Dr. Wortman, prominent OB-GYN accused of fertility fraud, dies in Orleans County plane crash

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Dr. Morris Wortman, a once prominent OB-GYN who was accused of fertility fraud, died on Sunday when he was a passenger in a homemade plane that crashed in Orleans County.

As an abortion provider, Wortman was often condemned by anti-abortion activists in the 1990s. However, more recently, he was accused of using his own sperm to impregnate a woman after telling her she would get sperm from an anonymous donor.

Morgan Hellquest, the alleged biological daughter of Wortman, filed a lawsuit against the doctor.

The lawsuit says that in 1983, the plaintiff’s mother Mrs. Levey, became a patient of Dr. Morris Wortman at his OB/GYN medical practice in Rochester. The practice offered fertility medicine to patients trying to conceive a child.

The lawsuit says Wortman inseminated Mrs. Levey two to three times monthly in either his office or at Highland Hospital in exchange for Levey’s payment of $50 in cash or check for each insemination. The suit claims Levey was under the impression she was receiving an anonymous medical student’s live sperm. In January 1985, Wortman inseminated Levey with a live sperm she became pregnant.

Hellquest says through DNA testing, she later discovered that she shared DNA with Wortman’s daughters and had six half-siblings with the same father.

The suit also claims Wortman has a family history of mental illness, despite telling Hellquest’s mother and stepfather that the true father would have a clean health history. Later, Wortman lost the privilege of practicing at Strong Hospital and Highland Hospital.