Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Surgeon Shoved Abortion Pills Down Girlfriend's Throat

Episode Date: September 14, 2026

Hassan James Abbas pleaded no contest to several felony charges related to an incident involving his ex-girlfriend in December 2024. Abbas, a surgeon in Toledo, Ohio, held down the woman and forced abortion pills down her throat days after the woman told him she was pregnant. Now Abbas has been sentenced but there are questions about whether the woman was actually pregnant. Law&Crime's Angenette Levy goes through the disturbing case in this episode of Crime Fix — a daily show covering the biggest stories in crime.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: Right now you can get a free 14-day trial of Odoo’s all-in-one business solution to give your business the cutting edge! Check it out at https://odoo.com/crimefix. Host:Angenette Levy  https://twitter.com/Angenette5Guest:Mark Weaver https://x.com/MarkRWeaverCRIME FIX PRODUCTION:Head of Social Media, YouTube - Bobby SzokeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinVideo Editing - Van DinhGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Good morning, Your Honor. A doctor faces the music after he's accused of force-feeding abortion pills to his girlfriend. Your Honor, I have no plan to change my plea. But is the case as clear cut as it sounds? We're looking at it. I'm Ann Jeanette Levy, and this is crime fix. Hassan James Abbas went to school to become a doctor. That takes years, of course.

First, there's college, and then there's medical school, and of course, a residency. and when a boss was in his residency, he was accused of incredibly serious crimes related to allegations that he forced-fed his girlfriend, abortion pills. Yes, you heard me right. A detective wrote in a report in December of 2024, I spoke with a couple of nurses there who informed me that the victim came in with a name that is redacted,

PD, and claimed that she was held down and forcefully was given an unknown white powder substance. Nurses there advised that the woman had already been discharged from the hospital and left the location. She advised that she and Hassan Abbas were at his home at the above address this morning, sleeping this morning. The woman stated around 4 a.m. she woke up and noticed Mr. Abbas was also awake. She stated she asked him if he was okay and he stated he was restless. The woman stated he then went into the bathroom and came back out. Mr. Abbas then forcefully held her down and forced his fingers down her throat that were coated with an unknown white substance on them.

The detective said the woman told him that she didn't know what Abbas had put down her throat, but that he said he was a surgeon and it would ruin his life. The woman also said that she called 911, but Hassan Abbas took her phone and wouldn't let her complete the call and dispatch records confirmed a hang-up call at that time. Hassan Abbas was later charged with several crimes, identity fraud and deception to obtain a dangerous drug, unlawful distribution of an abortion-inducing drug, abduction, disrupting public service, and tampering with evidence. Detectives and prosecutors would later say that Hassan Abbas used his ex-wife's identity to get a prescription for an abortion drug. Earlier this year, Abbas pleaded no contest to four charges. Those counts were disrupting public services, on lawful distribution of an abortion-inducing drug, identity fraud, deception to obtain a dangerous drug, the abduction and tampering with evidence charges were dismissed. Now, a no-contest plea allows

a boss to say, I'm not saying I'm guilty, but I am admitting the facts and the indictment are true, and then it's up to the judge to accept the plea and determine whether the defendant, a boss in this case, is guilty. Despite the no-contest pleas from Dr. Abbas, the judge says, there are some major issues in dispute. Take a listen. Let me just say at top here that there is a vast difference in opinion as to the underlying facts in this matter. There was a plea, and there are certain facts that I'm going to assume as being true as part of this plea, and some alleged facts that I'm not going to assume that are true, and that is specific. I am not going to sentence Mr. Abbas today on the assumption that he created an abortion,

that he terminated pregnancy through his actions. All right, that is not an element of the crimes that he pled to, nor do I think that that fact can be reasonably inferred from the surrounding circumstances that were presented and are being presented by the state of Ohio. That is a separate crime that could have been pursued to trial if the state's died. However, and there was extensive briefing on this issue, I am considering that force and or violence was used in the unlawful distribution of an abortion-inducing drug as to count for. I think that is a surrounding circumstance of how this crime that Mr. Vaz's pled no contest to was conducted, and that is a factor that I will be taken into account in issuing a sentence. I've said this before, but I want to say it again. Given the significant differences in views as to what happened,

I was always concerned that the plea wasn't voluntary knowing the intelligence made and would offer Mr. Abbas a chance to withdraw the plea if he wanted to do so given the fact that I am considering for standing or violence as part of count four. So I would ask Mr. Boss again, do you want to go forward with your no contest plea given that you know what facts I'm assuming in the sentence today? Your Honor, I have no plan to change my plea. Okay. Running a business can be tough enough, so why make it harder doing things manually or relying on dozens of apps that don't talk to each other? That's where our sponsor, Odu, comes in. Odu is an all-in-one business management platform with a full suite of integrated apps that seamlessly connect all of your operations, from sales and accounting to manufacturing and even shipping. Odu can automatically generate professional, sleek-looking sales orders, invoices, and vendor bills, and it can automatically assign sales teams, send email updates through each sales stage and even uses AI to pull reports that help with your decision-making.

