The Associated Press

Thu, Dec 4, 2008 (6:51 p.m.)

A woman who owned six health clinics across Southern California faces up to nine years in prison for performing abortions while posing as a doctor in Chula Vista.

Bertha Bugarin, 48, pleaded guilty in San Diego Superior Court to nine felony counts of practicing medicine without a license and one felony count of grand theft.

Her plea on Wednesday came two days after she pleaded no contest to seven similar charges in Los Angeles County.

Bugarin was arrested in June after a yearlong investigation by Chula Vista police and the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.

Bugarin advertised on Spanish-language television and "preyed on women in the Hispanic community," San Diego County District Attorney Bonnie M. Dumanis said. "By passing herself off as a doctor, she put these women's lives in serious danger."

Prosecutors said Bugarin owned Clinica Medica de la Mujere in Chula Vista, where she performed abortions and gave patients prescription drugs.

One of Bugarin's patients suffered complications from a procedure and had to be hospitalized twice, prosecutors said. She eventually delivered a baby who died three hours later.

Another patient paid $500 for an abortion, but had to come back for a second procedure because the first was unsuccessful.

Bugarin faces up to 10 years in state prison for the Los Angeles charges when she is sentenced Jan. 20, and up to nine years when she is sentenced Feb. 6 in San Diego. It was not clear which sentence would take precedence.

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Information from: The San Diego Union-Tribune, http://www.signonsandiego.com