Albuquerque, New Mexico- On Wednesday, July 19th Abortion Free New Mexico volunteers documented the sixth abortion injury of 2023 at the UNM Center for Reproductive Health abortion center. A fire engine and an ambulance were photographed onsite and a woman was taken to a local emergency room. It is unknown what injuries were incurred because the City of Albuquerque refuses to release redacted 911 calls to Abortion Free Mexico leader, Tara Shaver. First and second trimester procedures are performed up to 24 weeks (6 months) of pregnancy at this location. This abortion injury occurred just weeks after New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham launched a Reproductive Health Hotline to connect women with abortion providers throughout the state. Abortion Free New Mexico confirmed through a recorded phone call that this hotline is only referring women to pro-abortion organizations and offers little to no help to women who want to continue their pregnancies. Spokeswoman, Tara Shaver issued the following statement,
One thing is for sure, the abortion industry is determined to kill children in the womb no matter what harm may come to the women seeking these grisly invasive procedures. It is a shame that women are not told about potential complications and sometimes irreversible damage that can occur at the hands of local abortionists. Abortion is not healthcare, there is no healing involved in an abortion only death, guilt, shame and regret.”
Abortion Free New Mexico volunteers continue to be on the frontlines everyday in front of Albuquerque abortion facilities. They serve as a voice for unborn children who are scheduled to die and as a resource for women who are open to hearing about all of their options. These volunteers see first hand that the New Mexico abortion cartel is actively thwarting opportunities for women to learn about other positive alternatives to abortion. The UNM Center for Reproductive Health has recently installed a gate to prevent sidewalk counselors from interacting with women in a nearby alley and have also modified their scheduling procedures to have all abortion patients enter the abortion center during a one hour time frame each day. Abortion Free New Mexico is currently serving two women that have chosen life for their babies. Volunteers and your support are needed to reach these women with the love and hope they deserve to continue their pregnancies. To support our work please donate here and fill out our get involved form here.
Albuquerque, NM– This is the latest installment documenting the abortion landscape in New Mexico and a continuation of Abortion Free New Mexico’s exposure of the radical abortion agenda at the University of New Mexico.
In Abortion Free New Mexico’s latest undercover project that has taken viewers inside the notorious Southwestern Women’s Options (SWO) late term abortion facility, the investigation has also uncovered that the University of New Mexico (UNM), a publicly funded institution, is willing to collude with late term abortionists to deliver dead babies at UNM Hospital once a deadly injection is administered by abortionists at SWO.
The price tag of a late term abortion at Southwestern Women’s Options is a staggering $17,000, but in a SHOCKING revelation, SWO employee Susana Estorga, states that for $5,000 they would be willing to offer the fetal injection ALONE and then send the woman away to deliver the baby 2-3 days later elsewhere.
The fetal injection administered by SWO abortionists kills the baby in the womb by slowly stopping their heart over 4-6 grueling hours.
If a woman opts to obtain the fetal injection at Southwestern Women’s Options, SWO has an expectation that other OB-GYN’s will oversee the completion of the labor and delivery of the stillborn child. However, most OB-GYN’s will not participate in abortions, especially at religious hospitals, like Presbyterian in Albuquerque, so SWO is apparently relying upon the University of New Mexico’s entrenched abortion agenda and utilizes an arrangement to ensure that “injection only” patients can labor and deliver their dead babies at UNM Hospital.
In an undercover phone call placed to the Women’s and Children’s Health Care Clinic at UNM Hospital, Tara Shaver with Abortion Free New Mexico also confirmed the fact that, Lily Bayat a UNM Fellow at the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center would deliver the dead baby at UNM Hospital after Southwestern Women’s Options administered the lethal injection.
Lily Bayat holds positions at the University of New Mexico Health Sciences center in the Divisions of Family Planning and the Department of Obstetrics & Gynocology. In addition, Bayat receives an annual salary by the University New Mexico of $57,747 as a, “Visiting Instructor”.
(Second year Fellow- UNM Abortionist Lily Bayat, MD)
“Abortion Free New Mexico has exposed just how deep the collusion is between the University of New Mexico and Southwestern Women’s Options to ensure that late term abortions continue up to the day of birth. Hospitals are meant to be places where the sick go for healing, but the abortion industry is utilizing them for their own sordid death agenda.” Tara Shaver, Spokeswoman for Abortion Free New Mexico.