For manufacturing, their apps can sync inventory with real-time production and purchase updates so you never run out of stock. And when it comes time for accounting, that's also fully automated. O-Doo can create invoices, track expectations, and track updates. and even summarize data with AI to save you hundreds of hours. The best part, you can choose your apps and even build custom workflows. So it's all fully tailored to your business's needs. Take your business to the next level by consulting with an Odoo expert today for free at odoo.com slash crime fix. So the judge says force was used when a boss gave his ex-girlfriend the abortion drug, but whether or not that drug actually caused an abortion is at issue. Well, the claim of forcing

someone to take an abortion drug is abhorrent and putting it in someone's drink is despicable. The question of whether the termination of a pregnancy actually occurred is at issue. And because the court has indicated that the issues of pregnancy and abortion are not going to bear on directly on the court's decision in this manner. This is what a proper sentence is. it still is relevant, I think, to review at least summarily. Well, not to interrupt, but there still was intent and thought, so it's not completely willing out the ideas of pregnancy and abortion.

I just am saying that I'm not considering that an abortion was induced. So I just want to make that distinction from what you just said. I understand, yeah. And John Thomas, I was going to further say that in that, In that vein, the issues of violence or force is appropriate the matter of which version or a combination of versions is believed by the court because there was interaction between the parties which would lead to a conclusion

that physical interaction was occurred during that time. So because of the objective evidence available to the court, primarily in the form of medical records, on the day or shortly a few hours after this event occurred, doesn't confirm any significant physical injury evidence. And most of the evidence alleging the degree of force, if I may, or the degree of violence involved, comes from the statements of the defendant and of the named victim in this case.

And if the court has to convince the defendant, consider the statements from those two sources, it's necessary for the court to determine what credibility you can assign, to what level of credibility you can assign to each of those sources of information, which is why it's important to look at the history and the timeline of accusations and assertions made by the named victim in this case, concerning the entire relationship over the prior month, mid-November, to mid-December. of 2024. It is uncomfortable to say the least to stand before the court on the record and be critical of someone who's been a victim of a crime and we acknowledge that the victim has impacted the victim of a crime or crimes. The but the fact of the matter is because of the issues of violence and or force and credibility it's necessary for

I think the public record to show the public record is show, the statements made by both parties and who is best to be persuasive for the court to determine what is accurate, what's true. The attorney for Hassan Abbas questioned claims made by the victim in this case, boss is now ex-girlfriend when arguing that his client should receive a lesser sentence. Take a listen. When she first reported, drove herself there by one version or another version, she was different by a friend who accompanied her. She presented herself at the hospital,

and when asked to give the basis of her visit, she used words that he put, meaning the defendant, put a substance in her mouth, inside her lip against her teeth. She later gave a statement to the detectives from the Sheriff's Department indicating that an object, drug was placed inside her mouth, inside her lip against her teeth. That is important because first of all she says it was non-consensual and I'll address that in a second.

But she also then later said in other places and statements, she described the placement of the substance involved as he shoved it down my throat, he choked me, and he choked me, He held her down and the only statements in that regard made initially at the hospital and within 24 hours to the sheriff's detective is that other than he was at top of her, there was no choking, no striking, no hitting. The medical records show the only apparent physical injury, if you could call that, is a red marker on her right trapezias that they noticed upon discharge. She also reports relative to violence in the beginning that she thought that she was pregnant. And we concede, by the way, both in the early memos and the supplemental memo, that Hossin's actions were done with the belief that she was pregnant at the time. We will concede that she may have believed she was pregnant at the time. But by the time she left the hospital after a 99-minute visit, she knew quite well that she was, A, never pregnant, and B.

did not have brought a child whatsoever because of the medical testing that were done. The statement then morphed from the discharge summary of non-pregncy vaginal bleak. It's important to note as well that the date of the visit of her emergency role visit to Mercy Hospital was December 18th, I'm sorry of 24. However, it's also moving in the medical records that her last mental period was November 14th of 2024, which is why I believe it was clear on the discharge that it was a non-pregnancy, not only because of the hormone testing done, but the vaginal bleeding was non-pregnancy because it was the beginning in theory of her next menstrual site. That rendition of facts over time gets morphed into public social

media statements and we quoted them in our memo to some extent. But hemorrhaging, the doctors had to watch me abort in front of them. They had to change the bedding, the hospital did. They had to change her clothes. They were so full of blood. But the hospital shows no excessive bleeding. The hospital shows she wasn't bleeding when she got there. Vaginal noral bleeding when she left.

