Dr. Fraud

By Kari Lydersen, AlterNet. Posted June 12, 2004.

"Jane Doe Four" is a 22-year-old single mother. Her one-year-old son suffers from severe hemophilia B and must take four injections every day and wear a helmet and knee and elbow pads whenever he is out of bed.

Jane struggles to support her son financially and keep up with the demands of his medical care. So last fall when she found out she was pregnant again, and the fetus was male, meaning it was likely to be a hemophiliac as well, she knew she had to get an abortion.

There aren't a lot of places to get an abortion in Louisiana, where Jane lives. She looked in the phonebook and found a listing in New Orleans for Causeway Center for Women. She called the number and spoke to a man with a soothing voice and reassuring manner who promised to get her in contact with a private practice physician who would perform an abortion at low-cost. He warned her to stay away from abortion clinics, saying they provide poor medical care and have multiple malpractice suits filed against them.

He promised to set up an appointment for her to have the procedure the following Saturday at 4 p.m. He said he couldn't give her the doctor's name or address for confidentiality reasons, but he would call on Friday with the details.

He never called.

Later, when she contacted him again, he said the doctor who was supposed to do the abortion had been called out of town, and he rescheduled the appointment. That appointment was broken as well. This continued for three months.

Every time Jane expressed her anxiety and sense of urgency to the man, he came up with good excuses for the rescheduling and reassured her that abortions are performed up to 30 weeks of pregnancy in New Orleans. Finally, Jane realized this man was never going to help her get an abortion. By the time she figured it out and went to another abortion provider, however, it was too late. She would have to carry the baby.

Since she had been expecting to abort, she had not gotten prenatal care or taken any other measures for the fetus's health.

"He always made me feel very comfortable and seemed understanding," she said, in her declaration in a class action lawsuit filed by the Center for Reproductive Rights against William Graham on June 7 in a Louisiana district court. "On at least one occasion I spoke to him on the phone for 45 minutes. I was very busy during that time, and did not stop and think about what seemed to be unthinkable - that this man was not being honest and was actually trying to prevent me from obtaining, rather than helping me to obtain, an abortion."

It turns out Jane was not alone. Graham, whose name Jane never knew, has allegedly done similar things to many other women. His yellow pages listing, Causeway Center for Women, is similar to a legitimate abortion provider, Causeway Medical Center, meaning women who hear about Causeway or have appointments there often end up calling him instead.

Another plaintiff in the lawsuit, 21-year-old college student and professional dancer "Jane Doe One," was actually scheduled to have an abortion at Causeway and called information the day of the procedure to check the address. She ended up in touch with Graham instead, and says he plied her with horror stories about Causeway, saying he was a former employee and describing it as dangerous and unsanitary.

"He told me that Causeway had 40 to 50 lawsuits filed against them and that they were 'a butcher shop,'" said Jane Doe One in a declaration for the lawsuit.

Graham convinced her to skip her appointment at Causeway, even though she was already late in her term because she had rescheduled several previous appointments with Causeway due to lack of funds. As with Jane Doe Four, she says Graham kept putting her off and by the time she realized what was going on it was too late to abort. Since she had gotten no prenatal care, she had a difficult pregnancy and ended up becoming suicidal. On May 1 she delivered prematurely by Cesarean section, suffering serious health problems in the process and ending up with a $6,000 medical bill which she is unable to pay.

"He caused me harm mentally, physically, emotionally and spiritually," she said of Graham. "Someone chose my path for me in a way that has changed my life forever."

The lawsuit charges Graham with false advertising, fraud, trademark infringement and various forms of manipulation. It seeks monetary damages and injunctive relief to stop Graham from advertising his services and posing as a legitimate provider of medical advice. Along with Jane Doe One and Jane Doe Four, Causeway Medical Clinic, its parent company Choice Inc. of Texas, Causeway doctor James DeGuerce and a woman named Priscilla Cabrera are named as plaintiffs in the case.

Like Jane Doe Four and Jane Doe One, Cabrera couldn't believe the encouraging, comforting man she knew as "Mr. Glenn" was trying to deceive her and prevent her from exercising her legal right to have an abortion. She thought he had only her best interests in mind when he told her horror stories about other clinics and offered to find her an abortion for the low price of $125.

Kari Lydersen, a regular contributor to AlterNet, also writes for the Washington Post and is an instructor for the Urban Youth International Journalism Program in Chicago. She can be reached at karilyde@aol.com.

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