Abortion Clinic Sued After Killing Woman in Botched 6-Month Abortion

State   |   Micaiah Bilger   |   Sep 12, 2018   |   4:07PM   |   Albuquerque, NM

A late-term abortion businesses in New Mexico is facing a lawsuit this week for allegedly killing a young woman in a botched abortion.

The lawsuit against Southwestern Women’s Options in Albuquerque is about 23-year-old Keisha Marie Atkins who died in 2017 while experiencing complications from a septic infection during an elective late-term abortion, according to the New Mexico Alliance for Life.

Atkins’ mother, Tina, and sister, Nicole, are suing on her behalf.

The University of New Mexico Hospital and the abortion facility are accused of medical malpractice, wrongful death and civil conspiracy in the lawsuit; the abortion facility also allegedly violated the New Mexico Unfair Trade Practices Act by telling Atkins not to go to the emergency room but to contact the abortion facility if she experienced a medical emergency.

Six abortionists including the abortion facility’s Carmen Landau, Shannon Carr and Curtis Boyd are named along with UNM abortion doctors Lily Bayat, Brenda Pareda and Lisa Hofler. Pathologist Dr. Lauren Dvorscak of the UNM Office of the Medical Investigator also is accused of civil conspiracy in a cover-up of Atkins’ cause of death.

Atkins was about six months pregnant when she went to the abortion facility for an elective, late-term abortion.

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The lawsuit states that Atkins went to SWO on February 1, 2017, for the abortion and claims SWO violated the New Mexico Unfair Trade Practices Act in its discharge orders that “instructed Keisha Atkins not to contact or consult any medical facility, hospital, doctor, emergency room or nurse outside of employees, agents and/or staff of the SWO clinic.”

According to the lawsuit, Atkins returned to SWO on February 3, 2017 with a high fever and troubled breathing. Ten hours later, the suit claims doctors at SWO called for an ambulance to take Atkins to UNM Hospital where she later died.

“Keisha Atkins’ medical treatment was a series of negligence and malpractice which ultimately led to her untimely death,” said Atkins’ attorney Michael Seibel. “We also have reason to believe that these parties conspired with UNM’s Medical Investigator to conceal the cause of death from the abortion in order to protect each other’s interests and long-standing relationships.”

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Elisa Martinez, spokesperson for the Atkins estate, said this is a clear case of an abortionist putting his business ahead of his patients’ lives.

“What kind of clinic instructs patients not to contact the hospital for an emergency, but rather to call an answering service in the middle of a life-threatening septic abortion?” Martinez said in a statement. “This is not medicine, this is a reckless public health crisis driven by abortionist Curtis Boyd, a co-founder of the National Abortion Federation who puts his bottom line and ideology above his patients.”

Notably, the late-term abortionist has a close relationship with UNM, where the medical investigator’s office is located. Boyd provides aborted baby body parts to university researchers and used to train UNM medical students at his late-term abortion facility.

The autopsy report from the New Mexico Office of the Medical Investigator determined that Atkins’ cause of death was “natural,” stemming from a “pulmonary thromboembolism due to pregnancy.” However, Seibel obtained a series of internal emails indicating that other University of New Mexico doctors who treated Atkins before her death expressed concerns about the autopsy because they diagnosed her with a septic infection relating to the abortion.

Operation Rescue and Abortion Free New Mexico, which have been following the case as well, also suspected a cover-up. Earlier this year, the groups obtained Atkins’ autopsy report along with a CAD printout of a 911 call from the abortion facility on the date of Atkins’ death. The groups said both documents raised serious questions about the mishandling of Atkins’ medical emergency, and raised their suspicions of an attempted cover-up.