“She stopped having a pulse…”
By Ricardo Pinedo
Springfield, IL – Two medical emergencies just two days apart at unregulated Illinois abortion facilities raise serious concerns about patient safety and transparency — and beg the question whether women and girls are being adequately informed about the potential risks associated with abortion procedures.
A 15-year-old at risk
On July 22, 2026, eyewitnesses on the scene reported a new medical emergency at the Hope Clinic for Women in Granite City, Illinois.
Operation Rescue obtained the EMS radio dispatch about an emergency transport for a 15-year-old girl experiencing a “high heart rate,” likely following an abortion.
A rapid heart rate after an abortion can have many possible causes, including anxiety, fear, pain, dehydration, reactions to misoprostol, blood loss, or life-threatening medical conditions like incomplete abortion and abortion with septic shock.
But an alarming and important fact must be highlighted: a 15-year-old girl likely experienced a post-abortion medical emergency serious enough to require transportation to a hospital.
That, alone, deserves attention.
Another vital fact to note about this tragic incident is how it could have easily been prevented if Illinois had different laws governing parental involvement when minors seek abortions.
Abortion and emergency without parental notification
Illinois previously had a parental-notice requirement for minors seeking abortions. That law was repealed in 2022, and the Illinois General Assembly’s current statutes identify the former Parental Notice of Abortion Act as abolished.
Today, Illinois law does not require a minor to provide parental notice before seeking an abortion, let alone to obtain parental consent. The state’s Reproductive Health Act establishes abortion as a “fundamental right” and states that women — underage girls included — have “the right to make the decision” to have an abortion. In practical terms, the Illinois pro-abortion policy means that someone’s child can generally obtain an abortion in Illinois without her parents being notified by the girl or her abortionist.
“Sadly, a 15-year-old girl likely suffered complications after her abortion so serious they required emergency hospitalization. And, according to Illinois law, her parents probably did not even know she was pregnant or having an abortion, let alone suffering a medical emergency,” says Operation Rescue President Troy Newman. “It is an atrocity that a child can undergo a significant medical procedure and experience a severe medical emergency without her parents ever knowing.”
This raises a legitimate concern that deserves to be discussed outside the usual political realm: When an underage girl undergoes an abortion — whether surgical or medical — and experiences a life-threatening emergency as a result, should her parents be excluded from knowing that the procedure occurred and precipitated the emergency? What if the abortion is hiding sexual abuse or rape? What if there is a medical history the child is unaware of before the procedure? What if she succumbs to complications before the parents have any chance to arrive at her bedside?
“Parents may have important knowledge about their child’s medical history, medications, allergies, previous reactions to anesthesia, or other conditions that could be relevant in situations like this,” says Newman, “and if something goes wrong, parents are usually the people ultimately responsible for advocating for their child’s wellbeing and helping her obtain follow-up care. But — once more — the abortion cartel and radicalized Illinois have placed the sacred cow of abortion above the parents’ right to care for their child.”
Another emergency: no pulse
Two days after this 15-year-old was victimized by an unregulated abortion clinic, another post-abortion medical emergency was reported by eyewitnesses on July 24, 2026. This one occurred at Planned Parenthood’s Aurora facility right outside of Chicago.
As a 21-year-old woman underwent a surgical abortionher vital signs began to deteriorate. The Planned Parenthood staffer told 911 dispatch: “She’s being sedated and, at some point, she stopped having a pulse.” A pulse dropping too low to detect is symptomatic of a person in serious, critical condition and requires immediate medical intervention.
Not only that, the caller also used the informal medical term “destatting,” which means that the patient’s blood oxygen saturation was falling. A drop in oxygen saturation can have multiple causes that can include problems with breathing or the airway, negative effects from sedation or anesthesia, pulmonary complications, or other serious issues such as significant blood loss. In any case, it is clear that a patient whose oxygen saturation is falling during an abortion could indicate a life-threatening emergency — something abortion clinics are not equipped to handle, hence the 911 call..
What happened to this college-aged woman afterward? Were emergency personnel and hospital staff able to save her life? How is she doing today? Nobody knows.
Serious complications such as hers are not uncommon during and after abortions, yet clinic workers and spokespersons for the abortion cartel keep trying to cover these emergencies in secrecy and label abortion as “safe.”
Women and girls deserve truth and transparency
Several things make these two reports particularly concerning. One, that each one happened in a so-called ‘clinic’ no longer required to be inspected or licensed by the state of Illinois. Operation Rescue has investigated around 30 abortion injuries in Illinois clinics in less than two years while state officials give abortion clinics a free pass.
Two, emergencies like these do not exist in isolation.
Operation Rescue has documented hundreds of emergency transports from abortion facilities across the nation, including multiple emergencies at both the hopeless ‘Hope Clinic’ in Granite City and Planned Parenthood in Aurora. Dozens of other abortion facilities, including those ofPlanned Parenthood, also regularly have patients suffer abortion complications – some have even died.
“Women deserve the truth,” Newman says. “We know abortion is dangerous, and we can prove it. Meanwhile, the abortion cartel hides behind claims of being ‘pro-woman’ and ‘pro-choice’ yet never shows women the dangerous and life-threatening complications like the two that recently occurred. When a woman — or, in some cases, a teenage child — experiences significant bleeding, a dramatic change in vital signs, difficulty breathing, an abnormal heart rate, infection, or other potentially deadly medical emergencies, the public should be able to expect and receive accurate reporting, women should be able to expect truthful informed consent, and state officials should want to ensure appropriate investigation.”
When laws or consent policies that purport to be protecting something repeatedly fail women, children, parents, and the public — such as in these cases, and so many more — lawmakers must not pretend that a lack of accountability and honesty for the abortion cartel is completely harmless, let alone good.
Operation Rescue will continue to investigate every emergency reported to it in the state of Illinois, exposing what is really going on in these unregulated abortion businesses and how much harm is being done to mothers and their preborn children by a dangerous, exploitative industry and callous state officials and legislators.
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