Bruce Pierce
Introduction
Bruce Pierce is a Mercer County obstetrician and gynecologist who practiced at Delaware Valley OBGYN & Princeton Midwifery in Lawrenceville, New Jersey. On November 13, 2024, following a hearing, the New Jersey State Board of Medical Examiners voted unanimously to temporarily suspend his medical license after finding credible evidence he baselessly sexually exploited two longtime patients under the cloak of routine medical care. It accuses him of professional misconduct, gross negligence and incompetence, and other violations of Board statutes and regulations. The suspension is interim, pending an administrative hearing and further Board action.
Background Information
The Attorney General’s December 2, 2024 announcement gives little further biography: both accusers were decades-long patients. “Patient 1” testified that Pierce had been her OB/GYN since approximately the mid-1990s. “Patient 2” had been his patient for more than 20 years and said he had delivered her child. In a Verified Complaint filed October 9, 2024, Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin, through the Division of Law’s Professional Boards Prosecution (PBP) Section, alleged Pierce’s conduct constitutes repeated acts of negligence, malpractice, incompetence, and other unlawful conduct endangering his patients. The Division of Consumer Affairs’ Enforcement Bureau conducted the investigation.
The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation
The first incident allegedly took place in January 2023. According to the Verified Complaint, after a normal breast, pelvic, and rectal exam on Patient 1 in the presence of a female chaperone, Pierce dismissed the chaperone and asked to repeat the exam. When she asked why that was necessary, he allegedly told her “sometimes things change as we get older” and that he wanted to “double check things to be sure.” He then allegedly inappropriately touched her during the second exam. Patient 1 testified she left feeling violated, and after speaking with a work supervisor and family members, reported the incident to the Lawrence Township Police and filed a complaint with the Board.
The second incident allegedly occurred in December 2023, when Patient 2 sought care for pelvic pain. After an ultrasound by a lab technician, Pierce allegedly said it looked fine and asked whether she wanted a female chaperone; she declined, trusting the physician who had treated her for more than 20 years and delivered her child. Pierce allegedly inappropriately touched her; feeling increasingly uncomfortable, she asked him to stop, and he complied. He allegedly called her from his personal cell two hours later to ask if she was “okay.” Two days later she texted that her shock had given way to “fury and disgust,” that his behavior was “unprofessional and unacceptable,” and that he had “abused her good faith.” Pierce allegedly replied: “Okay, I’m so sorry, I upset you. It will never happen again I do value our 20 plus year doctor patient relationship. Thank you for not making it public. My career will be over, and I don’t know what I would do. I hope you can forgive me. This will never happen again. I understand that you are leaving the practice, but I hope you will reconsider and give me one more chance.” Patient 2 then reported him to the Board, in part to protect other patients.
Public Reaction and Consequences
At the November 13, 2024 hearing, PBP attorneys argued allowing Pierce to continue practicing posed a clear and imminent danger to public health, safety, and welfare; both patients testified. The Board voted unanimously to temporarily suspend his license, and on November 25, 2024 it filed an Order of Temporary Suspension formalizing the decision. The Board found both women “credible witnesses” whose testimony and statements “detail incidents where [Pierce] sexually abused them, thereby shattering the trust placed upon him as a doctor and abusing that trust to enable him to act instead as a sexual predator,” writing, “We found each patient’s testimony to be credible, chilling, and compelling.” It found the text messages “fully corroborated the testimony offered and demonstrated consciousness of guilt by Pierce.”
The Board rejected defense arguments that the Attorney General had not met the statutory burden, that there was insufficient time for the alleged conduct, that the most recent incident occurred nearly a year ago, and that lesser measures would protect the public. “[Pierce] engaged in conduct, which is entirely antithetical to medical practice,” the Board wrote, adding that “There are no measures short of a full, immediate temporary suspension of license that we could craft which would adequately protect [Pierce’s] patients from such egregious conduct.”
Attorney General Platkin said: “Patients who submit to sensitive medical exams place their trust in the expertise and professionalism of their practitioner. When physicians abuse that trust for their own sexual gratification, the consequences can be devastating.” Cari Fais, Director of the Division of Consumer Affairs, said: “No patient should ever have to fear being sexually exploited on a physician’s exam table,” thanking the Board for “temporarily removing him from practice while these allegations are pending against him.”
Current Status
Pierce’s license remains temporarily suspended pending a hearing in the New Jersey Office of Administrative Law and further Board action. Those proceedings are unresolved: the allegations are not finally adjudicated, and the suspension is a protective interim measure, not a final determination of the state’s claims. The release documents an administrative matter only: while Patient 1 reported the January 2023 incident to the Lawrence Township Police, it identifies no criminal charges against Pierce, who had not been criminally charged or tried as of the announcement and is presumed innocent of any criminal wrongdoing.
Impact on Their Career/Life
The immediate consequence: Pierce cannot practice. The Board’s order removed him from clinical work at Delaware Valley OBGYN & Princeton Midwifery while the case is pending. The Board wrote that his conduct “unquestionably presents a continuing and immediate danger to any and all of [Pierce’s] patients.” In his alleged text to Patient 2, Pierce anticipated the stakes, writing that “My career will be over, and I don’t know what I would do.” The office also invited patients who believe they were treated inappropriately by a licensed professional to file complaints with the Division of Consumer Affairs.
Sources
- New Jersey Office of Attorney General, “State Medical Board Temporarily Suspends License of Mercer County OB-GYN Following Hearing on His Alleged Predatory Sexual Misconduct During Patient Exams” — source