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A former West Point cadet who pleaded guilty to drugging his then-girlfriend and administering abortion pills without her consent, causing a miscarriage, is facing a civil lawsuit that seeks unspecified damages.
Caleb Suh pleaded guilty in June to assault resulting in substantial bodily injury to a dating partner in connection with the March 2022 incident involving the woman, who was also a cadet at the U.S. Military Academy at the time.
Suh studied at two Ivy League universities since the incident, including one where he began attending classes after his guilty plea. He graduated from Cornell University this year and was enrolled as a graduate student at Columbia University when the woman filed a lawsuit Oct. 28.
The woman wanted to have the baby, but Suh did not want her to keep the child. Suh told the judge that he used the woman’s identity to set up an online pharmacy account, ordered abortion drugs through the mail, obtained Xanax from a friend to use as a sedative and tricked his girlfriend into drinking what he claimed was a prenatal protein shake. When she fell asleep, Suh inserted the abortion pills into her mouth and vagina.
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Caleb Suh pleaded guilty this summer to the March 2022 assault on the woman, who was also a cadet. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
Erin Hawley, a lawyer with the pro-life legal group Alliance Defending Freedom who played a key role in helping overturn Roe v. Wade, said the woman was put in an “absolutely horrific situation.”
“She was expecting a child she very much wanted, was drugged and assaulted,” Hawley, who is not representing the woman, told Fox News Digital. “The horrifying assault ended up causing the death of her very much wanted child — something no woman should ever have to endure. It has obviously caused a lot of harm and trauma, in addition to the loss of the baby she very much wanted.”
“She was drugged and assaulted with abortion pills, even though Mr. Suh knew she very much wanted that child. I expect that he will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law,” she added.
Suh is still awaiting sentencing.
Suh left the woman alone and incapacitated and ignored her attempts to reach him once she woke up and noticed that she was bleeding, according to the lawsuit. She was then hospitalized.
As the woman was receiving medical attention, Suh returned to the online pharmacy’s website and posted questions about whether doctors could detect the medication he administered, according to the lawsuit.
“She’s suffered a life-changing event that she is still dealing with and will be dealing with for the rest of her life,” her lawyer, Russell Kornblith, told The Associated Press last week.
“We hope that by our client coming forward with this lawsuit, it will, at least, ensure that this never happens to anyone else,” Kornblith said.
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Caleb Suh graduated from Cornell University this year and was a graduate student at Columbia University when the woman filed a lawsuit late last month. (TW Farlow/Getty Images)
Fox News Digital reached out to Suh’s attorney for comment.
During a court hearing in June, Suh said that he was “deeply and immeasurably sorry for my actions and the pain that I have caused.”
Suh’s sentencing has been postponed until Jan. 21, 2027, at his attorney’s request, allowing him to finish the semester at Columbia. Prosecutors did not oppose the delay for Suh’s sentencing.
He has also been taking a three-month life skills course for people facing federal charges, his attorney said in a letter to the court.
Suh transferred to Cornell during the 2023-2024 school year. The university said in a statement last week that he answered “no” on an application when asked if he had been found responsible for a disciplinary violation at any previous institution.
The university said West Point noted that he was in good academic standing and was eligible to return. He had been involved in health and medicine at Cornell and wanted to become a physician, according to the university’s website.
In September, Suh started a master’s program at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, his lawyer wrote to the judge in his federal case. A person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press that Mailman applicants are not asked about their criminal records but are questioned about whether they have ever been disciplined for student conduct violations or poor academic performance.
Suh’s application never made any mention of past disciplinary proceedings, the person told the outlet.
As the woman was receiving medical attention, Caleb Suh returned to the online pharmacy’s website and posted questions about whether doctors could detect the medication he administered (Soumyabrata Roy/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
“Regardless of one’s position on abortion, it is not good medicine to allow an abortion drug to be shipped across the country to a dorm room or a home without a woman ever having talked to a doctor,” Hawley said.
“The defendant in this case impersonated his girlfriend, had those drugs shipped and then assaulted her with them. That would never have happened if the FDA had done its job in 2023. Hopefully, when the courts do their job and reinstate that safeguard, it won’t continue to happen,” she continued, referring to Alliance Defending Freedom’s lawsuit challenging the Food and Drug Administration’s 2023 decision to remove the in-person dispensing requirement for mifepristone, after the agency had already stopped enforcing the requirement in 2021.
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However, the assault occurred in March 2022, before the FDA’s 2023 decision. The agency had already announced in April 2021 that it would temporarily stop enforcing the in-person dispensing requirement during the COVID-19 public health emergency. In December 2021, the FDA announced plans to permanently remove the requirement, a change formally implemented in January 2023.
The FDA has said its decision to remove the requirement followed a review of available evidence. Other restrictions, including prescriber certification requirements, remained in place.
Hawley added that the case at West Point would never have happened if that requirement had been in place.
“Horrific incidents like that throughout the country would never have happened if that basic safeguard had been in place,” she said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.