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23-Year-Old Dies after Late-Term Abortion, Family Sues Facility

  • Kayla Koslosky

    Kayla Koslosky has been the Editor of ChristianHeadlines.com since 2018. She has B.A. degrees in English and History and previously wrote for and was the managing editor of the Yellow Jacket …

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  • Updated Sep 20, 2018

23-year-old Keisha Atkins died two days after having a late-term abortion and now her family is suing the facility where the procedure was performed. 

The New Mexico abortion facility performed a late-term abortion on Atkins’ last year, she was 6 months pregnant, and two days after the procedure she contracted sepsis and died.

According to Christian News, Atkins was referred by the University of New Mexico Hospital to Southwestern Women’s Options (SWO) for the procedure.

“[A]t the SWO clinic, clinic doctors, under the supervision of [abortionist] Curtis Boyd, inserted a syringe filled with dygoxin into Keisha Atkins’ stomach and injected a lethal dose into the baby causing the baby’s death,” the legal challenge states. 

“Ms. Atkins was then released from SWO clinic with her deceased baby in utero and an instruction to return to the SWO Clinic.”

Purportedly, Atkins was instructed not to contact another facility or doctor outside of SWO.

Two days later, Atkins returned for the second part of the procedure as instructed, but when she arrived she was feverish, having difficulty breathing, and had not gone into labor to dispel the aborted child, as expected.

Christian Net reports that after ten hours in this state Atkins’ condition did not improve and an ambulance was called. 

Atkins was already tachycardia at this point and her oxygen level was dangerously low. The Young woman was suffering a septic abortion.

In the lawsuit, it states that Atkins spent five hours the emergency room waiting room at UNM before brought in for an operation. Atkins died of cardiac arrest while undergoing evacuating the aborted baby.

Atkins’ family argues that there was a failure on the doctors part “to inform Keisha Atkins of the risks and potential complications of carrying a dead fetus inside of her womb after being released from the SWO clinic” and “failure to inform Keisha Atkins of the risks and potential complications for infection and sepsis associated with SWO’s late term elective abortion procedure.”

“The negligence and failure of Defendants Landau, Carr, Boyd and SWO to diagnose and adequately treat Keisha Atkins for infection and sepsis, and the failure to inform Ms. Atkins of the risks and complications associated with the procedure(s) and the failure to provide a hospital and/or in a similarly equipped overnight facility capable of providing constant medical monitoring caused injuries, pain, suffering and ultimately Keisha Atkins’ wrongful death,” it states.

The autopsy written by a UNM employee lists Atkins’ cause of death as being “natural” and from a pulmonary embolism due to pregnancy.

 “The OMI office really had to go out of their way to come up with such a biased and compromised autopsy report, one that wholly overlooks the diagnosis of every single doctor at UNMH who treated Keisha Atkins for a septic abortion infection and symptoms from the infection,” remarked attorney Michael Seibel, who is representing the family.

“My client and her family were denied their rights to justice and due process in this matter, while the Office of the Medical Investigator has attempted to shield Curtis Boyd from medical liability, as well as deterring an investigation into the source of infection.”

The family is seeking punitive and compensatory damages.

Photo courtesy: Unsplash/Ashton Mullins