An Ohio woman has filed a lawsuit against her doctor boyfriend after he allegedly forced her to take crushed-up abortion pills.
As The Daily Signal previously reported, Dr. Hassan Abbas, a Toledo surgical resident, is facing felony charges after allegedly forcing his girlfriend to ingest crushed-up pills after she informed him that she was pregnant.
Kelle Saull, the attorney for the alleged victim, told The Daily Signal, “We have filed suit against Dr. Hassan Abbas, his father Dr. Jihad Abbas, and both UTMC and ProMedica.”
“We will not rest until justice is served in this case,” Saull added.
Abbas had his license suspended last month by the University of Toledo Medical Center over the accusations.
“Dr. Hassan Abbas has now been indicted and placed on leave,” Saull continued. “His employers only placed him on leave after the medical board summarily suspended him; but the victim is relieved it finally happened and she and the public are being protected.”
A Recap and an Update
Abbas’ license was suspended last month following allegations that he forced his pregnant girlfriend to ingest crushed-up pills to induce an abortion.
After she was forced to take the pills, the alleged victim reportedly fought to get to the kitchen and called 911. But Abbas reportedly took her phone and hung up the call.
The victim then drove herself to the hospital and lost the baby.
Abbas is said to have ordered abortion pills online under his estranged wife’s name, birthday, and driver’s license number without her knowledge or consent.
The charges filed last week, according to WTOL 11, include abduction (third-degree felony), tampering with evidence, unlawful distribution of an abortion-inducing drug, disrupting public services, identity fraud, and deception to obtain a dangerous drug.
Abbas was indicted by a grand jury in Lucas County and is to be arraigned on Dec. 19.
The Daily Signal reached out to prosecutors. A public information officer refrained from commenting, “due to the ongoing nature of the matter,” but provided a copy of the indictment against Abbas in response.
Civil Lawsuits
ProMedica and the University of Toledo Medical Center are now facing civil lawsuits, according to reporting from WTOL 11.
WTOL 11 noted that Abbas was placed in a fellowship program at ProMedica’s Jobst Vascular Institute, where his father, Dr. Jihad Abbas, is the director of the vascular surgery fellowship program.
The woman now suing the father and son claims that ProMedica and the University of Toledo Medical Center were made aware of the allegations against Hassan Abbas, and yet still failed to fulfill reporting obligations.
ProMedica told The Daily Signal it is aware of the suit against them and plans on addressing “multiple inaccuracies.”
“It is important to note that Dr. Hassan Abbas has never been employed by ProMedica,” shared ProMedica Associate Vice President of Strategic Communications Tausha Moore. “Earlier this year, Dr. Hassan Abbas matched with a ProMedica fellowship program set to begin in mid-2026. Since then, ProMedica has initiated the formal process with the National Resident Matching Program to waive his fellowship match.”
“We are aware of a recent civil suit involving Dr. Hassan Abbas, a resident at the UToledo College of Medicine and Life Sciences, and his father, which revolves around personal matters that are unrelated to our organization,” Moore added. “We have noted multiple inaccuracies in the civil suit filing and plan to address them through the appropriate legal channels.”
The Daily Signal reached out to the University of Toledo but did not hear back.
The University of Toledo Medical Center told WTOL 11 it is not aware of any litigation and pointed to Abbas being on administrative leave.
Concerns With Abortion Method as Prevalent as Ever
Pro-life groups have pointed to how Biden-era regulations have made the abortion pill method particularly dangerous, especially as one can acquire pills online.
“This shocking case shows how easy it is to obtain dangerous abortion drugs,” Ohio Right to Life Executive Director Carrie Snyder shared with The Daily Signal. She also referred to this method as “the new back alley,” adding that “pregnant women with unsupportive partners are clearly at risk of forced abortion.”
Snyder spoke to the role the Food and Drug Administration plays as well, especially given the known side effects of these kinds of abortions.
“The FDA should reinstate basic protocols to include an in-person visit before mifepristone can be prescribed. Mifepristone has been shown to cause hemorrhage, infection, sepsis, and other severe adverse events in over 10% of women who take it,” Snyder said. “This drug is never safe for a baby and obviously isn’t safe for women either.”
The Daily Signal’s Elizabeth Mitchell recently sat down with FDA Commissioner Marty Makary, with Makary offering that they are in the “data acquisition phase” of a study on the abortion pill.
Pro-life lawmakers and groups are still calling for more to be done against the abortion pill, however.
Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America is one of those groups and has pointed to the Toledo tragedy as evidence that more action needs to be taken.
Marjorie Dannenfelser, the group’s president, told The Daily Signal, “Abortion drug crimes like those that occurred in Toledo are not isolated incidents.”
“These poisonings are the frightening new wave of domestic violence, thanks to the Biden mail-order rule that enables abusers to get their hands on deadly drugs,” Dannenfelser continued. “The profit-driven abortion industry is perfectly happy to sell them by app, ‘completely free of face-to-face interaction with a clinician,’ with no one really checking who’s on the other end.”
“The result is women end up in the ER and their babies die, even when they themselves never considered abortion,” Dannenfelser said.
Dannenfelser also brought up the Trump administration.
“It’s time for an honest national conversation about the harm of mail-order abortion drugs, which in many ways resembles the opioid crisis and threatens to tear the states apart,” Dannenfelser claimed. “And while the FDA should follow through on its promised safety review, they don’t have to wait to restore safeguards like in-person doctor visits from the first Trump administration.”