A surgeon in Indianapolis found that the abortion procedure had left a perforated uterus and remnants of the unborn child inside the patient.
Editor’s Note: This story contains graphic descriptions of an abortion procedure.
(NCR) A state civil lawsuit in Illinois claiming that an abortion provider left half the body of a 22-week-old unborn baby in a woman during a surgical abortion has caught the attention of pro-lifers who say the the woman ought to be able to remain anonymous while still seeking damages.
The abortion provider is asking the court to require the woman to attach her name to the lawsuit, arguing that since she and her lawyer have spoken to reporters, she should have to identify herself publicly. A judge is expected to rule on that point sometime later this month.
Carol Tobias, president of the National Right to Life Committee, noted that the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decisions that legalized abortion nationwide — Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton — were based on lawsuits brought by women who used pseudonyms rather than their actual names.
“It is hypocritical of abortion advocates to now demand that women be publicly known,” Tobias told the Register by text.
“Many women are harmed by abortion — physically, mentally and psychologically — without the abortion providers being held liable. There are times when plaintiffs have the right to remain private. This is one of those times,” she said.
“If anonymity is available for the abortion industry, it must also be available to women seeking justice for harm done to them,” she said.
Mary Kate Zander, president of Illinois Right to Life, said she thinks attempting to require the woman to identify herself publicly in the case is wrong.
“We’re talking about essentially doxxing this woman who is suing this provider. I don’t think this woman’s name needs to become public. Why is her identity critical to whether this abortion provider committed malpractice?” Zander told the Register.
Tweet This: Many women are harmed by abortion — physically, mentally and psychologically — without the abortion providers being held liable.
The woman, who lives in Indiana, where abortion is illegal with few exceptions, sought a second-trimester abortion at an abortion facility in Illinois, where abortion is legal with few restrictions, in April 2023.
The procedure took place over the course of two days, according to court papers. After feeling intense discomfort during the next two days, she went to Community Hospital in Indianapolis, which is about 100 miles east of Champaign, Illinois, where the abortion facility is.
A surgeon in Indianapolis found that the abortion procedure had left a perforated uterus and “half of a deceased pre-born human being in the right pelvis of the patient with evidence of severe and intentional trauma,” according to medical notes quoted in court papers filed with the complaint.
The surgeon said he found “stumps of both femurs,” and the baby’s body was “transected at the pelvis,” adding, “The skull was crushed and no brain was present.”
On May 16, 2025, the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation reprimanded the abortion provider, Dr. Keith Reisinger-Kindle. The state agency also fined him $5,000 and required him to complete 20 hours of continuing medical education “for failing to properly evaluate a patient before a procedure which resulted in hospitalization due to complications,” according to a state agency’s website.
In her lawsuit, the woman is seeking damages in excess of $50,000, according to her complaint.
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Remain anonymous?
Lawyers for the two sides wrangled over whether the woman, identified in court papers as Jane Doe, can maintain the pseudonym and still proceed with the case during an online hearing Aug. 14 in Champaign County Circuit Court.
The abortion provider maintains that the woman has abused her anonymity by talking to reporters about the case while it’s pending.
“Using the media as a sword while attempting to shield her identity, we think, creates an imbalance in this case,” said Kimberly Flanigan, a Chicago medical malpractice lawyer who is representing the abortion provider and the abortion facility he runs, Equity Clinic in Champaign.
But a lawyer for the woman who got the abortion argued that there’s no compelling legal justification for forcing her to identify herself publicly.
“There’s nothing to be gained by the defendants from disclosing the identity of my client,” said Richard Craig, a personal-injury lawyer in Chicago.
“They’re not gaining anything except for maybe pressure for her to drop the case. But there is a significant concern about her safety if her name is known,” Craig said.
Both lawyers acknowledged there isn’t much case law on this point in Illinois.
During the hearing, the judge asked Craig about how reporters found out about the lawsuit soon after it was filed earlier this year and why he and the plaintiff participated in interviews if they wanted to maintain her anonymity.
Craig said he didn’t contact reporters and isn’t sure how they found out about the lawsuit, but he noted that the complaint became a matter of public record after it was filed. He said he has answered questions from reporters about the case but hasn’t sought publicity for it.
The judge noted that “courts are public forums.”
“We don't have secret tribunals,” Judge Jason Bohm said, adding that in many cases “there is the necessary and sometimes unsafe step of going public with it.”
Craig said he agrees with that point, but he said that state law provides for exceptions and that his client qualifies for one.
The Register requested an interview with the abortion provider, Reisinger-Kindle, through his lawyer, but did not hear back by publication of this story.
Tweet This: An Illinois abortionist is accused of leaving half the body of a 22-week-old unborn baby in a woman during a surgical abortion.
Reisinger-Kindle founded Equity Clinic in Champaign in response to the U.S. Supreme Court’s June 2022 Dobbs decision overturning of Roe v. Wade, according to a June 2023 story published by the Chicago Tribune. Among other things, he sought to provide abortions for women who live in states where it is illegal, including Indiana, according to the story, which appeared about two and a half months after the botched abortion.
Champaign, a city of about 88,000 about 135 miles southwest of Chicago, is where the flagship campus of the state university is. The abortion facility is a little more than 3 miles from the campus.
The story said that about 60% of the abortions in Reisinger-Kindle’s abortion facility in Champaign are second-trimester.
The story quoted him as saying that he began working as a medical assistant at an abortion facility at age 18 and that the only reason he went to medical school was so he could eventually perform abortions.
It also quoted him as saying that he and his same-sex partner “love kids.”
“An image of a chubby-cheeked, dark-skinned baby girl smiles on the screen of Reisinger-Kindle’s phone,” the story states, referring to a 6-month-old he and his partner had recently adopted.
Editor's note: Reprinted with permission from the National Catholic Register – www.ncregister.com.
