AAPLOG Colorado’s Statement on Lexi Arguello’s Autopsy 

June 19, 2026 

Lexi Arguello’s death February 6, 2025 in Fort Collins, Colorado, was a tragic loss to her family and those who knew her, and we extend our sincere sympathy.  

Despite the abortion industry’s repeated claims that abortion is “safe and effective” and “essential healthcare,” Lexi’s tragic death reflects the stark reality to the contrary. These mantras presume that high-quality care is provided by qualified medical professionals in facilities that meet medical safety standards appropriate for the risk of the procedures provided.  Most people seeking abortion assume that because abortion is often called “healthcare,” the facility is licensed and regulated, and that there is a government authority that investigates poor outcomes, including deaths.  This is not the case in Colorado. 

Abortion facilities are not simply clinics.  Most medical offices, except rural community clinics and federally qualified clinics, are not regulated by the Department of Health, because they do not perform procedures with significant risk.  Facilities that perform second and third trimester abortions are performing high-risk procedures, and they should be licensed, regulated, and inspected at least comparably to other facilities performing outpatient surgeries and inductions of labor with complex delivery. 

While later abortions are sold to the public as necessary for a woman’s health, or anomalies of the baby, in Arizona, one of the few states that reports statistics, 80% are performed on healthy women and healthy babies.  Induced abortion complications and deaths are especially tragic, because a risky surgical procedure is being performed with no medical indication or diagnosis. Medical professionals are ethically responsible for informing their patients of risk/ benefit considerations as part of informed consent: is the risk of the procedure outweighed by the medical benefit of the procedure?  There is no medical benefit for women undergoing elective abortion, only the risk of harm.  Every complication from induced abortion is specifically caused by the drug or medical procedure (iatrogenic). Abortions after the first trimester are especially risky, with exponentially increasing risk for each additional week of pregnancy. 

For Lexi, her risk from the abortion was ultimately death. If a young woman died from elective plastic surgery, people would be in an uproar.  Instead, the coroner attempted to hide the facts surrounding Lexi’s death from the public so that other women wouldn’t be deterred from seeking “reproductive healthcare.”  Women deserve to know the whole truth about the risks of induced abortion before making such a consequential decision, which may include death. 

The coroner concluded that her death was directly caused by the late second-trimester abortion. His medical opinion was that the probable diagnosis was “amniotic fluid embolism.”  This is not a definitive diagnosis, but one made by exclusion of other possible diagnoses.   Amniotic fluid embolism (AFE) is an extremely rare event which is unique and specific to the circumstances of a delivery or induced abortion.  Factorsi that are associated with AFE, which are present in a second trimester induced abortion, include trauma to the uteroplacental interface by instruments, induction of labor – often used for cervical dilation in later abortions, and premature gestational age.     

While we cannot know for certain, it is highly unlikely that she would have suffered an amniotic fluid embolus from natural childbirth at term.  Among the most important factors for survival from AFE are the promptness of recognition, and rapidity of access to ICU care and blood products.  The coroner does not comment on her medical records from the abortion facility, whether there were delays in transport, appropriateness of management prior to arriving at the hospital, or other medical details.   

Last year, there were at least seven ambulance transfers of women from the same Fort Collins abortion facility to the local hospital.  This year there have already been at least five ambulance transfers.  In Colorado, the Colorado Department of Health (CDPHE) has no authority to investigate. 

When will Coloradans and legislators wake up to the harms that are happening to women from later abortions complicated by lack of CDPHE oversight, in addition to the death of babies that are often capable of surviving if they are delivered and provided appropriate care?  How many more women must die? 

Colorado citizens deserve to know the harms that are happening to women and children in our state. Colorado legislators have a duty to protect women and must not exempt abortion facilities from the standards applied elsewhere in medicine. Facilities performing abortions after the first trimester should be licensed, regulated, and subject to oversight just like other healthcare facilities performing procedures of similar complexity and risk.