A lawsuit filed in March accused an Illinois physician of medical negligence after he allegedly left more than half of a second-trimester fetus inside his patient’s abdomen during an abortion procedure.
This case underscores a critical blind spot in our nation’s approach to maternal health: the intense focus on expanding abortion access often distracts from the larger, more urgent issue of substandard health care that is putting pregnant women and unborn babies at serious risk across the country.
According to the complaint, Dr. Keith Reisinger-Kindle perforated his patient’s uterus during a dilation and evacuation (D&E) abortion at 22-23 weeks of pregnancy, causing most of the fetal parts to go through the hole and into her abdominal cavity. Then, instead of treating this complication, he sent her home as if nothing had happened – leaving it to physicians in another town to give her the lifesaving and compassionate care she needed. Sadly, this case is only one of the countless horrifying stories that OB-GYNs across the country are hearing of pregnant women receiving subpar treatment related to abortion.
One such case from OB-GYN Dr. Christina Francis’s Indiana hospital involved a woman who came to the emergency room hemorrhaging one week after a surgical abortion. It was determined that the doctor who performed the procedure had failed to remove the entire fetus from her uterus. Over the course of her treatment, the patient recounted to Dr. Francis a series of troubling red-flag experiences at the abortion facility. These included hearing another woman cry out in pain from the procedure room and receiving inadequate pain management herself. There was little counseling provided before the surgery.
When Dr. Francis reached out to the clinic for more details to ensure the patient received the best possible care, she was met with a lack of response—no on-call physician was available, and the patient’s records were not available. For the sake of our country’s maternal health, which is currently in crisis, our medical system must do better than this.
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The past few years, the national conversation on maternal health has focused heavily on abortion access. A flurry of news stories highlighting heartbreaking instances of poor maternal outcomes in states with abortion regulations have pointed blame at policies restricting abortion, suggesting that they cause physicians to hesitate to intervene in pregnancy-related complications out of fear of prosecution. But when we look closely at many of these stories, a more plausible cause of these tragic outcomes emerges: medical neglect.
It is important to recognize that medical neglect occurs not only in pro-life states but also in pro-choice ones. In fact, it often takes place at abortion facilities, particularly when those facilities are allowed to operate with little to no regulation.
By singularly pursuing the expansion of abortion access as the solution to our country’s poor maternal health, we fail to take seriously the rampant lack of access to competent healthcare that places women at risk in all states.
For example, instead of protecting the safety of women and unborn babies in Illinois, the state’s governor, JB Pritzker, has fought to deregulate abortion, prioritizing access over all else. One of the laws enacted just months before the tragic case at Dr. Kindle’s clinic was a policy offering temporary medical licenses to out-of-state physicians who offer abortions – like Dr. Kindle himself, who is originally from Ohio.
The tragic results of efforts like these are cropping up in news stories across the country. A dead baby was recovered in a Pennsylvania teenager’s backyard, the result of an attempted self-managed abortion. A teenager passed away from complications during a 22-week abortion at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado, which has some of the most permissive abortion laws in the country. Planned Parenthood has become notorious for exploiting vulnerable women in crisis and failing to provide the essential maternal healthcare they desperately need.
Women and girls deserve full, accurate information before choosing abortion. To that end, numerous pieces of legislation have been introduced by Rep. Mary Miller in Congress. The Ultrasounds Save Lives Act requires abortion providers to perform an ultrasound for any woman or girl seeking an abortion. Providers must also describe the development of the baby and explain the potential risks to the woman. Studies show that 80 percent of women change their minds after seeing their baby for the first time.
Rep. Mary Miller (R-IL) speaks at a news conference outside the U.S. Capitol with members of the House Freedom Caucus on July 29, 2021. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
Another important bill is the Second Chance for Moms Act, also introduced by Rep. Miller, which would ensure women are informed that chemical abortions can be reversed in time to save their baby if they regret starting the process. Rep. Miller also introduced the Parental Notification and Intervention Act, which guarantees that parents have the opportunity to intervene if their minor daughter is seeking an abortion. These are commonsense measures that Congress must act on without delay.
While we cannot undo the suffering endured by Dr. Kindle’s patient or the countless women who have fallen victim to our broken medical system, we can take action to prevent future tragedies. By exposing the horrifying reality of abortion and restoring a culture of life in our nation, we move one step closer to ensuring that stories like these are never repeated.
Congresswoman Mary Miller represents the 15th District of Illinois in the U.S. House of Representatives, where she currently serves as Chair of the Congressional Family Caucus and sits on the House Committees on Agriculture, Education and Workforce, and House Administration.
Dr. Christina Francis is a board-certified obstetrician-gynecologist who practices as an obstetric hospitalist in Indiana as well as the CEO of the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists.
