Illegal abortionists often busted only after unrelated investigations

For the last three months, the abortion debate in the United States has focused on Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider. But an estimated 1,000 other abortion providers operate across the country, many flying under the radar while flouting the law. Rivaling Planned Parenthood’s disregard for human life, these often unregulated abortionists pose just as much, if not more, danger to the women whose babies they abort.

As three recent cases demonstrate, they’re sometimes discovered only after unrelated investigations reveal their illegal activity.

Last week, Spartanburg County sheriff’s deputies patrolling Interstate 85 in northwestern South Carolina discovered evidence of a mobile abortion facility in a vehicle they pulled over. Deputies believe the driver was crisscrossing the state, performing in-home abortions. Officers searching the male suspect’s car found forceps and other tools with blood and tissue still on them, Spartanburg County Sheriff Chuck Wright said during a press conference. Wright has not released the name of the abortionist or his wife, the female passenger in the car. Both were arrested; the woman was charged with possession with intent to distribute marijuana.

Another traffic mishap earlier this month has led to the investigation of Detroit-area abortionist Michael A. Roth, who allegedly was involved in an Oct. 1 accident that left a special needs child critically injured. Detroit television station WXYZ reported West Bloomfield police searched Roth’s car and found more than a dozen jars containing what the Oakland County Medical Examiner identified as the “products of conception.” Police also discovered medical equipment and the sedative Fentanyl in the trunk of Roth’s car, suggesting he may have been taking his abortion practice on the road.

Federal agents searched Roth’s home and office earlier this week. So far, prosecutors have not charged him with any crimes stemming from the recent investigation, but he has faced malpractice allegations in the past. In the late 1980s, Roth was a defendant in a lawsuit that awarded $200,000 to a woman he severely injured during an abortion. In 2004, the state of Michigan’s board of medicine charged Roth with negligence and incompetence, placing him on six months’ probation and fining him $15,000. And in 2012, the board fined Roth $2,000 after he perforated a woman’s uterus during an abortion.

In another case, police arrested a Las Vegas man on Sept. 30 and charged him with the unlicensed practice of medicine. According to the arrest report, Rick Van Thiel, 52, a five-time convicted felon, carried out dozens of abortions and other medical procedures—some he claimed to have learned by watching YouTube videos—inside a trailer on his property. Prosecutors are considering a second-degree murder charge against him.

It’s uncertain how many other abortionists, like Van Thiel, operate completely outside the law. Government regulators don’t even keep very good tabs on legal abortionists. The most notorious abortionist in recent memory was discovered and prosecuted for his crimes only after federal investigators conducting a drug raid on his Philadelphia abortion facility uncovered his horrifying practices. Kermit Gosnell eventually was convicted in 2013 of three counts of murder in the deaths of babies born alive.

Although 46 states require abortion providers to submit reports to state officials, only 27 states mandate they report post-abortion complications. Officials often discover problems only after a patient complains.

Or worse.

On Aug. 13, 2010, an 18-year-old woman nearly died as a result of a botched abortion at Steven Brigham’s Elkton, Md., facility. Five days later, investigators found the remains of 35 aborted babies in the facility’s freezer. Prosecutors initially charged Brigham and fellow abortionist Nicola Riley with 10 counts each of murder in violation of the state’s late-term abortion law, which limits abortion to 24 weeks with exceptions for the mother’s life or health. Brigham, who was not licensed in Maryland, claimed Riley, who was licensed, performed the procedure on the young woman. He said he was serving only as Riley’s consultant. Prosecutors later dropped all murder charges against the pair.

But on Feb. 13, 2013, a woman left in the care of an unlicensed medical assistant died at a Baltimore abortion facility affiliated with Brigham, who was not present at the time. After receiving a drug to induce the abortion, the woman suffered cardiopulmonary arrest. Her abortionist, Iris Dominy, failed to use a defibrillator, The Washington Times reported.

In the wake of the Brigham fiascos, even though the state did not amend any of its laws, Maryland’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene did tighten some of its abortion facility regulations. Maryland Right to Life executive director Ernie Ohlhoff noted in addition to spurring mandatory state inspections of abortion facilities, the Elkton and Baltimore tragedies and other maternal deaths have forced the “medical community to take a much closer look” at some of its own members.

Sometimes it takes a tragedy to prompt a crackdown on dangerous and illegal abortion activities. But sometimes all it takes is a traffic stop.

“We got an illegal baby-killer,” Spartanburg County Sheriff Chuck Wright said after last week’s arrest.