No change her clothes. No transfusion. No change. of betting simply not true. The defense attorney went on to say that the victim knew she was not pregnant, but claimed to be anyway. In her continued claims specifically involving loss of child or fetus and abortion, which are totally inaccurate, totally not true. And she knows it. She may not know it when she first got there. She knew it when she was discharged from the Mercy Hospital and emergency court. Gives the court, should give the court, cause to whether you believe,

leave her at all. Her motivation for continuing that line of history of this case is irrelevant. Whatever, whatever reason she has to continue that lie, and it is a lie, and it's uncomfortable to say that. She is a victim, but she has enhanced this issue in this case, in these cases, to a point that's beyond acceptance and without comment to the contrary would be unfair to everybody, the court, the state, and said, Mr. Abbas. Even to the point, Judge, that the statements made relative to the ingestion of the drug, which defendant has pled to and has readily admitted he gained acceptance in possession of the drug and the manner he did, which of course is part of the plea that he had guilty to him.

It wouldn't work the manner that she says was applied. She has enhanced the statement of what occurred to this court, to the Sheriff's Department, to the court in the in the Ohio on the Civil Protection Order. She has enhanced what she has suffered into the extent. And the best evidence perhaps are the records in support of that provided to the court for consideration, the majority of which talked merely about the heartbreak of losing a child. Who knows what she told her supporters as to the truth about the pregnancy, but clearly their writing is if she, in fact, was pregnant and lost a child,

and all that's not true. Opposed to those claim of violence and threat is the defendant's statement that he gave without counsel immediately after talking to the lawyer, Sheriff being informed that there was an investigation, went and talked to him. Abbas's defense attorney attacked what he believed were major issues with the credibility of the victim. The defense claims the victim continued to claim she had lost a child due to Abbas's actions. Records from Ohio's medical board show that Dr. Abbas's license to practice medicine is suspended and his license has been labeled inactive.

A statement on the site reads, based on allegations when the doctor entered into a sexual relationship, with a patient who became pregnant and then ordered abortion-inducing medication using his wife's name without her knowledge and then administered that medication to the patient without her knowledge or consent. Those acts constitute selling, giving away, personally furnishing, prescribing, or administering drugs for other than legal and legitimate therapeutic purposes. Documents from the medical board state that Dr. Abbas had been seeing the woman for a couple of months after separating from his wife, the woman had told him days earlier that she was pregnant

and had asked for a good obstetrician before the incident where he held her down and forced the abortion pills into her mouth. So we would ask the court that without being very persuasive or believable in her statements, and more primarily from her behavior and statements from December of 2024 until just recently, the last publication that was made, continues the false slide statement about being pregnant and losing the fetus, that with that history, she shouldn't have a lot of credence and credibility. The court should look at very jauntous eye at anything she says. And the court should also consider the candor that Mr. Voss has evidence throughout this entire case.

And so when you waive those things, we think that the presumption under sentencing guidelines when the revised code for thongs of fourth and fifth degree remain intact, that he qualifies with no prior record, no evidence of recidivism and the threat in the future, given these very unusual facts, that a sentence of community control under whatever conditions the court chooses to oppose is the proper sentence in this particular case. to follow the guidelines of the statute to consider the credibility of both parties to construct a sentence of court. These claims didn't go over well with the prosecution, not at all. Defendant in his most recent briefing and through his counsel just a moment ago has spent a lot of

time talking about how she spoke publicly, about what she may have said after the fact. But he is not before your honor this morning being sentenced on multiple. multiple felonies, including a conviction for a crime of dishonesty. Defendant Hassan Abbas is. The prosecutor on the case pointed out that none of the crimes for which a boss was being sentenced required the victim to be pregnant. Defendant is being sentenced because at a time that he believed he was pregnant, he used his ex-wife's identifying information to order abortion-inducing drugs without his ex-wife's consent

to do so. He then gave those abortion-inducing drugs. The defendant did this when he climbed on top of her, held her down by the throat, and shoved the crushed medication in her mouth. Defendant wants you to believe she took the medication willingly. But immediately after, she called 911, and defendant took her phone away from her. She left to go to the hospital, and defendant subsequently left his home, throwing the remaining pills and the pill bottle out of the window of a moving car. None of the circumstances leading up to obtaining the medication or following the administration of that medication, corroborate defendant's statements that totally took those medications.

