Illinois abortionist Keith Reisinger-Kindle has settled a lawsuit in which he horrifically botched a second-trimester abortion.

Key Takeaways:

• Reisinger-Kindle was working at the Equity Clinic in Champaign, Illinois, in 2023 when he committed an abortion at 22 or 23 weeks on a mother of four.

• After a dilation and evacuation (D&E) abortion, the woman said she was in excruciating pain, but the facility reportedly told her to take Tylenol.

• He had perforated the woman's uterus and left half of the baby's body inside of her; one surgeon called it "the worst thing I’ve ever seen at surgery."

• The woman sued, and Reisinger-Kindle tried to strip her of her anonymity in response.

• The lawsuit has now been settled for an undisclosed amount, and Reisinger-Kindle has continued to commit abortions.

The Backstory:

Last year, Keith Reisinger-Kindle was sued for botching a D&E abortion in 2023. The patient was a mother of four who was between 22 and 23 weeks pregnant, a point at which premature babies are known to have survived with medical assistance. She said she felt "pressured" to have the abortion, and underwent a D&E abortion procedure. This procedure typically takes multiple days, though some abortionists attempt to commit them in one day. In this procedure, the abortionist dismembers the baby limb from torso.

2nd Trimester Abortion | Dilation and Evacuation (D&E) | What Is Abortion?

She was in excruciating pain after the procedure, and repeatedly called Reisinger-Kindle for help. He allegedly responded callously, telling her to take Tylenol and laxatives.

“I didn’t agree with that,” she said. “It was not supposed to be that bad.”

Instead of following this advice, the woman went to the hospital, where the gruesome extent of her injuries was made clear.

Zoom In:

Emergency personnel discovered Reisinger-Kindle had left over half of the baby’s body inside her, and had also perforated her uterus. According to an expert witness report:

The patient was found to have half of a deceased pre-born human being in the right pelvis of the patient with evidence of severe and intentional trauma. The baby’s body was transected at the pelvis with no legs or feet present. Stumps of both femurs extended from the soft tissue of the torso.

The upper extremities were missing from elbow distally on both sides. The skull was crushed and no brain was present. The face was non-recognizable … there were small bony fragments in the mother’s pelvis.

“We knew from the CAT scan that she could have a perforated uterus, because you could see what looked like a human body. You could see a spine,” one of the surgeons said, and added that it was "the worst thing I’ve ever seen at surgery and I’ve been doing this for over 30 years” (emphasis added).

Parts of the baby’s skull had also adhered to the woman’s intestines.

Reisinger-Kindle allegedly refused to provide any information about the woman's case or condition to hospital staff, claiming he did not have the woman’s consent to do so.

For this, he received a mere slap on the wrist and was not only allowed to continue committing abortions, but was featured by ACOG as a guest speaker on maternal health.

Following the woman's lawsuit, Reisinger-Kindle filed a motion to strip her of her anonymity.

When a plaintiff seeks to publicly challenge reproductive healthcare providers in court — especially in a matter of statewide media interest — transparency in the proceedings is paramount. 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.

His request was ultimately granted in August of 2025, and she was identified as Michelle Hardy.

“Given the facts and circumstances of this case, the court concludes that the plaintiff and her attorney have used publicity as a sword against the defendants,” Judge Jason Bohm wrote. “Those efforts make it inequitable for the patient to simultaneously be given a shield from the same publicity.”

The Details:

Local news reported that the lawsuit against Reisinger-Kindle had been dismissed after the two parties came to a settlement agreement. Details about the settlement are not public, as the two engaged in private mediation and came to a private agreement. However, in her initial lawsuit, she claimed medical negligence and emotional distress, and sought damages in excess of $50,000.

“On July 8, 2026, the parties engaged in a private mediation and reached a settlement agreement,” Terrance Nofsinger, who represented Hardy, said.

Pretzel & Stouffer, the law firm representing Equity Clinic and Reisinger-Kindle, had no comment. In the meantime, Reisinger-Kindle is still the medical director at Equity Clinic, even though this is not his first lawsuit.

He was previously sued, and was a defendant in Massachusetts in a 2021 malpractice case involving a woman with a high-risk pregnancy.

The Bottom Line:

Reisinger-Kindle got his start working at the scandal-ridden Women’s Med Center in Dayton, Ohio, with abortionist Martin Haskell, inventor of the gruesome D&X (“partial-birth”) abortion. Women's Med Center also has a long history of injuring women.