Abortion Center Workers in California Sentenced for Illegal, Unlicensed Abortions
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
September 25, 2009
San Diego, CA (LifeNews.com) — Two accomplices of Bertha Bugarin, who was convicted of doing illegal, unlicensed abortions at her abortion business in southern California, have been convicted as well. The abortion workers will have lighter sentences, but a pro-life group says the conclusion of the case is a good one.
That is because the abortion centers Bugarin ran, which preyed on Hispanic women, are now closed.
With the abortion practitioners her centers hired having their own legal problems, Bertha Pinedo Bugarin, 48, took it upon herself to do abortions. As LifeNews.com reported in April, Bugarin was sentenced on a second set of charges that she did abortions without a medical license.
Now, according to the San Diego County District Attorney’s office, Chula Vista abortion center workers Luz Catalina-Gomez and Paloma Yonna Solorzano-Rodriguez reached a sentencing agreement with San Diego Superior Court Judge Ted Wethers for probation and community service.
Catalina-Gomez was sentenced to 1 year of prison, a term that was stayed
pending the completion of 350 hours of community service. She will also receive three years probation.
Solorzano-Rodriguez was sentenced to 1 year of prison, stayed pending the completion of 200 hours of community service. She also received three years probation.
Both women were ordered to have no contact with Bugarin, or her sister, Raquel, who also helped run the abortion business and has been convicted. They were also told never to seek employment in any medical field as a result of their participation in Bugarin’s illegal abortions.
"Let this serve as an example to all the abortionists and clinic workers who are operating outside the law. This could be you," Operation Rescue president Troy Newman, whose group helped expose Bugarin, told LifeNews.com on Friday.
"We urge those with knowledge of illegal abortion activity to come clean and report what they know to the authorities so they can avoid serious criminal charges," he continued.
Bugarin was accused of putting more than a dozen patients at risk by doing abortions on them or giving them the dangerous RU 486 abortion drug without having medical training.
In February, facing charges in Los Angeles County, Bugarin pleaded no contest to seven felony counts in Los Angeles Superior Court and was sentenced to three years and four months in prison.
In April, she was sentenced in San Diego County on Friday to 6 years, 8 months on nine felony counts of doing abortions without a medical license. Judge Charles Gill ordered that Bugarin’s sentence run concurrently with the previous sentence.
Of Bugarin, District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis said, "This criminal preyed on women in the Hispanic community and has now been held accountable. By passing herself off as a doctor, she put these women’s lives in serious danger."
For years, Operation Rescue exposed wrongdoing at the abortion chain. As a result, numerous abortion practitioners hired by Bugarin suffered license revocation and other severe discipline.
Her chain of six abortion clinics, known as Clinica Medica Para La Mujer De Hoy, has now closed.
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