Lawsuit alleges Illinois abortion doctor left half a fetus inside Indiana patient, requiring emergency surgery
An Indiana abortion patient has accused a Champaign, Illinois, physician of perforating her uterus during the procedure and leaving half of a fetus inside her body, requiring emergency surgery afterward, according to a recent lawsuit.
The medical negligence lawsuit was filed March 21 in the Circuit Court of Champaign County against abortion provider Dr. Keith Reisinger-Kindle of Equity Clinic by a woman identified as Jane Doe, according to court records.
Reisinger-Kindle did not immediately return Chicago Tribune requests for comment on the lawsuit.
The patient, a mother of four, was about 22 weeks pregnant when she traveled to the clinic for a two-day procedure that ended April 2, 2023, the complaint states. Reisinger-Kindle said in his notes that the 'products of conception were visually inspected and confirmed to be complete,' after the abortion and the patient was discharged, the lawsuit stated.
But the next day, the woman called the clinic to report heavy cramping and she was advised to take an over-the-counter pain reliever, according to the complaint. About five hours later, she called the clinic again saying she had taken Ibuprofen with limited relief and that she was feeling pressure and that it was hard to breathe. That message was relayed to Reisinger-Kindle, who advised her to take a laxative, according to the complaint.
The patient called a third time, saying she took two doses of a laxative but the abdominal cramping increased, the suit said. She was advised to take an enema and 'consider presenting at an urgent care facility or to an emergency room,' the lawsuit stated.
On April 4, 2023, the patient was admitted to the emergency room of Community Hospital South in Indianapolis where the fetal remains were discovered and surgically removed from her pelvis, according to the complaint. Parts of the fetal skull had adhered to her intestines and were taken out, the lawsuit said.
A hole in her uterus roughly the size of a quarter or half-dollar was also treated, according to the complaint.
The day after, Reisinger-Kindle would not answer questions or provide information to a surgeon who had assisted with the surgery, allegedly claiming lack of consent from the patient, the lawsuit states. However, when he spoke to the woman later that day, he did not request permission to discuss the abortion with the surgeon, the suit contends.
A report by an obstetrician-gynecologist included in the court filings stated that 'had Dr. Kindle performed an adequate exam of the remains, it should have been obvious that fetal parts were left behind.'
The lawsuit seeks a jury trial and more than $50,000 in damages.
Reisinger-Kindle and Equity Clinic were profiled in a June 2023 Tribune story about a wave of new abortion providers coming to Illinois from other states after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, ending federal abortion rights.
'The only reason I went to medical school was to be an abortion provider,' Reisinger-Kindle told the Tribune, adding that providing abortions has a greater impact on the lives of patients than delivering babies.
'Everyone's excited about a baby,' he had said. 'People in this space, unfortunately, are often shunned and shamed and really stigmatized. In this space, one person saying, 'You're strong, this is a hard choice but we're here with you,' is life-changing. Because you're probably the only person giving them that message.'
Equity Clinic was founded in February 2023 by Reisinger-Kindle, who at the time was based in Ohio and had been traveling roughly 500 miles round-trip from Dayton to provide medication and surgical abortions in Champaign on the weekends.
Reisinger-Kindle has been licensed in Illinois since 2022 and has never been disciplined, according to the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation. He had been licensed in Ohio from 2020 to 2024 and had never been disciplined there, according to Ohio state records.
As of mid-2023, roughly 95% of Equity Clinic's patients traveled there from other states, Reisinger-Kindle had told the Tribune.
Out-of-state abortion patients have skyrocketed in Illinois since the end of Roe, amid increasing abortion restrictions and bans in other states. Roughly 37,350 patients from other states came to Illinois to have an abortion in 2023 — the first full year since the end of federal abortion rights — more than triple the nearly 11,150 in 2020, according to estimates from the Guttmacher Institute, a pro-reproductive rights research group.
That was more out-of-state abortion patients than any other state in the nation that year, the data showed.
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