Steir Gets Only One Year for
Abortion-Related Death
Source: Inland Empire, San
Diego Union-Tribune, WorldNetDaily; May 27, 2000
Riverside -- In a travesty of justice, yesterday
Riverside County Superior
Court Judge Vilia Sherman sentenced Dr. Bruce Steir to one year in jail
for the involuntary manslaughter of Sharon Hamptlon, on whom Steir
performed a botched second-trimester abortion that killed her.
The 68-year-old was taken into custody immediately. Steir was put on
formal probation for 60 months and ordered to perform 1,000 hours of
community service. He originally was charged with second-degree murder.
Sherman suspended six months of the term in return for Steir's community
service.
Hamptlon, then a 27-year-old Medi-Cal patient, bled to death in front of
her three-year-old son while being driven home by her mother after the
abortion in December 1996. Her death was the result of a punctured
uterus,
initially ruled accidental by the San Bernardino County coroner's
office.
However, six weeks later, after a routine investigation by the
California
Medical Board, the coroner changed his report, calling the death a
homicide.
Steir was accused of "gross negligence" and a lack of
"due caution" for
his actions. Prosecutor Kennis Clark argued the abortion practitioner
knew
he made a lethal mistake during the abortion of Hamptlon's 20-week
pregnancy but failed to call emergency personnel because his medical
license was already on probation for previous allegations of negligence.
Steir admitted making a mistake in Hamptlon's case -- although he still
maintains he was unaware of the seriousness of her complications. Having
been on probation with the medical board since 1988, Steir surrendered
his
license to practice medicine four months after Hamptlon's death.
Pro-life advocates believe Steir's sentence was justified, though too
light.
"I think that this is too light of a sentence for somebody who has
killed
a woman because of terrible negligence," said J.T. Finn, a
California
pro-life advocate.
"We need to let Americans know that women are being butchered and
hurt and
injured by abortions more frequently than the press has let us
know," he
continued. "This is just one of many women who have been killed by
abortion. We need to encourage our prosecutors and judges to really go
after abortionists who are injuring and hurting women in the abortion
industry."
Elizabeth Kelly, executive director of the Women's Resource Clinic in
Chico, believes Steir committed murder. "With all the lives that
he's
taken, with this one single act ... he took two lives," she said.
Kelly expressed her desire for the convicted doctor to "find hope
and
healing." He needs to see that "these acts are wrong,"
she said, noting
the special treatment abortion receives. "I can't go to a doctor
and say,
'I need to have this (non-abortion) surgical procedure,'" she said.
The
doctor will need to gather several facts about the patient's medical
history before proceeding.
"But you can just walk into a clinic and have a doctor [perform an
abortion]," Kelly continued. "It's the only medical procedure
that we
allow that to happen."
Doris Hamptlon said her grandson, 7-year-old Curtis Bullorck, still
would
have a mother if Steir had warned Sharon Hamptlon about what he had
done.
Before he was sentenced, Steir took responsibility for Hamptlon's death.
Doctors swear an oath requiring, in part, that they not harm patients,
he
said. "While I meant no harm, I did harm," he said. "I'm
deeply, deeply
sorry."
Ben Hamptlon told Sherman he sometimes pulls his car to the side of the
road, looks at his daughter's picture and cries. Steir deserves to spend
the rest of his life in prison, he said.
"The Bible says do not kill, that's what the Bible says, and he
killed my
daughter," he said.
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