At the hospital, the complaint of neck discomfort from being held down, vaginal bleeding, and pain. This was an offensive violence because it did cause physical harm and even a risk of serious physical harm. T-CAP, therefore, does not apply just. to offenses of violence. And the state is again asking that you sentenced defendant to 60 months in prison. So the prosecution wanted Hassanabas sentenced to 60 months in prison. That's five years. So I'm not really sure why we're not questioning whether she was bleeding or not when he initially stipulated that she was. But regardless, Judge, there is neck discomfort noted. There is vaginal bleeding noted in one of her sets of doctors visits. There is vaginal pain

that the victim indicates she felt, as well as the risk of serious physical harm and that defendant believed she was pregnant, as well as the fact that he gave her medication that could have had serious interactions with other medications she may have been on or medical conditions she may have had that he did not know about as she did not go to him as a prescribing physician that would have her entire medical history. So again, it is still an offensive violence. Then it was time for Hassan Abbas to address the court. Good morning. Morning, Your Honor. Good morning. My name is Hassan Abbas. I stand before you a humbled and sorrowful individual.

I grew up here in the city of Toledo. I received my higher education, medical school, and residency training here. It was my great honor to care for and help save the lives of members of this community. I've tried to live my life to this point with values that my parents instilled in me, to be good to those around me, to care for the week, to never be mean or spiteful, to always display honesty and integrity. In December 2024, I found on myself in arguably the most difficult point in my life. I made several decisions which were markedly uncharacteristic and contrary to who I am at my core. I betrayed myself and for that I will not forgive myself.

Even worse, I betrayed those close to me, my friends, my colleagues, the worse of all my family. I'd like to take this time to apologize specifically to my parents. Decisions I made in December 2024 were direct contradiction of the human being, they raised me to be. The look I see in their eyes every day, this felt like torture. Still, they remained by my side, and their unconditional love and support has shown me how foolish I was to not come to them when I was suffering alone. To the victim, I am truly sorry. I did not mean to cause you angst or hearted. I apologize.

The last two years of my life have truly felt like a nightmare. I've taken major damages both personally and professionally. I made my life school to become a surgeon, and now after more than a day, decade of studying tests, simulation practice, and 30-hour call shifts will likely be for not. The experience has changed me permanently. There's not a day that passes that I do not reflect on the mistakes I made and wish I handled the situation differently. I take full responsibility for the poor decisions I made during this period of my life. While I can't change the past, I have remained deeply remorseful, committed to learning from these events, rebuilding

trust, becoming the more responsible, self-aware, and ethical person moving forward. Judge Joseph McNamara wasn't impressed, not one bit. All right. The purpose of holding a trial is to make factual determinations, and if either side wanted credibility to be established, that's the reason to go to trial, hear testimony, cross-examined witnesses, and have a jury and or a judge decide the facts. With the facts that have been pleaded to in front of me again. I find that T-CAP does apply, and nevertheless,

forced and her violence was used into account for. Mr. Abbas, your actions were incredibly selfish and horrible. I'm glad you apologize to the victim, but the majority of your statement was about how your actions affected you. I find your contact to just be selfish. center. And your attorneys made a lot of attacks as to the credibility of the victim, but your story doesn't make sense. If the victim wanted to have an abortion, she did not need you to use

your ex-wife's identity to order these drugs. So quite frankly, I find your side of the facts not to be credible at all. The more likely version is, you're going to be credible. You were thinking about yourself, your career, and you violated your oath as a doctor and used force with violence to administer abortion-ducing drugs. So while T-CAP applies and prisons off the table, there is a presumption for community control.

I think that your actions on count four are bad enough to issue a jail sentence. I'm going to issue six months at CC&O. Two years of community control, no list of substances, is maintaining gain from the point. All right. So to break down this doctor, suspended doctor, Hassan Abbas, getting a six-month sentence in two years probation.

I want to bring in Mark Weaver. He sits as a prosecutor in the state of Ohio, sometimes even sits as a judge, has handled many cases as a former deputy Ohio attorney general. Mark, thanks for coming on. What are your thoughts on the judge giving Hassan Abbas six months? He, I mean, he basically told the guy, you're selfish. You know, what you did was important, but I'm going to give you six months. He could have given him 60 months.

That's what the prosecution wanted. Yeah, struck me that this case could have been charged more seriously and should have been sentenced more seriously. I understand that the judge and the lawyers probably didn't want to have to get into a trial to prove whether or not this woman was pregnant. because for some of the more serious charges, like attempted murder or felonious assault, which are at the higher end of the felony scale, that would have been, they would have required them to prove that the woman was pregnant, and that's one of the issues. So I understand that they resolve the charges at the lower level of felony scale, F-4s, F-5s. Having said that, felonies can and often should be sent to prison.

