Bertha Pinedo Bugarin posed as a doctor to perform abortions

**Jaded** · June 21st, 2008, 08:13 AM

CHULA VISTA, Calif. (AP) ― The owner of a clinic has been charged with posing as a doctor to perform abortions, some of them unsuccessful or resulting in severe complications and hospitalization, prosecutors said Friday.

Bertha Pinedo Bugarin, 48, was arrested Thursday after a yearlong investigation, San Diego County district attorney spokesman Paul Levikow said.

She was charged with 10 felony counts, including performing medical procedures without a license and grand theft, he said. She faces more than nine years in prison if convicted.

Bugarin, who was being held on $500,000 bail, was scheduled to be arraigned July 2. An call to her attorney Peter Hughes after business hours Friday was not immediately returned.

Prosecutors said Bugarin at one time operated six clinics in Southern California that provided abortions. For her clinic in Chula Vista, near the Mexican border, she advertised her service on Spanish-language television and charged $500 for an abortion.

She performed abortions on several women at that clinic in February and March, authorities said.

"This defendant preyed on women in the Hispanic community," district attorney Bonnie M. Dumanis said in a statement. "By passing herself as a doctor, she put these women's lives in serious danger."

At least nine women have identified Bugarin as the person who performed medical procedures on them, prosecutors said. In one case, a patient suffered severe complications and had to be hospitalized three times. She eventually delivered her baby prematurely.

Another woman had to return for a second procedure because the abortion was unsuccessful the first time, prosecutors said.

http://wjz.com/national/fake.doctor.....2.753623.html

**Dakota Valkyrie** · June 21st, 2008, 08:58 AM

Originally Posted by So Jaded

Bertha Pinedo Bugarin, 48, was arrested Thursday after a yearlong investigation

...

She performed abortions on several women at that clinic in February and March, authorities said.

Why the hell didn't they shut her down a year ago? How hard was it to figure out she didn't have a license? THEN they could have continued the investigation.

**DA Devil's Advocate** · June 21st, 2008, 02:07 PM

I California you don't have to have a medical license to own a medical clinic. You don't even have to be a doctor. You just have to hire one to perform medical procedures. I guess they had to gather evidence that she was performing the procedures and not her staff.

**Dakota Valkyrie** · June 21st, 2008, 06:37 PM

They must have had at least one case to start the investigation. If they wanted to pile on more counts, waiting for more to happen seems kind of stupid.

**Shadow** · June 22nd, 2008, 01:58 AM

I can't help but wonder why she thought what she was doing...was ok? I understand low-to-no-income families not having money for abortions/etc but planned parenthood helps take care of some of this...

:(

~ceisdsgil

**Dakota Valkyrie** · April 26th, 2009, 05:34 PM

A woman who posed as a doctor and performed illegal abortions on nine women at her Chula Vista clinic was sentenced to six years and eight months in prison.

Bertha Bugarin, 49, pleaded guilty Dec. 3 in San Diego to nine counts of practicing medicine without a license and one count of grand theft.

Deputy District Attorney Gina Darvas said Bugarin was "grossly incompetent to perform" abortions and harmed the women.

But defense attorney Kay Sunday said that while the women suffered emotional trauma, doctors disagreed on whether they were physically injured.

Bugarin was a businesswoman who didn't run the clinics out of greed, Sunday said.

"She's a go-getter, go get things done kind of woman," the attorney said.

Sunday said Bugarin has "clearly recognized that what she did was wrong."

One of Bugarin's patients suffered severe complications and had to be hospitalized three times. The woman eventually gave birth prematurely, and the baby died three hours later.

Another patient paid $500 for an abortion, but had to return for a second procedure because the first one was unsuccessful, authorities said.

Bugarin also operated five abortion clinics in Los Angeles and Santa Ana, and was sentenced Jan. 30 in Los Angeles for committing the same crimes and received three years and four months behind bars.

San Diego Superior Court Judge Charles Gill ordered the sentences to run at the same time.

http://www.sandiego6.com/news/local/...IOHVeEbXA.cspx

**Kalehue** · April 26th, 2009, 07:37 PM

A woman who posed as a doctor and performed illegal abortions on nine women at her Chula Vista clinic was sentenced to six years and eight months in prison.

This is a joke considering her prior conviction for the very same thing.

**josie&mypussykatz** · April 26th, 2009, 09:52 PM

is there any news of the emilee brogden beating 3 year old son ....i heard she is prego to boyfriend who beat her sons

**Nell** · April 26th, 2009, 09:53 PM

Are you a bot??? This is the 3rd time you asked this and now in the wrong thread.

**Earth2Amanda** · April 26th, 2009, 09:54 PM

How does it take a year to figure out someone doesn't have a medical license?

**Silvahalo** · April 26th, 2009, 10:15 PM

Another patient paid $500 for an abortion, but had to return for a second procedure because the first one was unsuccessful, authorities said.

Fuckn' bitch. For what she put this woman and that baby thru.

**Tazzzz** · April 27th, 2009, 01:44 AM

Originally Posted by josie&mypussykatz

is there any news of the emilee brogden beating 3 year old son ....i heard she is prego to boyfriend who beat her sons

Please dont post questions about emilee brogden's thread in other threads , they belong in her thread and not here.

**El Supremo** · April 27th, 2009, 12:01 PM

Bulgarin

San Diego, CA (LifeNews.com) -- The owner of a chain of abortion centers in California has been sentenced on a second set of charges that she did abortions without a medical license. With her the abortion practitioner's her centers hired having their own legal problems, Bertha Pinedo Bugarin, 48, took it upon herself to do abortions.

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.

Prosecutors have found at least nine women who have said Bugarin did abortions on them and one of the women had to be hospitalized three times because of complications from the failed abortion. She eventually gave birth prematurely and the baby died three hours later.

Another woman had to return to the abortion center a second time because Bugarin allegedly botched the first attempt at doing the abortion.

"Bugarin was a cold-hearted predator who was unconcerned with the law or women's lives. All that mattered to her was making money. Putting her in jail was the only way she was ever going to stop. Thank God she is behind bars where she belongs," (Operation Rescue spokesperson Cheryl) Sullenger added.

Wait, it gets worse:

At its height of prosperity, the chain ran eleven abortion centers, but problems with the incompetent abortion practitioners hired by Bugarin troubled the chain.

Nicholas Braemer, the medical director of the abortion centers, surrendered his medical license under pressure in 2000 after Operation Rescue exposed his numerous botched abortions and other problems.

He was replaced as medical director by Laurence Reich, a convicted sex offender, who lost his medical license in 2006 for continued episodes of sexual abuse against his abortion patients.

Story Here