GLARING CONTRADICTIONS
The Albuquerque Journal published an article on December 20, 2015 titled, UNMHSC halts training at private abortion clinic in it the ABQ Journal reported that, “UNMHSC officials said last week that they will no longer send medical fellows or residents to Boyd’s clinic, which is located in Downtown Albuquerque.”
However, UNM’s website contradicts that report and still clearly states, as of publishing time of this article, October 31, 2017…
“Fellows are trained in abortion and contraception care, using evidence-based medical and surgical methods. Training occurs primarily at the UNM Center for Reproductive Health, the Albuquerque Planned Parenthood Surgical Center, and Southwestern Women’s Options (Dr. Curtis Boyd). Later second and third trimester abortions are performed at UNM Hospital and at SWO.”
In addition, Southwestern Women’s Options is currently listed as a UNM Clinical Training Site.
Despite these glaring contradictions that show a continued relationship between UNM and SWO, Abortion Free New Mexico has conclusively confirmed that a current Fellow at the University of New Mexico, Lily Bayak, is willing to work with Southwestern Women’s Options patients to complete a late term abortion at UNM Hospital once the fetal injection is administered to kill the pre-born baby.
Fr. Stephen Imbarrato: The Protest Priest with Priests for Life issued the following statement,
“The collaboration between Southwestern Women’s Options, UNM Center for Reproductive Health abortion facility, and UNM Hospital shows that UNMHSC headed by Dr Paul Roth is the heart of the New Mexico Abortion Industry.
As a taxpayer, I am appalled that tax money pays for this unnecessary bloodshed! What is worse is the knowledge that Dr. Paul Roth’s right hand man, Ryan Cangiolosi is the head of the New Mexico Republican Party! This is the “statewide conspiracy of complacency and complicity” that we have been speaking about for a decade now!”
ACTION ITEM: Abortion Free New Mexico is asking that you contact the University of New Mexico Regents and respectfully ask them to STOP ALLOWING ABORTIONISTS AT UNM HOSPITAL TO PROMOTE AND PERFORM LATE TERM ABORTIONS AT THE EXPENSE OF NEW MEXICO TAX DOLLARS. In addition, respectfully ask them to PERMENANTLY cut all ties with Planned Parenthood of New Mexico and Southwestern Women’s Options.
Report by Cheryl Sullenger, Senior Vice President of Operation Rescue
Albuquerque, NM – Tara Shaver opened the mysterious letter that arrived in the mail. She could hardly believe what she was reading.
It was an anonymous tip that informed her a woman named Keisha Atkins had died from a late-term abortion on February 4, 2017.
Shaver and her husband, Bud, who lead Abortion Free New Mexico, have spent years laboring in the pro-life trenches in Albuquerque exposing the largest late-term abortion facility in the United States, Southwestern Women’s Options, and its connections to the publicly-funded University of New Mexico.
Due to their experience and training, once serving as interns for Operation Rescue, they immediately jumped into action. They filed a public records request for Atkins’ autopsy and established a valuable line of communications with her family. They discovered that Atkins’ abortion had been done at Southwestern Women’s Options, which made perfect sense since it alone in New Mexico specializes in late-term abortions throughout all nine months of pregnancy.
They consulted with Operation Rescue over the meaning of the autopsy report. Such reports are written in technical medical jargon that is sometimes difficult for anyone without a medical background to decode. However, this correspondent has been reading autopsies concerning abortion-related deaths for decades.
It did not take long to realize that as everything was not as it seemed.
At first glance, the cause and manner of death of this initially healthy 23-year old woman was made it appear that abortion was not even a factor in Atkins’s death. The cause of death was “Pulmonary thromboembolism due to pregnancy.” Her manner of death was natural.
In other words, the autopsy findings that a blood clot formed as a result of her healthy pregnancy and coincidentally at the moment of the abortion, it traveled to her lungs and killed her.
Nothing to see here. Move along.
Once Operation Rescue and Abortion Free New Mexico announced Atkin’s death and released the public autopsy report, the Albuquerque Journal jumped all over it, declaring in their headlines, “Autopsy rules out abortion as cause of death.”
