Southwestern Women’s Options (SWO) abortion clinic in Albuquerque, New Mexico, is facing a lawsuit after a 23-year-old woman died following her abortion.
The abortion clinic, along with the University of New Mexico (UNM), face the wrongful death suit filed in August on behalf of the deceased woman’s mother and sister.
The suit concerns deceased Keisha Atkins who traveled to the UNM Hospital seeking an abortion on Jan. 23, 2017. She sought an “elective 24-week abortion,” KOB 4 Eyewitness News first reported Wednesday. The hospital denied her request and referred her to SWO.
The Albuquerque abortion clinic offers abortions up to 32 weeks in pregnancy and abortions after 32 weeks on a “case by case basis,” according to the clinic. Premature infants are born between 23 and 33 weeks in pregnancy. A pregnancy is considered full term at 37 weeks.
New Mexico has no abortion restrictions, and there are 11 abortion facilities in the state as of 2014, according to the Guttmacher Institute’s May report.
Atkins traveled to SWO abortion clinic on Feb. 1, 2017 and aborted her unborn baby, after which the clinic instructed her “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,” the lawsuit alleges.
Atkins went back to the clinic two days later with a high fever and difficulty breathing and was taken to UNM Hospital roughly 10 hours later, according to the lawsuit. She died at the hospital.
“Keisha Atkins’ medical treatment was a series of negligence and malpractice which ultimately led to her untimely death-these actions were compounded by the fact that she was instructed to not seek emergency room care by Southwestern doctors,” Atkins’ attorney Michael Seibel said, KOB 4 reported.
In addition to wrongful death, the suit also alleges that UNM pathologist Dr. Lauren Dvorscak tried to conceal the fact that Atkins died because of a botched abortion. “Dr. Dvorscak wrote a report listing the cause of death as ‘natural’ due to pregnancy,” the suit claims. (RELATED: Cleveland Abortion Clinic Hospitalizes Another Woman, Adding To Long Record Of Medical Emergencies And Death)
“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,” Seibel said, according to KOB4.
“UNM Hospital and its providers are dedicated to providing high quality, safe patient care for the benefit of all New Mexicans,” a UNM spokesperson told The Daily Caller News Foundation Thursday. “Because this is pending litigation, UNM Hospital and its providers cannot comment on the allegations and will honor their obligations under federal privacy laws to maintain this patient’s privacy.”
Preterm abortion clinic in Cleveland, Ohio, also put a woman in the hospital on Sept. 5 after an abortion procedure went awry. Abortion patient Lakisha Wilson died during her abortion at the Preterm clinic in 2014, and the clinic has performed ten botched abortions since 2011, according to Abortion Stats 2018.
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