ARTICLES
May 1998 ARTICLESLETTERS
Contents © 1998
by Jim Holman.
All rights reserved.
An Abortion that Was almost a Murder
GORDON GOEI ESCAPES WITH FELONY CHARGES
By Hippocrates Wächter
Abortionist Gordon Sean Goei was arrested Thursday, March 19, at his home in Studio City for suspicion of murder. That same day, investigators had discovered the body of a 26-week-old unborn baby in a trash bag outside Goei's abortion clinic, Centro Mexico Family Planning clinic, located at 6900 Van Nuys Boulevard in Van Nuys. The baby girl's mother, a 42-year-old Hispanic woman upon whom Goei had performed the abortion, had been rushed to Northridge Hospital Medical Center for severe bleeding resulting from her abortion. Goei's arrest was based on investigators' belief that the aborted child, at 6.5 months, was viable, and thus a person with full rights.
A Friday, March 20 autopsy on the aborted baby led the Los Angeles County Coroner to rule that the child's death was a "homicide" due to "blunt force trauma." Booked on the suspcion of murder, Goei, on Saturday, March 21, was held in Van Nuys jail at $1 million bail.
According to the District Attorney's office, Gordon Goei "has more Accusations against his license than any other doctor in California." The Medical Board of California has brought many accusations against Goei, resulting in four judgements calling for suspension of his license, which was originally issued in 1968. The public record on Goei stands at 101 pages.
In 1979 the Medical Board of California voted to suspend Goei's license for 30 days because he used a fictitious name without a valid permit. This suspension, however, was "stayed on the condition of [a] one year probation." In 1984 Goei was "disciplined for conduct amounting to gross negligence and incompetence as to two patients," and so received a 60-day suspension of his license. This suspension too was stayed under the same conditions as the previous one. In 1992 Goei was again disciplined for "knowingly making or singing [sic] any certificate or other document directly or indirectly related to the practice of medicine or podiatry which falsely represents the existence or nonexistence of a state of facts." Here, as in the previous two instances, instead of a one-year suspension, Goei was placed on a three-year probation.
In March 1995, the Medical Board brought a further accusation against Goei--this time of negligence, incompetence and unprofessional conduct relating to the care of nine patients between 1987 and 1989. Goei was accused of performing surgeries on patients for conditions not clearly indicated by previous examination. One case involved a 28-year-old woman, "S.H.", upon whom Goei performed a dilation and evacuation procedure, following an abortion. Because of excessive bleeding resulting from the dilation and evacuation, Goei admitted "S.H." to Cedars-Sinai Hospital for observation and possible surgery in October 1989.
Though, on account of this last accusation, the Medical Board voted to revoke Goei's license, on September 19, 1997, Administrative Law Judge Humberto Flores overruled their decision. In his decision, Flores cited the fact that Goei had only once before been disciplined for negligence and incompetence, that the latest findings of negligence and incompetence occured eight years previous and "involved eight patients out of the thousands of patients" Goei had treated in the last ten years, that no patients testified against Goei, and "[i]ndeed, three of the patients named in the Accusation testified that they were satisfied with respondent's treatment and that their pelvic pain had been alleviated after [Goei] performed surgery on them." Instead of the revocation, Flores placed Goei on a seven years' probation. Part of Goei's probation was the proviso that he pass a written medical test.
Goei failed to pass that test, and his license was suspended as of March 13, 1998. Thus, on March 21, Goei not only faced charges of murder, but of practicing medicine without a license.
On March 23, the L.A. County District Attorney's office dropped all charges of murder against Goei, stating that after examining the evidence against Goei, prosecutors found it "insufficient to support a charge of murder." Instead, according to the District Attorney's office, Goei was charged "with illegally practicing medicine and performing an illegal abortion, both felony crimes." Goei's bail was dropped from $1 million to $75,000 through the offices of Deputy Distirct Attorney Robert W. Dawson. Goei posted bail and left the county jail.
Pro-life activists are angry over this decision. In a circular sent out by one pro-life activist (who requested anonymity) Goei is cited as having committed "thousands of late term aborions" while working for Inglewood Women's Hospital. "In one case filed by the Medical Board of California, Goei was accused of decaptiating an 8.5 month old pre-birth baby," but, as in this latest case, "the District Attorney filed no charges."