The newspaper cited the opinion of the UNM Office of the Medical Investigator that it was Atkins’ pregnancy that killed her, not the four-day late-term abortion process that Operation Rescue believes was mismanaged by eighty-year old abortionist, Curtis Boyd, and fumbled by UNM hospital where she died.
But as William Shakespeare once said, “Truth will out.”
No matter how much UNM may have tried to obfuscate what happened to Keisha Atkins, the truth seeps through in the pages of the autopsy report in descriptions of her physical condition and the complications she experienced in what must have been an excruciatingly panic-filled and painful death.
“Somehow, these people want us to believe that Atkins developed blood clots as a result of her pregnancy, and through no one’s fault, a blood clot just coincidentally moved to her lung and killed her in the middle of a late-term abortion, which, of course, played no part in her death,” said Operation Rescue President Troy Newman. “That’s ludicrous in light of the rest of the autopsy report findings.”
Here is what happened to Keisha Atkins, according to the autopsy report, information provided by her family, and documented information obtained through research by Operation Rescue.
Atkins reported to Southwestern Women’s Options, the nation’s largest late-term abortion facility, on January 31, 2017, to begin a four-day late-term abortion. She was at least six months pregnant, and may have been even farther along according to the tipster that contacted Tara Shaver.
Sometime during the ensuing days, something went wrong and Atkins developed a bacterial infection.
Possible sources for such infections during late-term abortions include:
Complications from the repeated insertion and removal of laminaria cervical dilators;
The fact that the baby in the womb is killed on Day 1 of the procedure and the woman must carry her dead fetus for days before completing the abortion;
Unsanitary conditions and/or practices by abortion facility staff.
On February 3, four days after her abortion process began, Adkins reported to Southwestern Women’s Options for the completion of her abortion. She was showing signs of a dangerous, systemic infection known as sepsis. She also displayed difficulty breathing as she was being prepared for labor. (Read more about how late-term abortions are done.)
Because of the seriousness of her condition, an ambulance was called at 12:04 p.m., but was later cancelled by the clinic, according to a 911 Computer Aided Dispatch transcript obtained by Operation Rescue. At some later point in the day, Atkins was transported by unknown means to UNM Hospital.
Once at the hospital, Atkins was tested for blood clots with negative results. The autopsy report made an effort to explain the rare false-negative test with one statistic that shows false negatives occur in as high as 10.7% of cases. (In other words, no one was at fault.)
Atkins continued to suffer shortness of breath and below base-line oxygen levels despite supplemental oxygen. She also experienced abdominal cramping pain, an elevated heart rate, and reduced ventricular function in her heart.
Additional tests of her placental tissue showed the presence of a bacterial infection. Post-mortem tests of her uterus also showed evidence of the infection.
Why is this significant to understanding the truth behind Atkins’ death?
DIC is a clotting disorder that begins with the rapid formation of small blood clots that block small blood vessels. As the clotting becomes more aggressive, it essentially strips the rest of the blood supply of the clotting factor. This typically results in hemorrhaging of the body cavity and various organs, including the brain.
In addition to bacterial infections, other causes of DIC can include retention of a dead fetus and surgery – both of which were documented in Atkins’ autopsy report.
Supposedly operating under a false-negative test for blood clots, UNM Hospital staff conducted a surgical Dilation and Evacuation (D&E) dismemberment abortion to remove the dead baby.
During the D&E procedure, Atkins suffered a fatal heart attack due to a blood clot in her lungs. Resuscitation efforts were so aggressive that her ribs were broken, yet they proved unsuccessful.
She also received “multiple blood product transfusions,” – a standard treatment for DIC – but to no avail.
Atkins was pronounced dead at 12:10 a.m. on February 4, 2017.
Atkins’ autopsy revealed “acute coagulopathy” as well as hemorrhaging in the brain (left adrenal gland), inside the abdominal cavity, and from the uterus. She also had a massive build-up of serous fluid around her lungs.
How do we know she hemorrhaged from the uterus when that is not specifically mentioned in the report? There was a curious notation in the initial description of Atkins’s body that stood out.
The UNM coroner’s determination that Atkins died from “Pulminary thromboembolism due to pregnancy” is suspect, at best.
