Police search New Mexico facility linked to defamed, unlicensed abortionist

An office in Hobbs, New Mexico, said to be rented by abortionist Steven Brigham was greeted last month by New Mexico State police executing a search warrant.

The space, rented by Freedom Care abortion facility, is located on the 4th floor of the Turner Street Don Garey Tower office building. Freedom Care was evicted from the premises in July for allegedly failing to pay rent. Brigham has since filed a lawsuit for breach of contract against the landlord after he locked them out of the facility.

It is unknown at this time if the facility actually committed any abortions.

“Steven Chase Brigham represented to Counterplaintiff that the space was to be used by specialty medical doctors including cardiologists” and “did not disclose their true business purpose of operating an abortion clinic,” a counterclaim filed in response to Brigham’s suit read.

In addition to other omittances, Brigham “purposely omitted he owes over $500,000.00 in unpaid liens and judgments including to previous legal counsel,” the landlord’s counterclaim alleged.

Steven Brigham has had ties to multiple abortion facilities across the United States: the American Women’s Services chain located in Maryland, New Jersey, and Virginia; the Capital Women’s Services in D.C.; and the recently closed American Family Planning.

As noted in the counter-complaint, Brigham has a long history of shady practices, including accusations of leasing other facilities under false pretenses, incidents where facility inspections found serious health and safety violations, and a record of abortion-related injuries and lawsuits. He has faced multiple investigations, and was even slapped with charges of murder after police found 34 late-term aborted babies in a bloody freezer at one of his clandestine abortion facilities.

Brigham has had his medical license suspended, revoked, or relinquished in multiple states, and he is not licensed to practice medicine in New Mexico.

Freedom Care Abortion Facility

Business filings with the City of Hobbs reveal the Hobbs facility was registered as NM Medical Offices, LLC, doing business as Freedom Care; however, the DBA name was not filed with the New Mexico Secretary of State and instead “lists their business purpose as asset management,” court documents claimed.

But the News-Sun called the facility’s paper trail “convoluted” with “multiple LLCs connected to NM Medical Offices, LLC.”

A July 26 press release listed Hobbs resident Tamara Burton as the facility’s director. Burton, who helped open the facility, worked as a “pro-choice activist in Clinic Defense and as a Patient Escort for Planned Parenthood of Midland, Texas,” the release claimed. “Freedom Care is the only abortion clinic in southeast New Mexico and is located only 5 miles across the Texas state line, making Freedom Care the closest legal abortion clinic to the State of Texas, as well as to most Texas cities,” the release stated.

“In addition, we have the benefit of being located in New Mexico, where there are no waiting period laws, no parental consent requirements and no state mandated counseling. This allows us to see our patients efficiently and in one day – no need for overnight stays or multiple trips, which clinics located in other states cannot do,” the release added.

The Freedom Care website shows it went live as early as March of 2023, according to archived pages. The facility was planning to commit first trimester surgical abortions and dispense the abortion pill through 12 weeks of pregnancy, two weeks later than the ten weeks approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Freedom Care’s website claims clients would meet with “one of our female health care providers.”

Steven Chase Brigham Leases the Facility 

Attorney D’nae L. Robinette, who is representing the landlord in the matter, told Live Action News that the lease was signed in October of 2022. “The best we can tell is that he opened for business sometime between May or June but was definitely opened by July. They were getting set up doing renovations and now it appears they were just trying to get money together,” she claimed.

“Steve actually showed up in order to tour the space to lease it; he met with my client sometime last fall to get the lease negotiated,” Robinette said.

Lori Bova, a member of Right to Life of Lee County, believes Brigham targeted Hobbs because of its proximity to a local airport and to states that have protections in place for preborn children.

The counter-complaint filed by the landlord alleges that NM Medical Offices, LLC “cumulatively defaulted under their obligations under the contract” by failing to make rent payments over a series of months. According to Robinette, the commercial lease was terminated on July 31, 2023, for non-payment — not abortion. By August 1, 2023, NM Medical Offices, LLC was notified that they were to “vacate immediately or face eviction proceedings” and on August 7, 2023, the landlord filed eviction proceedings to retake the property.

“We terminated their lease and gave notice to vacate and then we filed to formally retake the property, which we have done and changed the locks and made sure they cannot operate anymore,” she told Live Action News. Robinette said that her client did not know Steven Chase Brigham was an abortion profiteer when he showed up last year to inquire about the property, which had previously housed another medical facility.

