Protesters target possible sale of shuttered AC abortion clinic

By AP from thnt.com Online, July 17, 2007

ATLANTIC CITY -- Anti-abortion protesters have begun picketing an abortion clinic that's currently closed.

They don't want the Alternatives clinic to be sold to a doctor who has had his license terminated in New York and Florida.

Dr. Steven Chase Brigham has said he intends to buy the clinic, which was closed due to health violations on June 22.  He told The Press of Atlantic City that he began performing abortions at the center and paying its employees before the clinic was shuttered.

But a spokesman for its current owner, Dr. Alan Kline, said he's not selling to Brigham.  And state officials say they have not received an application for a sale.

Still, the prospect of seeing Brigham run the clinic is particularly troubling for anti-abortion groups.

In 1994, New Jersey restricted him from performing second-trimester abortions after receiving allegations of gross negligence.  That year, the state appointed Kline to monitor his work and the restrictions were overturned two years later.

"Our main focus is to block this Brigham sale,'' Chris Slattery, president of Expectant Mother Care, a New York-based group with pregnancy centers in New Jersey, told The Press for Tuesday's newspapers.  "He has clearly shown a contempt for women's health.''