Keith Reisinger Kindle
CHAMPAIGN, ILLINOIS - Saying he has been unfairly victimized in the press, an Ohio abortionist who is being sued for allegedly badly botching an abortion at his Champaign clinic, perforating an Indiana woman's uterus and leaving half of the aborted fetus in her body, has asked a judge to both force the woman to publicly identify herself and impose a gag order to force the woman to stop talking about the case and her injuries.
Keith Reisinger-Kindle lodged the requests in a memorandum filed in Champaign County Circuit Court on June 25. Reisinger-Kindle filed that document to oppose the woman's motion asking permission to proceed in the case anonymously.
The woman, presently identified only as Jane Doe, had filed suit in March in Champaign court against Reisinger-Kindle and his clinic, Equity Clinic. The lawsuit accused both of medical negligence and other counts.
Doe is represented in the action by attorney Richard Craig, of Chicago.
The lawsuit asserts Doe suffered severe pain and required surgery to repair damage allegedly caused by a botched abortion at Equity Clinic in 2023. According to court documents, the clinic also allegedly largely ignored her pleas for help amid her pain and bleeding within the days after the botched abortion procedure.
According to the complaint, the woman ultimately took herself to a hospital in the Indianapolis area, near her residence, where scans revealed "the remains of 'half of a deceased pre-born human being' ... in her right pelvis," including "pieces of the fetal skull that were adherent to the patient's intestine," which were "removed piecemeal" during surgery.
According to the the complaint, the discoveries came despite claims by Reisinger-Kindle that he had personally "visibly inspected" the "products of conception" and had "confirmed" the abortion was "complete."
According to the complaint, the day after the surgery to remove the "fetal remains," the surgeon had called Kindle to report the results of the surgery. However, according to the complaint, "Kindle refused to answer any questions or provide any information" to the surgeon about the woman's abortion, "claiming lack of consent" from the woman.
The lawsuit seeks more than $50,000 per count.
Kindle and Equity Clinic have gained notoriety in recent years, as Illinois led by Gov. JB Pritzker has sought to expand abortion access in the state, partially in response to efforts by most surrounding states to restrict and regulate abortions.
Kindle, for instance, was prominently featured in an article in 2023 in the Chicago Tribune, in which he was largely regaled for traveling to Illinois on the weekends to perform abortions, after Ohio moved to largely ban abortions after 6 weeks of gestation.
According to the article, Kindle said the Champaign clinic performs abortions on women who traveled from throughout the U.S., seeking to take advantage of Illinois' pro-abortion legal environment.
According to the article, more than 60% of women who undergo abortions at Equity Clinic are in their second trimester.
The clinic reportedly also offers training for other abortion doctors from throughout the country.
Reisinger Kindle also works as a professor at the medical school at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio, helping to lead that school's obstetrics and gynecology unit.
Since filing her lawsuit, the woman has asked the court for permission to continue her lawsuit under the "Jane Doe" pseudonym, out of concerns for her privacy.
Reisinger-Kindle, however, has said the court should not grant her that right, in part, because she has taken her story public already through the press, generating news stories throughout Illinois and the nation which allegedly have resulted in harm to Reisinger-Kindle.
"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," Reisinger-Kindle's lawyers wrote in the memorandum.
Claims related to abortion are not included in the list of claims deserving such privacy protections, Reisinger-Kindle claimed.
He asserted the woman's concerns about "the sensitivity of her medical information" are covered "through the protections afforded under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)."
"Plaintiff has chosen to publicly name both Defendants (Reisinger-Kindle and Equity Clinic)," Reisinger-Kindle's lawyers wrote. "Plaintiff seeks to litigate publicly and by name against these individuals and entities while attempting to shield her own identity.
"This one-sided approach is fundamentally unfair and undermines the appearance of judicial neutrality."
Pointing to the "the level of detail disclosed" by the woman concerning "sensitive medical details" in the lawsuit and in public statements, Reisinger-Kindle urged the court to step in to prevent the woman from allegedly "actively using the media to shape public perception" about him and "the care she received."
"When a plaintiff seeks to publicly challenge reproductive healthcare providers in court - especially in a matter of statewide interest - transparency in the proceedings is paramount," Reisinger-Kindle's lawyers wrote. "Having already leveraged multiple high-profile media outlets to elevate her narrative and target named providers, Plaintiff should not now be permitted to evade the transparency and accountability that open litigation requires."
He further accused the woman and Craig, her attorney, of engaging in "public commentary - much of it inflammatory and untested" in a bid to "(influence) public sentiment, not merely litigating within the courtroom."
Reisinger-Kindle asserted the woman and her legal counsel must be gagged by the court, to prevent them from publicly taking about the case, or he cannot receive a fair trial from a jury.
Reisinger-Kindle is represented in the case by attorneys Mimi K. Moon, Kimberly Flanagan and Julieta Kosiba, of Pretzel & Stouffer, of Chicago.
Craig has not yet filed a full response in court to Reisinger-Kindle's requests concerning the woman's identity and her speech.
However, on June 27, Craig filed a motion, asking the court to consider the two requests separately.
In that motion, Craig said "the issues are wholly distinct" questions under the law.
On one hand, he noted the matter of the woman's identity must be decided by weighing whether Illinois' public policy generally requiring litigants to bring lawsuits in their real names should outweigh the woman's privacy concerns.
But on the other, Craig said the gag order must be weighed against the woman's rights under the First Amendment "to speak freely." Craig added the gag order request was lodged by Reisinger-Kindle "apparently without appreciating the irony of the effort."
In other comments published in other news reports about the case, Craig has denied the claims that he has mounted a public campaign against Reisinger-Kindle, saying all he has done is answer questions from reporters.
Craig has indicated he will also outline for the court other concerns related to forcing the woman to reveal her name, including concerns over her safety.
“There are too many people who will take matters into their own hands and deliver what they believe is justice," Craig said in comments included in an article published at CatholicVote.org.
“Nobody asks to need an emergency laparotomy because the first doctor botched what he was hired to do," Craig said in that report.
“My client now faces a Hobson’s choice: either proceeding against the person who put me in this position and announcing to the world who I am, or letting him get away with it.
“I don’t think that a person should be put in that position.”
