” There were attempts in the last legislative session to hold abortion clinics to these same standards as an ambulatory care facility.

An April 1 story explained that “Bills requiring higher safety standards at abortion clinics were shelved after state health department officials promised to craft new regulations to govern the clinics,” according to the Maryland Gazette’s Jeff Newman. Those were the draft regulations produced last Friday.

An Associated Press (AP) story yesterday read as if were largely a press release from the Health Department. On the one hand, the statement issued by the Department defended itself (the state’s regulated abortion the same way it has other “medical procedures”—e.g., a licensed physician is required). But on the other hand, “The department is moving forward to strengthen oversight in light of rare cases of physicians who violated the standard of care with surgical abortions.” (More about that below.)

This produced, the statement concluded,  draft regulations that “reflect the right balance of preserving both safety and access.”

The draft abortion clinic regulations hardly go overboard in the direction of safety. Abortion clinics would be required to have a license from the state. To handle emergencies a  staff member would have to be available 24 hours a day. Only appropriately trained staff and licensed health care providers could administer anesthetics.

And “A surgical abortion facility also would have to have a procedure to transfer patients to a hospital when care is needed beyond the capabilities of the facility,” according to the AP. In other words when a woman is in serious trouble following an abortion, there has to be a protocol in place to get  her to a hospital!

ABA Journal

Sex and Society

Congressional Record V. 148, Pt. 4, April 11, 2002 to April 24, 2002

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The abortion privacy doctrine, a compendium and critique of federal court abortion cases