These are a few of the symptoms described or strongly inferred in Atkins’ autopsy report thatthe coroner’s opinion does not account for
Uterine hemorrhaging;
Hemorrhaging in the brain;
Blood found in the abdominal cavity;
A large amount of serous fluid found around the lungs, (over 40 ounces);
Bruising of the extremities (another symptom of DIC).
The UNM cause of death also does not account for the multiple transfusions of blood products she was given at the UNM hospital.
These symptoms do not make sense in light of a random blood clot in the lungs. However, they do make sense in light of the clotting and hemorrhaging that exemplifies DIC.
It more likely that during Atkins’ four-day abortion process — during which she retained the body of her dead baby — a bacterial infection turned septic and initiated a fatal cascade of symptoms associated with Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation.
It is Operation Rescue’s opinion, based the facts found in the autopsy report, that the UNM cause of death determination is simply not the truth.
The abortion facilities involved in patient deaths first try to conceal the fact that a patient died. If that doesn’t work, the abortion businesses immediately attempt to deny any culpability for their patient’s death.
What is the easiest way to do that? Whitewash the truth by blaming the woman and/or her pregnancy.
The leftist mainstream media is usually a willing co-conspirator in the cover up, and the response to the Atkins death was no exception.
Once Operation Rescue and Abortion Free New Mexico announced Atkin’s death and released the autopsy report – a public record — the Albuquerque Journal jumped all over it, declaring in their headlines, “Autopsy rules out abortion as cause of death.”
The newspaper cited the opinion of the UNM Office of the Medical Investigator that it was Atkins’ pregnancy that killed her, not the four-day late-term abortion process that Operation Rescue believes was mismanaged her eighty-year old abortionist, Curtis Boyd, and fumbled by UNM hospital where she died.
UNM’s own autopsy report described in detail compelling evidence that it was complications from the abortion process that killed Keisha Atkins – not her pregnancy.
There can be no doubt that if Keisha Atkins had not endured the process of a four-day late-term abortion, she would be alive today.
So why the attempt to obfuscate the true cause of death?
UNM and Southwestern Women’s Options are partners in the trade in aborted baby remains. SWO is the sole supplier of aborted baby tissue and organs to UNM. Both are under criminal investigation by the Attorney General’s office based on a complaint filed by Tara Shaver of Abortion Free New Mexico and criminal referrals issued by the House Select Investigative Panel on Infant Lives.
This gives them UNM and SWO motive to nefariously ascribe the death of Keisha Atkins to her pregnancy in order to prevent another abortion-related scandal in the middle of a criminal investigation into their alleged participation in the illegal baby body parts trade.
This may also be why there was no notation of the weight of the dismembered remains of Atkins’ baby in the autopsy report. While the baby’s remains were present during the autopsy, revealing the weight might also reveal the truth about how far along Atkins’ pregnancy really was.
On a side note, some have expressed misplaced concern that the autopsy report was made public, and that its release may have compromised Atkins’ privacy, or more absurdly, her legal rights as a dead person. In reality, there is no legal issue with making a public document available to the public.
In fact, its release is actually a public service. The people have a right to know what is going on at SWO and UNM, especially because they are both recipients of public funds. They have a right to know that not everything is as it appears in the left-wing Albuquerque Journal.
When abortion is involved, concealing the truth that seeps through in these public documents only serves to aid the abortionists and their associates, who are desperately trying to diffuse any controversy around Atkins death.
Tara Shaver’s anonymous tipster apparently had a sense that something was very wrong in the way Keisha Atkins’ death occurred and how it was handled after the fact. And that person’s instincts were right.
If this information can prevent others from suffering Atkins’ fate, it is morally imperative to make sure the public – as well as the authorities investigating UNM and SWO — knows about it.
Operation Rescue urges the New Mexico Medical Board and the Attorney General’s office to aggressively investigate Keisha Atkins’ death, and bring those responsible for it and its cover-up to justice.
Keisha Maria Atkins, 23, died on February 4, 2017 — four days into a late-term abortion process at Southwestern Women’s Options abortion facility in Albuquerque, NM.
