CHICAGO — A Champaign abortion provider accused in a lawsuit of perforating a patient’s uterus and leaving half a fetus inside her body has been reprimanded and fined in connection with that case by the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation, according to records obtained by the Tribune.

Dr. Keith Reisinger-Kindle of Equity Clinic must pay a $5,000 fine and complete 20 hours of continuing medical education for “failing to evaluate a patient before a procedure which resulted in hospitalization due to complications,” according to the May 16 disciplinary action by the state regulatory agency.

Reisinger-Kindle did not immediately return Tribune requests for comment on the reprimand and fine by the state. He also has not responded to previous requests for comment on the lawsuit, which is still pending. An attorney representing the physician declined to comment.

In March, an Indiana abortion patient identified as Jane Doe filed a medical negligence lawsuit against Reisinger-Kindle in Champaign County Circuit Court.

At roughly 22 weeks pregnant, the patient had a two-day procedure at the clinic that ended April 2, 2023, according to the lawsuit. In Reisinger-Kindle’s notes, he stated the “products of conception were visually inspected and confirmed to be complete,” after the abortion and the patient was discharged, according to the lawsuit.

The following day, the patient called the clinic to report heavy cramping and was instructed to take an over-the-counter pain reliever, the suit alleges. A few hours later, she called back after taking ibuprofen with limited relief and complained of pressure, which made it hard to breathe, the complaint said.

That message was given to Reisinger-Kindle and the patient was advised to take a laxative, according to the complaint. The patient called again to say the abdominal cramping increased, despite taking two laxatives, the lawsuit said.

The patient was then advised to take an enema and “consider presenting at an urgent care facility or to an emergency room,” according to the complaint.

On April 4, the woman was admitted to the emergency room of an Indianapolis hospital, 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.

She was also treated for a hole in her uterus roughly the size of a quarter or half-dollar, according to the complaint.

Had Reisinger-Kindle “performed an adequate exam of the remains, it should have been obvious that fetal parts were left behind,” stated a report by another obstetrician-gynecologist, which was included in the court filings.

The lawsuit seeks a jury trial and more than $50,000 in damages.

In late June, Reisinger-Kindle’s attorneys filed a legal memorandum challenging the patient’s ability to file the lawsuit under a pseudonym, arguing that she should be required to use her name.

“The complaint does not involve claims of sexual assault, domestic violence, human trafficking, or other circumstances where anonymity is more commonly granted to protect a party’s safety or psychological well-being,” the memorandum said.

His attorneys also filed a request for a gag order, citing widespread media coverage of the case.

The patient’s attorney had argued in court documents that she should be allowed to file the lawsuit under a pseudonym because “the case deals with abortion, an undeniably sensitive subject that has long been recognized as falling within the zone of personal privacy.”

The next court date in the case is scheduled in August.

Reisinger-Kindle and Equity Clinic had been profiled in a 2023 Tribune story about a wave of new abortion providers coming to Illinois following the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 case that guaranteed federal abortion rights.

Reisinger-Kindle told the Tribune at the time that the “only reason I went to medical school was to be an abortion provider.”

“This is about where people are in their life that day, in that moment, and helping support them to be healthy humans moving forward,” he said in 2023. “The true definition of health — physical, mental, emotional and financial.”

Equity Clinic was founded in February 2023 by Reisinger-Kindle, who at the time lived and worked in Ohio. Prior to the May disciplinary action, Reisinger-Kindle had not been disciplined in either Illinois or Ohio, according to state records.

Reisinger-Kindle had estimated that roughly 95% of Equity Clinic’s patients traveled from other states, as of mid-2023.

The number of out-of-state patients coming to Illinois soared after the end of Roe, as many states across the nation all but banned terminating a pregnancy or severely restricted abortion access.

In 2024, Illinois provided roughly 35,000 abortions to patients from other states, ranking as the state with the highest number of out-of-state abortions for the second year in a row, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a pro-reproductive rights research group.

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