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Numerous Doctors in California Abortion Clinic Forced to Surrender Licenses

After allegedly preying upon pregnant, low–income Latino women, business owner Bertha Bugarin has been charged with practicing medicine without a license on five patients in 2007, according to Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office. Bugarin’s sister, Raquel is accused of assisting with the illegal procedures. Both have pleaded not guilty, according to the Los Angeles Times.

The L.A. District Attorney’s office said the Bugarins managed abortion clinics in Baldwin Park, Huntington Park, Los Angeles and Panorama City, operating under the names, Clinica Medica Para La Mujer de Hoy or Community Women's Medical Clinic. Public records confirm Bugarin operated abortion clinics in four other locations -- Chula Vista, North Hollywood, Torrance and Santa Ana. Twelve personal injury and malpractice lawsuits and one wrongful death suit have been filed against Bugarin in L.A. County since the early 1990s, the Times reported.

Bugarin hired her medical staff on an on-call basis. The Los Angeles County Medical Association Board uncovered the illegal practices by Bugarin’s medical staff. Some of those doctors have repeated problems with the board. Nicholas Braemer, of Torrance, Calif., admitted he performed a partial abortion in 1987 where just an arm of the fetus was removed. The remainder of the fetus was expelled by the mother the following day.

Medical Protocol Non-Existent in Bugarin’s Clinics

Braemer was put on probation for five years and violated terms on three occasions, the Times reported. On another occasion in 1999, Braemer was accused by the medical board of leaving a fetus's cranium and placenta inside a mother’s womb during an abortion. He eventually turned in his medical license.

In 2004, a Dr. Phillip Rand performed a vaginal suction procedure without anesthesia on a woman 20 weeks pregnant, said the Times. But according to the National Abortion Federation, such vacuum procedures are recommended only in the first 14 weeks of a pregnancy. "A suction abortion is not appropriate at 20 weeks," said NAF President Vicki Saporta.

The medical board referred to this procedure as "barbaric" and a "severe departure" from a reasonable standard of care. Rand, who was in his early 80s at the time of the procedure, has surrendered his medical license as well. But Rand was just one of at six doctors whose records were littered with malpractice complaints, according to court and medical board records.

The scandalous medical mistreatment under Bugarin’s management is long:

* Mohamed Dia surrendered his license in 1999 after he used a van to bring a bleeding patient to a hospital after he perforated her uterus.

* Osteopath Laurence Reich surrendered his license in 2006 after pleading no contest to misdemeanor criminal charges of sexually exploiting two patients during abortions. A patient of Reich’s --Yvette Chambers of Sherman Oaks, said Reich fondled her breasts during an abortion. Reich had been accused of sex abuse on three previous occasions by the medical board.

* Dr. Glenn Miller of Santa Monica is an admitted alcoholic whose license was revoked by the board after substance-abuse relapses. He was on probation for performing obstetrical procedures while under the influence of alcohol.

* Dr. George Flanigan delivered a dead baby by vacuum procedure after refusing to perform a Cesarean section, according to the medical board, which put the doctor on probation for five years.

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/california/la-me-abortion8feb08,1,2888587.story?page=2&cset=true&ctrack=1

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