A woman who had a botched abortion after parts of her baby’s remains were left inside her uterus is seeking hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages as compensation for the physical and psychological distress she endured after the procedure.
In a complaint filed in the Sixth Judicial Circuit Court of Champaign County, Illinois, last week, the woman, listed under the alias Jane Doe, is suing abortionist Keith Reisinger-Kindle over complications she suffered from a botched abortion at Equity Clinic in Champaign, Illinois, in 2023.
The lawsuit, obtained by The Christian Post, maintains that Reisinger-Kindle perforated the plaintiff’s uterus during the abortion and claims that she received a note informing her that her uterus was empty and the abortion was complete.
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The day after the abortion, however, the plaintiff reported heavy cramping. Staff at Equity Clinic told her to take pain medication. When she continued to experience heavy pressure and difficulty breathing, Reisinger-Kindle allegedly advised her to take a laxative.
Two days after the abortion, the plaintiff had yet to experience a bowel movement after taking two doses of the laxative and saw her abdominal cramping increase. Equity Clinic advised her to take an enema or go to the emergency room.
The plaintiff went to an emergency room in Indianapolis, where the remains of “half of a deceased pre-born human being” were found in her right pelvis. The fetal remains were removed and “pieces of the fetal skull that were adherent to the patient’s intestine were removed piecemeal.”
The lawsuit alleges medical negligence on behalf of Reisinger-Kindle for perforating the plaintiff’s uterus as well as “failing to adequately examine the fetal parts obtained during the dilation and evacuation procedure.” It further claims that the acts of negligence caused the plaintiff to suffer “damages of a personal and pecuniary nature, including but not limited to psychiatric damages and physical damages that will affect her ability to carry and deliver children for the rest of her life.”
The complaint also includes a count of negligent infliction of emotional distress against Reisinger-Kindle, stating that “Plaintiff has experienced and will continue to experience extreme and irreversible emotional distress, and will continue to incur medical expenses in treating her emotional injuries, and has and will continue to be unable to attend to her usual and customary affairs of life as a result of her emotional injuries.”
The same counts directed at Reisinger-Kindle were also directed at Equity Clinic. Reisinger-Kindle also faces an allegation of “intentional infliction of emotional distress” after he assured her he would work to determine the sex of the baby he aborted after she requested this information three days after her abortion. By that time, it was impossible to determine the sex of the baby as the fetal remains had been disposed of.
The plaintiff is requesting a trial by jury for all five counts laid out in the complaint, seeking at least $250,000 in damages.
This lawsuit isn’t the first time Reisinger-Kindle has been subject to a medical malpractice complaint.
Reisinger-Kindle was also among several doctors named in a 2021 lawsuit filed in Massachusetts over “severe and permanent personal injuries” sustained by plaintiff Elvira Torres as a result of “negligent care and treatment” she received at the Massachusetts hospital where Reisinger-Kindle worked at the time.
The 2021 lawsuit claimed that Reisinger-Kindle’s failure to treat Torres “within the accepted standard of care” resulted in the woman having to labor for over 30 hours before delivering her baby via caesarian section. The complaint insisted that the symptoms experienced by the patient that caused her to report to the hospital in the first place should have been enough to determine that she needed to undergo an emergency caesarian section 30 hours earlier.
A series of RU-486 event reports from 2022 filed with the State Medical Board of Ohio reveal five instances where women who attempted to terminate their pregnancies via chemical abortion with Reisinger-Kindle’s assistance ended up suffering from incomplete abortions. The filings came as Reisinger-Kindle was working at an abortion clinic in Dayton, Ohio.
Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: ryan.foley@christianpost.com
