Champaign abortion doctor left fetus parts in woman's body, lawsuit alleges
A doctor who performed an abortion at his Champaign clinic is accused in a lawsuit of leaving half of the fetus inside the body of a woman.
The medical negligence lawsuit was filed last week in the Circuit Court of Champaign County against Dr. Keith Reisinger-Kindle and his Equity Clinic by a woman identified as Jane Doe.
The suit also alleges that when the woman first reported that something was wrong after the procedure Reisinger-Kindle told her to take Tylenol and laxatives.
The woman had to undergo emergency surgery to remove the portions of the fetus that were left behind, the suit states.
Had Dr. Reisinger-Kindle "performed an adequate exam of the remains, it should have been obvious that fetal parts were left behind," says a medical report by an obstetrician/gynecologist that is included with the filings.
The woman, a mother of four, had visited the clinic for her procedure on April 1 and 2 of 2023. She was about 22 weeks along. Following her abortion, Reisinger-Kindle reported that a final examination confirmed that the woman's uterus was empty and "products of conception were visibly inspected and confirmed to be complete," the suit states.
The woman was discharged, but the next day she called the clinic to report heavy cramping, the suit states. She was told to take Tylenol or ibuprofen and some laxatives.
On April 4 she reported that she was still experiencing cramping. She was then told to have an enema or go to the emergency room. That day she checked in to Community Hospital South Emergency Room in Indianapolis.
There, parts of the fetus were found in her right pelvis and were surgically removed, according to the suit. Other parts that "were adhered" to the patient's intestines were also removed.
It appeared Reisinger-Kindle had perforated the woman's uterus during her abortion procedure, the suit states. There was a hole in her uterus about the size of a quarter or half-dollar.
On April 5, Reisinger-Kindle refused to answer questions or provide information to one of the surgeons who had assisted in the surgical removal procedure, the lawsuit states. Reisinger-Kindle said that was because he didn't have the woman's permission, but when he spoke with the woman later that same day he didn't mention his earlier conversation with the surgeon.
In the medical report included in the filings, the obstetrician/gynecologist states that in their professional opinion Reisinger-Kindle "deviated from a reasonable standard of care" by perforating the woman's uterus and failing to realize that he had, as well as failing to adequately examine the fetal parts after the abortion procedure.
Reisinger-Kindle declined comment when reached by phone.
Reisinger-Kindle was profiled in a Chicago Tribune article a month after the woman's emergency surgery. The profile reported that he opened his clinic after Roe v. Wade was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2022, leaving the legality of abortions up to the states and limiting access to abortion for many.
Thousands of abortion patients like Jane Doe have had to travel out of state to obtain care.
Illinois is one of several states that have bolstered abortion rights since Roe v. Wade was overturned.
Nearly 17,000 patients came to Illinois from other states for abortions in 2022, compared with about 11,300 out-of-state patients in 2021, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health’s annual abortion statistics report.
The surge in out-of-state patients led to more than 56,000 abortion procedures in the state in 2022, the highest number in at least 25 years.
In 2023, 171,000 people traveled to another state for an abortion, according to the Guttmacher Institute. Most of them came to Illinois, a New York Times analysis found.
And last July, abortion providers in Chicago and Illinois said they expected a surge in out-of-state patients after Iowa enacted a six-week abortion ban.