Calif. woman sentenced for illegal abortions

updated 12:48 p.m. ET April 25, 2009

SAN DIEGO - A woman who posed as a doctor and performed unlicensed abortions at her clinic in Chula Vista has been sentenced to six years and eight months in prison.

A San Diego County Superior Court judge on Friday ordered Bertha Bugarin to serve the sentence concurrently with a three-year term handed down by a Los Angeles court for similar charges.

Bugarin pleaded guilty in December to nine counts of practicing medicine without a license and one count of grand theft.

One of Bugarin's patients suffered severe complications, had to be hospitalized three times and eventually gave birth prematurely.

Bugarin's defense attorney says her client is a "get-things-done kind of woman" who recognized what she did was wrong.

Bugarin also operated five abortion clinics in Los Angeles and Santa Ana.

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