Suspended Abortion Practitioner Nicola Riley Putting Women at Medical Risk Utah
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
September 24, 2010
Salt Lake City, UT (LifeNews.com) — Earlier this month, the Maryland Board of Physicians suspended the medical license of abortion practitioner Nicola I. Riley. Riley was a staff abortion practitioner of embattled abortion business owner Steven Chase Brigham but following the suspension, Riley has returned to her Utah home to do abortions there.
Riley was involved in the botched abortion in Elkton, Maryland, that led to the discovery of Brigham’s scheme to circumvent late-term abortion laws.
She is accused of aiding and abetting the unlicensed practice of medicine whereby Brigham and his staff begin abortions at his New Jersey centers, which don’t meet state health and safety laws to make them eligible to do later-term abortions, then transporting the women to Maryland for completion of the abortion. Brigham has been found to have injured women in two other similar abortions.
Christopher C. Brown, one of Riley’s lawyers, told a newspaper that "She’s going to fight to keep her license."
In the meantime, the pro-life watchdog group Operation Rescue informed LifeNews.com today that Riley is now back in Utah doing abortions. The organization says more research it conducted into her background shows she is a shoddy physician who is likely putting women’s health at risk.
"Despite her Maryland suspension, Nicola Riley continues to quietly do abortion in Utah, raising concerns about the safety of women in that state," the group said.
Operation Rescue has obtained additional open record documents showing Riley has a history of criminal problems that earned her a year at the U.S. Military Prison at Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas, and a dishonorable discharge from the U.S. Army.
Riley attended the United States Military Academy at West Point but records indicate she pled "no contest" to not reporting credit card fraud perpetrate by soldiers under her command and OR indicates Riley may have been involved the scheme as well.
She was sentenced to serve one year at the Ft. Leavenworth military prison after which she received a dishonorable discharge from the Army. Later, Riley eventually returned to school and obtained a medical degree from the University of Utah in 2002.
The group received a redacted copy of Riley’s Utah medical license application from the Utah Division of Occupational and Professional Licensing through an open records request. The 37-page document reveals that Riley submitted her application for a medical license in Utah on June 10, 2004, and was granted a license on July 14 of that same year.
Transcripts show that Riley failed the United States Medical Licensing Examination Step 1 three times, finally passing with only five points to spare in 2002 after nearly two years of trying. It took her an additional 15 months to pass steps two and three.
Translating her scores into letter grades, she would have passed with a D grade overall, the records show. In 2004, Riley passed her Utah Controlled Substances Law and General Law exam, with just two points above a failing score.
"In Riley, we are looking at a convicted felon who barely is qualified to practice medicine," said Operation Rescue president Troy Newman. "It is not surprising that she became an abortionist. She may have not have possessed the competency for any higher calling."
Newman says Riley appears to have gone directly into the abortion business upon licensure.
"She told the Maryland Board of Physicians that she trained with abortionists for a year after her licensure before taking a position as Medical Director at SMP Family Medicine, PC, where she worked under the radar for the past five years doing abortions up to 14 weeks gestation," he explained.
Riley was trained to do abortions through twenty weeks gestation at Planned Parenthood in Denver and Colorado Springs, Colorado. She also trained with abortion practitioners Regula Burki during her Residency at St. Mark’s Hospital in Salt Lake City and Madhuri Shah, who does abortions to 20 weeks at the Utah Women’s Clinic in Salt Lake City.
Riley also told the board that she trained under another male abortionist, whose name she could not remember, at a place she referred to as "Mount Olympus" even though Newman says there are not any abortion centers in Utah with that name.
Newman says family considerations took her to Maryland where Riley interviewed with four abortion businesses and took a job as a contract employee at Brigham’s troubled American Women’s Services doing first and second trimester abortions, while training to do risky third trimester abortion procedures.
She admits she participated in the abortion of a 33 week baby on her first day on the job at Brigham’s Elkton abortion center. That abortion was started by Brigham in New Jersey the previous day. When police raided the Elkton mill, remains of aborted babies were found the remains of 35 aborted babies in a freezer. Clinic logs seized from the clinic indicated that the gestational ages ranged as high as 36 weeks.
OR says Riley also has an open medical license application pending in Virginia.
With the troubles in Maryland, Riley is now reportedly doing abortions at the Wasatch Women’s Center in Salt Lake City.
"If Riley is not fit to practice in Maryland, she isn’t fit to practice anywhere," said Newman. "How many abortion injuries and deaths do we have to hear about before the authorities put their foot down on these abortion quacks and force them into another line of work that does not include maiming and killing people?"
He told LifeNews.com: "We plan to make sure the Medical Boards in Utah and Virginia understand the horrific nature of Brigham and Riley’s illegal late-term abortion racket by sending them the records we obtained from New Jersey detailing patient D.B. abortion nightmare. Riley’s license needs to be suspended in Utah and denied in Virginia to make sure no one else suffers harm at her hands again."
Related web sites:
Operation Rescue – http:/www.operationrescue.org
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