Hobbs Passes Ordinance to Keep Abortion Business Out

Bova claimed that Brigham swooped in during a short window of time while the citizens of Hobbs were working to pass a Sanctuary Cities for the Unborn ordinance. The measure, which unanimously passed in November of 2022, is based on the federal Comstock Act requiring compliance with federal statutes (18 U.S.C. §§ 1461-1462), prohibiting the shipping and receiving of abortion-inducing drugs and abortion paraphernalia. Similar ordinances were later passed in additional cities and counties in the state.

In January of 2023, pro-abortion New Mexico Attorney General Raul Torrez requested and received an Emergency Petition for Writ of Mandamus and Request for Stay from the New Mexico Supreme Court, halting implementation of the ordinances. The state legislature then passed HB7 between February and March, essentially declaring any ordinance that violates the state’s “Reproductive and Gender-Affirming Health Care Freedom Act,” as null and void.

By April, the City of Eunice sued Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham and Attorney General Raul Torrez, setting the stage for a showdown that could make its way to the United States Supreme Court. Oral arguments at the New Mexico Supreme Court are expected to be heard in the case by mid-December of this year.

“I don’t know how the state can tell a municipality what federal law to ignore, namely Comstock,” Bova said.

Convoluted Paper Trail Leads to Steven Brigham

The landlord, who resides in Texas, was unaware of who Brigham was or that Freedom Care had plans to operate an abortion facility at the location.

Bova told Live Action News that when she was contacted by area pro-lifers that there was an abortion business in Hobbs, she “googled it and the first thing that came up was Freedom Care. I could hardly believe it.”

Bova did her research and discovered that “On Brigham’s business license, when asked what types of equipment, machinery or chemicals would be at the clinic, the license listed just office computers and cleaning supplies.”

“Nowhere on the license was an abortion listed,” she claimed.

Bova said she began texting city commissioners and reached out to Mike Seibel, Senior Counsel at Abortion on Trial, as well as Sanctuary Cities for the Unborn founder Mark Lee Dickson.

Local response to the Hobbs facility was shock, disgust, and outrage, according to the News-Sun.

“Residents have questioned how an abortion clinic was able to set up in Hobbs after the city commission passed ordinances in support of Sanctuary Cities for the Unborn,” the paper wrote. But Bova claimed Brigham filed paperwork “under the cover of darkness,” hiding his intentions for moving into Hobbs.

Mark Lee Dickson, founder of Sanctuary Cities for the Unborn, believes Brigham may not have intended to commit abortions at all. “Several Texas residents contacted the Hobbs business. However, every time we called, they said they had not opened yet – despite several Google reviews saying otherwise. I am not convinced the Google reviews were real. I honestly believe this was a cover for something different,” he told Live Action News.

Landlord Locks Brigham Out of Facility

Bova recounted how during a prayer rally the group organized outside the Hobbs facility. “This man was there and introduced himself as the owner of the property,” Bova said. “He told us that he changed locks on the doors because the tenant had failed to pay rent. So, he said he proceeded with eviction proceedings, locked the tenant out.”

While the Hobbs facility was shuttered due to lack of rent payment, Bova said the landlord, who resides in Texas, was also concerned about the Texas Heartbeat Law which allows for civil enforcement against anyone who aids and abets in an abortion. Robinette agreed, telling Live Action News, “My client became concerned about any criminal liability and that is why we had to move the way we did, and by then the lease had already been terminated.”

“Through discovery – his name is not on any documents,” Robinette said. “I showed my client a photo of Brigham and he said, ‘yes that’s him.'”

Brigham responded, claiming by e-mail that “he was just the agent to get the lease going and that he bowed out,” Robinette said. “However, other tenants in the building had seen him at the facility coming and going for months and we know now he wasn’t just a third party helping to sign the lease. It was definitely him doing it for his own benefit,” she claimed.

Law Enforcement Notified, Lawsuits Filed

NM Medical Offices, LLC [d/b/a Freedom Care] was served with a ‘Notice of Termination of Lease’ on July 31, 2023, the landlord’s counterclaim stated.

Robinette said her client, after locking the abortionist out of the property, inventoried what was left behind in the office and “found what may have been concerning to law enforcement.”

Counsel for the landlord would not specify what was found or removed from the Hobbs facility. She would only say that law enforcement was immediately notified and a sealed search warrant was executed.

“The case is now under investigation,” Robinette claimed.