A woman who discovered her longtime gynecologist is actually her biological father — a fact he was well aware of — said she “sobbed” when she found out the truth. Morgan Hellquist, 36, had been seeing Dr. Morris Wortman for years, even having her IUD fitted by him at one stage. She was loyal to him as her own mother, Jo Ann Levy, had been a patient of his. However, it turns out there was something much more sinister about the doctor than either of the women knew.
- Hellquist’s mother used Wortman to get pregnant. She visited him in 1985 seeking help getting pregnant after her husband, Gary, was left paraplegic by a drunk driver. Wortman said he would inseminate Levy with sperm from an anonymous medical student, but it turns out, it was actually his own.
- The truth began to unravel in 2016. Hellquist took an Ancestry DNA test and discovered she had multiple half-siblings, one of which was 37-year-old David Berry. The discovery was shocking, especially since more and more family members were revealed as time went on. “Then there was five of us. And we were all the same age,” Hellquist told Good Morning America. “And six, and then seven. And it started to feel like, well if there’s seven there might be 20. And if there’s 20, there might be 100. And I started to feel terrified.”
- Hellquist and Berry eventually realized what happened. Their mothers had both been conceived with the “help” of Wortman but instead of using donor sperm, he’d used his own. They even managed to get a hold of one of Wortman’s daughters, who agreed to do a DNA test which showed they were indeed half-siblings. “When we found out, there wasn’t any need to tell [my mother]. I was screaming and sobbing at the top of my lungs,” Hellquist recalled.
- Berry’s mother Karen was furious to find out she’d been deceived. “He had my permission to use a donor, specifically a medical student,” Karen said. “He did not have my permission to use his own sperm for a donation.”
- A lawsuit has now been filed against Wortman, who denies all charges. Sadly, New York doesn’t have “fertility fraud” protection, meaning there’s not much they can do to prosecute Wortman for his deception. However, because Hellquist never would have used him as her gynecologist had she known he was her father, she still has legal recourse. “I do not have a fertility fraud case,” she said. “I have a case because he touched my body without my consent.”