Report by Cheryl Sullenger, Senior Vice President of Operation Rescue
Albuquerque, NM – A woman has died as the result of a late-term abortion process initiated at Southwestern Women’s Options (SWO), in Albuquerque, New Mexico, which is the largest abortion facility in the U.S. that openly specializes in abortions throughout all nine months of pregnancy.
Abortion Free New Mexico obtained the autopsy report for Keisha Marie Atkins, 23, who died on February 4, 2017, after being transported from SWO to UNM Hospital. Tara Shaver of Abortion Free New Mexico has also been in communication with members of Atkins’ family.
Operation Rescue is assisting Abortion Free New Mexico with an investigation of this tragedy.
This abortion-related death is particularly troubling in light of a criminal investigation that is currently underway by the New Mexico Attorney General’s Office into Southwestern Women’s Options and UNM. UNM has aggressively worked to increase second and third trimester abortions at SWO, which, in turn, is UNM’s largest provider of aborted baby tissue and organs. A U.S. House investigation found this arrangement violates state and federal law, despite stonewalling and obfuscation on the part of UNM and SWO.
Atkins reported to SWO on January 31, 2017, for a four day late-term abortion procedure that was to be done by eighty-year old abortion facility owner Curtis Boyd. It is believed that Atkins was six months pregnant or more.
Four days later, on February 3, 2017, Atkins returned to SWO for the completion of the abortion where she displayed labored breathing and signs of sepsis, a systemic, life-threatening infection.
At 12:04 p.m. on February 3, an ambulance was called to transport Atkins to the hospital, but was later cancelled, raising questions of how and when Atkins actually received emergency medical help.
Once at the UNM Medical Center, Atkins’ condition deteriorated rapidly, prompting UNM staff to perform an emergency D&E abortion procedure to remove her baby through dismemberment.
During the procedure, Atkins suffered cardiac arrest. Efforts to revive her were unsuccessful, and she was pronounced dead at 12:10 a.m. on February 4, 2017.
An autopsy was conducted at the UNM Health Sciences Center by the UNM Office of the Medical Investigator, which also serves as the Bernadillo County Coroner. The OMI determined that Atkins cause of death was “pulmonary thromboembolism due to pregnancy,” in other words, blood clots in the lungs.
However, a careful review of the autopsy findings indicates that this cause of death is a whitewash meant to blame Atkins’ pregnancy for her death instead of what appears to be a mismanaged late-term abortion procedure.
“UNM is a biased promoter of abortion that is attempting to shift blame onto Atkins’ pregnancy, instead of the abortion, where the blame rightfully belongs,” said Troy Newman, President of Operation Rescue. “Keisha Atkins and her family deserve the truth, not a cover-up. But with UNM and SWO, covering up their misdeeds has become standard operating procedure.”
There is evidence that Atkins suffered from sepsis, a bacterial infection caused by the four-day abortion process, which brought about symptoms consistent with Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation (DIC). Atkins suffered hemorrhaging in her brain, a buildup of fluid around her lungs, and other symptoms of DIC that the autopsy ignored.
Pro-life leaders believe there is a way to keep other women from suffering Atkins’ fate.
“We call on the New Mexico Attorney General to step up their criminal investigation, and we call on the State Medical Board to take a hard, honest look at Keisha Atkins’ death,” Newman said. “Curtis Boyd should be stopped from practicing, and the dangerous Southwestern Women’s Options should be shut down for good.”
“Coverups are as heinous as the crimes, and the crimes of the abortion cartel in New Mexico have been covered up for too many years. It is time for Hector Balderas to do his job or resign. It is time for the UNM Regents to do their jobs or resign. It is time for the New Mexico Medical Board to fully investigate Keisha’s death without bias,” said Fr. Stephen Imbarrato, The Protest Priest.
“We join the family of Keisha Atkins as they grieve her death from serious complications during a late term abortion at Southwestern Women’s Options. She was a 23-year old vibrant woman with her whole life ahead of her that was tragically cut short,” stated Tara Shaver of Abortion Free New Mexico. “For years we have worked to expose the barbaric nature of late term abortion in New Mexico and sought to bring accountability to the unregulated and unaccountable Abortion Cartel. Now more than ever, we need leadership in our city and state to take a bold stand and the necessary steps to prevent the needless deaths of women and their children through late term abortion.”
