A former West Point cadet who admitted to drugging his then-girlfriend and giving her abortion medication without her knowledge or consent, resulting in a miscarriage, is now facing a civil lawsuit seeking unspecified damages.
Caleb Suh pleaded guilty in June to assault resulting in substantial bodily injury to a dating partner. The charge stemmed from a March 2022 incident involving the woman, who was also a cadet at the U.S. Military Academy at the time.
Since the incident, Suh attended two Ivy League universities, including one he entered after pleading guilty. He graduated from Cornell University this year and was studying as a graduate student at Columbia University when the woman filed her lawsuit on Oct. 28.
The woman wanted to continue the pregnancy, but Suh did not want her to have the child. In court, Suh said he used her identity to create an account with an online pharmacy, ordered abortion medication by mail, obtained Xanax from a friend as a sedative and deceived his girlfriend into drinking what he described as a prenatal protein shake. After she fell asleep, Suh placed the abortion pills in her mouth and vagina.
Caleb Suh pleaded guilty in June to assaulting the woman in March 2022. She was also a West Point cadet at the time. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
Erin Hawley, an attorney with the pro-life legal group Alliance Defending Freedom who played a significant role in the effort to overturn Roe v. Wade, said the woman endured 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 News Outlet. “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,” Hawley said.
Suh has not yet been sentenced.
According to the lawsuit, Suh left the woman alone while she was incapacitated and ignored her efforts to contact him after she awoke and discovered she was bleeding. She was later hospitalized.
While the woman was receiving medical care, the lawsuit says, Suh returned to the online pharmacy’s website and asked whether doctors would be able to detect the medication he had given her.
“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 attorney, 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.
Caleb Suh graduated from Cornell University this year and was enrolled in a graduate program at Columbia University when the woman filed her lawsuit late last month. (TW Farlow/Getty Images)
News Outlet contacted Suh’s attorney for comment.
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At a June court hearing, Suh said he was “deeply and immeasurably sorry for my actions and the pain that I have caused.”
At his attorney’s request, Suh’s sentencing was delayed until Jan. 21, 2027, so he can complete the semester at Columbia. Prosecutors did not object to the postponement.
His attorney also told the court that Suh has been participating in a three-month life-skills course for people facing federal charges.
Suh transferred to Cornell during the 2023-24 academic year. The university said in a statement last week that he answered “no” on an application question asking whether he had ever been found responsible for a disciplinary violation at another institution.
Cornell said West Point reported that Suh was in good academic standing and eligible to return. According to the university’s website, he had been involved in health and medicine at Cornell and planned to become a physician.
Suh began a master’s program at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health in September, according to a letter his attorney sent to the judge in the federal case. A person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press that Mailman applicants are not asked about criminal records but must disclose whether they have ever faced student-conduct discipline or poor academic performance.
The person told the outlet that Suh’s application did not mention any prior disciplinary proceedings.
While the woman was receiving medical treatment, Caleb Suh returned to the online pharmacy website and asked whether doctors could detect the medication he had 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. Hawley was referring to Alliance Defending Freedom’s lawsuit challenging the Food and Drug Administration’s 2023 decision to eliminate the in-person dispensing requirement for mifepristone. The agency had already stopped enforcing that requirement in 2021.
The assault took place in March 2022, before the FDA’s 2023 decision. In April 2021, during the COVID-19 public health emergency, the agency announced that it would temporarily suspend enforcement of the in-person dispensing rule. In December 2021, the FDA announced plans to eliminate the requirement permanently, and the change formally took effect in January 2023.
The FDA has said the decision followed a review of available evidence. Other restrictions, including requirements for prescriber certification, remained in effect.
Hawley said the incident involving the West Point cadet also would not have occurred if the in-person dispensing requirement had remained in place.
“Horrific incidents like that throughout the country would never have happened if that basic safeguard had been in place,” she said.
