January 4, 2020: Bilateral Pulmonary Embolism After RU-486

Two FAERs reports were independently submitted to the FDA that appear to be about the same woman. Both reports agree that 27-year-old “Brandy” underwent a chemical abortion with mifepristone and misoprostol in the United States. She was likely in intense pain, because she took Ibuprofen, Tylenol with codeine and promethazine. She died of an embolism that lodged in her pulmonary artery.

The two reports on Brandy’s death were each submitted by medical professionals. They are almost perfectly consistent except for the date of death. One report gives the date as January 3, 2020 and the other one says January 4, 2020. Brandy may have died very close to midnight, with her exact time of death uncertain or unclear.

The Adverse Events Summary report for mifepristone published the next year included a death from “bilateral pulmonary embolism” that was not included in the summary for 2019.

January 3, 1984: Teen Dies of Embolism After Abortion

Grok AI Illustration

Loretta Morton was 16 years old when she underwent a legal abortion in December of 1983. She was sent home with birth control pills.

On January 3, 1984, Loretta was at home, and having trouble breathing. Her mother called for an ambulance.

The ambulance crew assessed Loretta, decided she was stable, and left. They were called back ten minutes later because Loretta had lost consciousness.

The crew rushed Loretta to a hospital, but attempts to resuscitate her were in vain. Within an hour of having lost consciousness, she was dead.

An autopsy showed that she had died from a pulmonary embolism from the abortion.

An online search revealed that Loretta was yet another young Black girl on the altar of choice.

Watch Another Black Teen's Abortion Death on YouTube.

Sources: 

• "Fatal Pulmonary Embolism During Legal Induced Abortion in the United States from 1972-1985," Lawson, et al., American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, April 1990
• Oregon Certificate of Death # 84-000045
• Multnomah County (OR) Circuit Court, Case # A8503-01905

January 3, 1866: Abortifacient and Pregnancy Scare Prove Fatal

SUMMARY: Aurora Heaton, age 23, died in St. Louis, MO January 3, 1866 after taking oil of cedar as an abortifacient.

An inquest was held in St. Louis, Missouri, regarding the January 3, 1866 death of 23-year-old Aurora Heaton.

The deceased was tall and well formed, with prepossessing features, and an attractive appearance. She was a native of Illinois; lately resided at Carbondale, with her mother and stepfather; she sewed for a livelihood, and made herself generally useful. Having arrived at that period of life when her company was sought for by the young men, she became wearied of her rural abode and found no pleasure in the rustic society of her village home. She longed to revel in the gaities of city life, and to associate with the more polished inhabitants of the metropolis. About six weeks ago she came to this city, and through the assistance of friends she obtained employment ... where she remained ... until about two weeks ago, when she removed to Mr. Gallagher's.

Before coming to this city, Miss Heaton became acquainted with a young Scotchman named Isaac McDonald, and while here the acquaintance ripened into intimacy, and finally into an ardent attachment. McDonald was a student at Stewart's Commercial College. Feeling that their intimacy would lead to unpleasant consequences, the young girl took certain medicines to prevent those dreaded consequences.

Grok AI Illustration

Aurora and Isaac went out for a walk along the river, evidently discussing Aurora's symptoms of pregnancy. They bought something at a drug store before Isaac returned to college. He wrote Aurora the following letter:

St. Louis, Dec. 10, 1865

My Dear Little Yankee: How are you this morning? I trust in God you are all right, or at least have some symptoms of becoming so. Under my present circumstances, I hope for, in fact, both of our welfares, that nothing of the kind will occur that we have reasons to be afraid of.

....

But my present desire in writing to you was to inform you of the fact I have bought your furs; the sale was announced and came off yesterday morning, as I anticipated. ....

I will look for you on Thursday afternoon, sure. I remain your little Scotchman,

Isaac McDonald

Aurora wrote back:

St. Louis, Dec. 10

My Dear Little Scotchman: received your kind note this afternoon, but I am sorry I disturb your mind when I come to see you. I ought to be a comfort to you, but instead of that I cause you nothing but trouble. I am likely to cause you more, for that medicine hasn't taken any effect. O, Isaac, I feel sorry to cause you so much trouble and expense, when you are not making anything. God knows the trouble I am in about it. I am sorry I let you get the furs, for that would have helped a little; but I hope you haven't paid any more than what I gave you.

I think you had better go to the doctor and see how much he will ask you. he must do something soon, for I would rather die than have that about me, and me not married.

I pray, Isaac, you will not think any the less of your little Yankee for the trouble and expense she is causing you. I will come own Thursday afternoon, if I possibly can. .... Good night!

From your Little Yankee

After writing to Isaac, Aurora went to another drug store, where she bought two ounces of oil of cedar, "medicine used as a diuretic and emmenagogue for female sickness and for other purposes; sometimes used by women to procure abortion." Aurora took a one-ounce dose on Tuesday night. Some time between 10:00 and 11:00 she went into convulsions, then fell into a coma. She was dead just after midnight.

The post-mortem examination found some oil of cedar still in her stomach. Not only were there no signs of sickness in any of Aurora's organs -- there were also no signs of pregnancy.