Six months in jail is typically a sense. for a much less serious crime than this. It does seem like a late sentence to me. You know, you have a physician abusing his authority. And of course, the judge can only sentence on the charges for which somebody is found guilty. And the judge found him guilty of several felony charges. However, we have a doctor, and he's now been suspended. His license is inactive using his estranged wife's information.

to obtain prescriptions and then holding somebody down and forcing abortion pills down her throat, whether she was actually pregnant or not, he believed she was pregnant. And he was trying to induce an abortion, a medical procedure against her will. His attorney's arguing that's not a crime of violence. That seems pretty violent to me. It is violent. And they did charge an abduction. Anytime you hold somebody down, that's in the range of kidnapping offenses.

We think of kidnapping as someone being taken and thrown into a car and driven away. But when you restrain someone's liberty, that's one of the kidnapping families, whether it's abduction or kidnapping. And so that is a crime of violence because you have to use your body to hold her down. There's also other features in this case that are very troubling. We expect doctors to have a higher obligation to do right by people. So it's already ethically sketchy that he is prescribing medication for someone he's in a romantic relationship with using his ex-wife's information. That's its own level of a crime. But the notion of trying to force any kind of drug down someone's throat raised it, I think, to a violent crime.

Yeah, just the entire thing sounds violent to me. I'm thinking maybe the prosecutors didn't file the felonious assault charge because maybe they were skeptical that they could prove that. But this just seems incredibly devious, deviant. So do you think maybe the prosecutors looked at this and thought, God, we just don't think we can get to a felonious assault on this? Yeah. I'm always hesitant to second guess the way people resolve cases, because as a prosecutor, I often resolve cases. Sometimes the victims prefer it that way to not have to go to trial.

That wasn't true in this case. The victim actually objected to this plea bargain. And so she was somebody who didn't support it. But in order to get a second-degree felony, Thelonious assault, for example, you would have to prove the state would have to prove that this woman was pregnant. And this many months later, I don't know if there was any medical evidence to suggest that. She's clearly not pregnant now. And as a result, that would have been part of the burden of proof.

It could have become a trial about whether or not she was pregnant. Having said that, the tampering with evidence charge, because there's information he actually confessed to throwing the remaining abortion pills out the window as he drove around in a car. That doesn't require much showing at all, and that's a higher felony. That's a third-degree felony. I think at the very least it should have been resolved at the third-degree felony. felony about that. Yeah, the defense says she was not pregnant. That that's their claim. So,

so yes, it may have turned into a trial about whether she was pregnant or not and, and who wants to go there. Is it possible that they, the state believe they might have some credibility issues with their witness? I mean, it sounded like from what the judge said at sentencing that he believed that, that a boss, you know, there were major issues with him, that he was a selfish guy, he did something important. But maybe there were questions, you know, the defense raised about this woman. They made some claims about her saying in their sentencing memorandum and in court that basically she was claiming she was pregnant when there was no medical evidence. She actually was, et cetera. So is it possible that they were fearful of putting her on the stand?

That's always a concern. And I don't know this individual witnesses level of credibility, but I do know this. As prosecutors, when we talk to one another at prosecutors' conferences, here's something we all agree on. If we don't think our witness will do well on the stand, or if we don't like interacting with our witness, we learn the hard way that the jury won't like them either. And so we take our victims as we find them. Whoever comes forward with the allegation is the person we're going to have to put on the stand. And sometimes that person may not present a good witness testimony. And that's part of the decision making as to whether or not you agree to a plea bargain. He's going to do six months in jail. And then he'll be on probation for two years, Hassan Abbas. Do you think he ever practices medicine again? Because right now his medical license is suspended, listed as inactive, but he hasn't surrendered his medical license.

Yeah, I read the paperwork from the medical. board. I know some of the people on that board do they good work. It's not a permanent termination of his ability to practice medicine. I certainly think he's given up in his right to ever practice medicine again. This shows such extremely bad judgment. Having said that, that will be the call of the Ohio State Medical Board. Wow. It's really a disturbing case. Any way you look at it. Mark Weaver, thank you so much for your time. Appreciate it. Yes. Thank you. So Hassanabas will serve six months in jail and then he'll spend two years on probation. Whether he gets his license to practice medicine back, that's still an open question. And that's it for this episode of Crime Fix. I'm Ann Jeanette Levy.

Thanks so much for being with me. I'll see you back here next time.