A Colorado teen died following complications after an abortion and Planned Parenthood allegedly delaying her emergency transport, prompting a pro-life activist organization to investigate.
Operation Rescue has launched an investigation into the death of Alexis “Lexi” Arguello, an 18-year-old Colorado girl who died in February after an abortion at the Fort Collins Planned Parenthood facility.
“Our team has been gathering information on this death for weeks, slowly piecing together exactly what happened,” Sarah Neely, chief operating officer of Operation Rescue, told Pregnancy Help News.
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“On March 12, however, testimony during a hearing with the Colorado Committee of Health and Human Services confirmed everything we have been investigating, including Planned Parenthood’s suspected failings,” Neely said.
On February 6, Arguello went to the Fort Collins Planned Parenthood for a second trimester abortion.
According to Operation Rescue, Arguello was at 20 weeks’ gestation.
However, in testimony before the Colorado House Health and Human Services Committee, Dr. Keri Kasun told committee members that Arguello was actually at 22 weeks, citing family members’ accounts. Kasun is indirectly related to and consulted by Arguello’s family, according to Neely. Arguello’s family members asked Dr. Kasun to testify at the hearing.
The hearing before the Colorado House committee was concerning HB25-1252, which would have mandated that abortion facilities adhere to the regulations and reporting requirements imposed on other ambulatory care centers in the state.
Troy Newman, president of Operation Rescue, said of Arguello’s case in a press statement:
“This young woman was nearly six months along in her pregnancy. The later in pregnancy a woman has an abortion, the higher the risk of complications. Did anyone tell Lexi about that risk before she chose to undergo a procedure that ultimately cost her life, along with the life of her child?”
“Lexi’s grandparents were called to the hospital on February 6,” Dr. Kasun said in her testimony before the committee. “This is the first time they learned of Lexi’s pregnancy.
Kasun continued:
“The grandfather shared with me the hospital experience. He could see the heroic efforts the doctors were doing to save her life, and he could see the deep concern in their faces that the situation was very dire. Her vitals were all over the place, the oxygen levels were horrible. After multiple doses of epi and seven liters of blood, his granddaughter’s blood pressure dropped—her heart rate and blood pressure dropped—and he seen in his granddaughter’s face that it was her end.”
Kasun reported that Arguello experienced an amniotic fluid embolism (AFE), a life-threatening complication with a high death rate. When amniotic fluid enters the mother’s bloodstream, it can cause a number of serious and sudden reactions, including cardiac arrest and bleeding.
A case study of AFE published in the NIH National Library of Medicine in 2022 states, “suspicion of AFE should prompt a multidisciplinary team including anaesthesia, respiratory therapy, critical care, and maternal-foetal medicine to be involved in the ongoing care of women with AFE.”
“From everything we’ve seen so far, that was the cause of death, but that can be caused by abortion or delivery,” Neely told Pregnancy Help News. “And then there is Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation (DIC), that is an effect of AFE. When we examine autopsies, they don’t usually cite abortion as cause of death, they usually put something else, like hemorrhage. Autopsies will report injuries, like a perforated uterus. We don’t have those details yet, but we’re working on them.”
“Abortion clinics are not equipped for critical care,” Neely said in Operation Rescue’s statement. “We request dozens and dozens of 911 calls every year proving this fact. Planned Parenthood Fort Collins not only had zero ability to address this life-threatening complication, but testimony from Dr. Kasun shows they made Lexi’s situation even worse, callously trying to protect their clinic over saving this girl’s life.”
Tweet This: Operation Rescue is investigating the death of Alexis Arguello, 18, who died after an abortion at the Fort Collins Planned Parenthood.
Kasun said in the latter part of her testimony:
“So, Lexi’s grandfather was told by the abortion providers that Lexi was transferred too late. She didn’t receive the urgency of care that would be required in order to have a chance to survive this condition. Instead, she got the silent siren treatment.”
According to Lexi’s grandparents, Planned Parenthood admitted to waiting far too long to call an ambulance.
When the abortion facility’s personnel did call, they apparently requested no sirens, according to Operation Rescue.
The group’s press release contends:
“This is a well-known tactic among abortion clinics. Instead of prioritizing patients whose lives are hanging in the balance, abortion clinics would rather delay critical care by trying to downplay the necessity of emergency transport with no lights or sirens.”
“Planned Parenthood does not care about women,” Newman said.
“This Planned Parenthood did not care if Lexi Arguello survived her complications,” she said. “If they had, staff would have called an ambulance the minute she exhibited symptoms, and they would have requested lights, sirens, and any other measures that might have saved Lexi’s life.”
Operation Rescue said sidewalk counselors demonstrating at the Fort Collins Planned Parenthood facility report that emergency vehicles arriving there are directed to go through the neighboring properties without sirens and out of sight, rather than using the more accessible main entrance.
“This is an ongoing investigation," Neely said, "and Operation Rescue will not stop until every legal avenue has been pursued."