Legalization didn't abolish either abortifacient use or abortions on women who only thought they were pregnant.

"Sharon" decided to perform an abortion on herself in 1978 using pennyroyal, and Kris Humphrey made the same choice in 1994, both with fatal results. in 1971, "Sandra" took her own life in anguish after an abortion, and in 1989, Synthia Dennard bled to death from an abortion; neither woman had actually been pregnant.

Source: "Seduction and Death", New York Times, Jan. 7, 1866

January 2, 1878: Fatal Abortion Perpetrated by Babydaddy

A St. Louis grand jury indicted Charles Emerich in the 1878 abortion death of 19-year-old Maggie Gibbons.

Grok AI illustration

Emerich, a married man, owned a laundry where many young women worked. Maggie lived with her mother and brother in the northern part of St. Louis, Missouri.

When she told him she was pregnant in December of 1877, Emerich went to Dr. Thomas F. Smith, who provided abortifacient powders which failed to produce the desired effect. 

It was then that instruments were resorted to. It is unclear whether Smith perpetrated the fatal abortion on Maggie or if he just provided the instruments. The abortion in question was performed on December 30.

Maggie took sick afterward and was relocated to her mother's house. Dr. W. D. Hinckley was called in to care for her. It was then that Maggie's mother learned about the abortion, though Maggie refused to name the father. Dr. Hinckley called in Dr. J. O'Reilly for a second opinion. Both doctors agreed that she was suffering from a severe case of peritonitis and that there was no hope for her.

Maggie languished, finally dying on January 2 of 1878.

Emerich was found guilty of first-degree manslaughter in Maggie's death, and was sentenced to five years in prison.

Maggie was buried at Calvary Cemetery in St. Louis, Missouri, in a grave marked only with the numeral 8.

Sources:

• 87 Mo. 110, 1885 WL 165 (Mo.) Supreme Court of Missouri. THE STATE, Appellant, v. EMERICH. October Term, 1885.
• "Death By an Abortion," Cincinnati Enquirer, Jan. 3, 1878
• "One More Unfortunate," Daily Commonwealth, Jan. 5, 1878
• "An Old Case Settled," St. Louis Daily Globe-Democrat, November 17, 1885

1981–1985: Another Negligent Death After Missed Ectopic Pregnancy

A study of maternal deaths in North Carolina attempted to count and analyze all the maternal deaths (including abortion fatalities) in the state from 1981 to 1985. One of them was “Ava Roe,” whose death was undoubtedly preventable.

Two weeks after an elective first-trimester abortion procedure, Ava went to a doctor suffering from a low-grade fever and abdominal pain. The doctor treated her for a pelvic infection. Ten hours later, Ava was dead.

The autopsy found something that both Ava’s doctor and the abortion facility had missed. Her pregnancy was ectopic. The abortion facility apparently hadn’t examined her adequately and had sent her home to bleed to death.

Despite being rightfully counted as an abortion-related death in the study, Ava would have been excluded from any CDC statistics on maternal deaths from abortion. No matter how negligent the abortionist was, deaths from ectopic pregnancy after attempted abortion are not counted in the CDC’s abortion data.

Sadly, Ava’s death wasn’t an anomaly. A few other examples are the deaths of Tia Parks, Brenda Vise, Angela Satterfield, Magnolia Thomas, Gladyss Estanislao, Laura Sorrels, Janyth Caldwell, Yvette Poteat, Nancy Hopper, Sherry Emry, Josefina Garcia, Lynette Wallace, Claudia Caventou, Barbara Dillon, Doris Grant, “Denise Roe,”  “Ella Roe,” “Kristy Roe,” “Shayna Roe,” “Skye Roe,” "Evelyn Roe," "Tess Roe” and “Tanya Roe.” 

It’s important to note that although the study tried to perform a comprehensive count of all maternal deaths (including those that were abortion-related) in the state between 1981 and 1985, they did not successfully do so. No case was recorded matching Norma Jean Greene, who died from a legal abortion in 1981. It is unknown how many others may have also been missed.

Maternal Mortality in North Carolina

1972–1978: Three 16-year-olds die from legal second-trimester dismemberment abortions

A study on second-trimester D&E abortions (done by dismembering the unborn baby inside the uterus and forcibly extracting each piece) reported many maternal deaths, including three 16-year-old girls killed between 1972 and 1978. Their exact dates of death are not given, and all were at higher risk of death for factors outside of their control.

The first of the three (Case 4) is a match for the death of Rita McDowell, whose abortion was intentionally incomplete because the abortionist was planning to charge her family more for follow-up surgeries.

“Carly” (or Case 8, as the study impersonally called her) was pregnant for the first time and underwent the D&E abortion at 20 weeks pregnant. She developed endometritis and amnionitis, which worsened into sepsis, ARDS and septic shock. Although she had been perfectly healthy before the abortion, she was still at a disproportionate risk of death. Carly and Rita were both Black, and according to the study that documented the three deaths, Black abortion clients had over three times the risk of death from a D&E abortion as a white client.

