The death of a woman after an abortion at a clinic in Tuscaloosa has been under investigation by state officials following complaints by anti-abortion groups.
The group CEC for Life released details about the death this week, saying a woman seemed to be struggling to get to a car after she left the West Alabama Women’s Center on May 7.
Tuscaloosa County Sheriff’s Office Capt. Jack Kennedy, head of the Tuscaloosa County Violent Crimes Unit, said his office investigated the case along with an investigator for the Board of Medical Examiners and found no basis for criminal charges.
“We did do an initial investigation,” Kennedy said. “We haven’t been able to come up with anything we could prosecute anyone for. It’s a death under medical supervision.”
The Alabama Board of Medical Examiners is reviewing the case after a patient who left the clinic later died at UAB Hospital that same day. The board reviews complaints against doctors and can impose sanctions. “The incident has been reported to the Alabama Board of Medical Examiners who currently have this matter under investigation,” Kennedy said in a statement released this afternoon.
Anti-abortion activist groups said the physician on duty was Dr. Louis Payne, 81, who co-founded the clinic in 1993. Efforts to reach Payne for comment were unsuccessful.
Payne retired this summer and was replaced as medical director by Dr. Leah Torres, who referred requests for comment to a spokesperson for the clinic.
“Due to privacy laws, West Alabama Women’s Center cannot make any comment at this time,” said Robin Marty, communications director for the West Alabama Women’s Center. “We continue to uphold the highest standards of care for all of our patients.”
Marty said the clinic is no longer in contact with Payne.
The Rev. Terry Gensemer, founder and director of Charismatic Episcopal Church for Life, said sidewalk counselors from the group Pro-Life Tuscaloosa were outside the clinic and expressed concern when they saw the woman struggling and being assisted as she walked to a car on the way out of the clinic. He said the woman appeared to be in her thirties. The activists say that a clinic employee told them that the woman later died.
Gensemer’s organization released a statement about the incident after making complaints to the Board of Medical Examiners and the Alabama Department of Public Health, which oversees clinics. They also requested that an autopsy be made available to show a cause of death. Tuscaloosa County does not have a medical examiner’s office, Kennedy said, and medical investigations of death are handled by the Alabama Department of Forensics. AL.com left a request for comment with the Department of Forensics but has not heard back yet.
Sarah Neely, an assistant to Gensemer at CEC for Life, said Pro-Life Tuscaloosa plans to rally with a “Prayer in the Park” event at Snow Hinton Park on Saturday, Aug. 15, at 10 a.m., with guests including State Sen. Gerald Allen.
Neely said the group is not trying to violate the privacy of the dead woman’s family.
“We’re not interested in making her name known,” Neely said. “The reason we requested the autopsy was to see what her cause of death was.”
Witnesses who were there questioned whether the woman was getting adequate medical assistance, she said.
“Was everything done that could be done to prevent her death?” Neely said. “If there was wrongdoing, that should be made public.”
The West Alabama Women’s Center performed 3,371 abortions in 2018, out of 6,484 that year statewide, according to the Alabama Center for Health Statistics.
The clinic made national news earlier this year when it was purchased by the Yellowhammer Fund, a non-profit organization that provides financial assistance for abortions in Alabama.
The Yellowhammer Fund received a large influx of donations after Alabama passed the nation’s most restrictive law on abortion in 2019. The law would have banned nearly all abortions, but U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson blocked the ban with a preliminary injunction in October 2019, saying it was unconstitutional.
The West Alabama Women’s Center has been one of only three clinics regularly performing abortions in Alabama the past two years, along with Alabama Women’s Center for Reproductive Alternatives in Huntsville, where 1,823 abortions were done in 2018, and Reproductive Health Services in Montgomery, which did 1,286 abortions in 2018. USA Children and Women’s Center in Mobile and Brookwood Medical Center in Birmingham each reported performing two induced pregnancy terminations in 2018.
Planned Parenthood Southeast opened its new clinic in downtown Birmingham in July and plans to offer abortion services there beginning this fall.
