Abortion Practitioner Admits Lying to Utah Officials

State   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Aug 31, 2011   |   4:14PM   |   Salt Lake City, UT

Nicola Riley, an embattled abortion practitioner who has lost her medical license in Maryland already, has admitted to lying to Utah officials when it comes to her own record as a physician there.

Riley has already been banned from doing abortions in Utah after pro-life advocates exposed her record and she voluntarily surrendered her Wyoming medical license in April after investigators from the Wyoming Board of Medicine found her covering up her criminal record.

In May, Riley entered into a stipulation agreement with the Utah Division of Occupational and Professional Licensing (DOPL) banning her from doing abortions in Utah until a final order has been issued in the State of Maryland concerning disciplinary action filed against her there. As a result, Riley is not allowed to do abortions in any state in the U.S., thanks to the pressured applied by the pro-life group Operation Rescue.

Now, the Salt Lake Tribune indicates the DOPL released papers today confirming Riley has admitted to misleading Utah officials about her criminal background when she applied for a Utah medical and controlled substance license in 2004. The order requires the abortion practitioner to pay a $10,000 fine regarding her application, which officials say “minimized her involvement” in a credit card fraud scheme.

The newspaper says Riley must now send the DPOL a letter about how she mislead the board and the effect it has had on her patients. That is due within three months and the fine must be paid within 18 months.

Troy Newman, the president of Operation Rescue, which uncovered documents on Riley’s past,  told LifeNews he is glad Riley has been fined and disciplined but wishes the results were more stringent.

“While we are happy that the DOPL acted to discipline Riley for lying, we are disappointed in the relatively light punishment considering the seriousness of the offense,” said Newman. “This sounds more like a school detention assignment than discipline for lying to obtain a medical license. Other states have taken her deception much more seriously.”

Operation Rescue received a copy of her criminal record through an open records request and discovered that she had grossly misrepresented her involvement in a credit card/identity theft ring on her medical license applications in the states of Maryland, Wyoming, and Utah. Recently, Riley has admitted under questioning that she did not tell the truth about her actual involvement in a credit card and identity theft ring while serving in the U.S. Army in Ft. Carson, Colorado in 1991.

Riley attended the United States Military Academy at West Point but records indicate she pled “no contest” to not reporting credit card fraud perpetrated by soldiers under her command. 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.

In her application, she blamed the fraud on other soldiers even though Riley had actually admitted to a “direct involvement” in the fraud.

Riley also made headlines when her Maryland license was suspended in September, 2010, due to her involvement in a severely botched illegal late-term abortion with abortion practitioner Steven Chase Brigham at a late-term abortion clinic in Elkton, Maryland. Police raided the facility and discovered the bodies of 35 aborted babies, prompting a murder investigation that remains ongoing.

Brigham, who is not licensed to practice in Maryland, would start the late-term abortions illegally at his Voorhees, New Jersey clinic, then lead a caravan of women in the throes of labor to his unlisted office in Elkton, Maryland, where he or Riley would complete the abortions. The operation amounted to an illegal late-term abortion racket and was only discovered after a botched abortion forced one woman to be airlifted to Johns Hopkins Medical Center in Baltimore for emergency surgery to save her life.

The Maryland Board of Physicians later formally charged Riley with counts related to the illegal late-term abortion ring, and with lying to gain licensing in that state. Maryland documents indicated that their investigation shows she also lied to gain admittance to medical school and to obtain a medical license in Utah.

“Riley’s entire medical career is based on a lie. Riley broke a sacred trust that makes her completely unfit for the practice of medicine. A doctor that cannot be trusted to tell the truth cannot be trusted at all,” said Newman.