The remaining 16-year-old (Case 7) was “Bree Roe” and underwent her 17-week abortion in a hospital. The abortion caused a bacterial infection that rapidly progressed to acute endocarditis of her aortic valve and ventricular septum. Only two weeks after the abortion, she went into congestive heart failure and died.

Bree was not Black like Rita and Carly, but her autopsy found a different risk factor that she had never been aware of. If there had been any pre-op examination before the abortion, it had not detected that she had a heart defect. The ventricular septal defect, meaning a hole or other structural abnormality in the wall between the chambers of her heart, had been missed entirely. It is unknown how much this condition might have been a factor in her death from heart failure, but it should still be noted that endocarditis after abortion can kill someone as perfectly healthy as Bree was thought to be.

See Cases 4, 7 and 8. (Note: “Carly” is “Carla Roe” on the Blackmun Wall.”)

Study Here

CDC 1986

Today I'll look at deaths in 1986. They count 11 legal and 2 "unknown."

Legal:

They have 18 plus one more report I can't verify yet.

Gloria Aponte went to a National Abortion Federation member who let his receptionist administer general anesthesia. (20)

Dorothy Bryant bled to death. (37 B Match 479)

Janyth Caldwell was certainly not counted by the CDC, because her abortionist failed to diagnose her ectopic pregnancy, allowing her to die.

Claudia Caventou likewise went uncounted, because of her abortionist's failure to diagnose her ectopic pregnancy.

Liliana Cortez went into cardiac arrest during her abortion. (22 H— Match 478/482/486 OR 481 if reported as white)

Carol Cunningham shut herself up in her garage with the car engine running after her abortion. (Match 481– unlikely because sui)

Laniece Dorsey lapsed into a fatal coma after her abortion at a Family Planning Associates Medical Group clinic. (Match 483/488?)

16-year-old Christella Forte screamed, convulsed, and died without ever expelling her dead baby. (Match 483/488?)

Donna Heim wasn't properly resuscitated when she stopped breathing. (20)

18-year-old Michelle Madden had sought an abortion because her doctor told her that her epilepsy medication could cause birth defects. (Match 484?)

18-year-old Sylvia Moore was shoved out the door to bleed to death on New Years Eve. (Match 483/488?)

Jacqueline Reynolds wasn't given adequate oxygen during her abortion. (22 B Match 480)

Luz Rodriguez turned blue and bled to death from an incomplete abortion. She is JR of Manhattan 1986 in The Scarlet Survey. (40 H/W Match 485)

Rosael Rodriguez is one of two women killed by the same abortionist— Angel Acevado in Puerto Rico. Probably not counted because American government official projects tend to overlook the Virgin Islands (26, no match)

Magnolia Thomas is another ectopic death, thus another death the CDC deliberately failed to count.
 

Gail Wright developed sepsis with ARDS and died. (Note: she is included in The Scarlet Survey under her name and as a Jane Roe case. This is probably because a newspaper coverage of a lawsuit over her death that did not give her name incorrectly listed her age as 30 instead of 29. She was killed by the same) man who killed 14-year-old Germaine Newman.

Adrienne Williams, 24, suffered infection that turned her uterus necrotic. She died of cardiovascular collapse secondary to septic shock. (Match 480)

Marcia Dowty, 25, died of a pulmonary artery embolism and vaginal laceration. The CDC didn’t count any women her race and age dying from legal abortion that year. Either some broken regulation made it count as illegal on paper, there was not enough of the right information to move her out of the “unknown” category or they missed her entirely (fairly likely since she was in California).

Notes: Priests For Life reports a Black woman named Kendra Walker died in Los Angeles County after an abortion by Emmanuel N. Mba, who I confirmed had “OB/GYN with family planning” practice. I was not able to find further references. PFL cites LA County Coroner’s Report #C-263-987, but despite contacting the Coroner’s Office I have not been able to confirm that this report exists. I can’t find any references to Kendra outside the Priests For Life list. (Data: Kendra Walker, 28, Black, LA County, 1986)

December 31, 1986: Teen Shoved Out the Door to Die

Eighteen-year-old Sylvia Jane Moore underwent a safe and legal abortion at the hands of 50-year-old Arnold Bickham on December 31, 1986 at his Urgent Medical Care Clinic in Chicago. 

She was in the second trimester of her pregnancy, but Bickham used a suction technique suitable for a first-trimester pregnancy. After the abortion, Bickham gave Sylvia repeated injections of Demerol because she was reporting severe abdominal cramps.

Grok AI illustration

According to her mother, also named Sylvia, Sylvia was bleeding, weak, incoherent, and unable to walk after five hours at the clinic. Bickham tried several times to lift Sylvia to her feet, but she repeatedly collapsed. Bickham called her "lazy," put her in a wheelchair, and physically ejected her from his Chicago clinic. 

Sylvia's mother took her to Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center, where staff tried in vain to save the young woman, who had arrived with no pulse and no blood pressure. An emergency hysterectomy was done to remove her lacerated uterus, which still had a plastic instrument embedded in a 6.5 cm laceration. Sylvia also had a 2.2 cm laceration of her vagina. Despite the surgery, she bled to death.

Bickham claimed that he "didn't think there was anything wrong" with Sylvia, and said that he'd merely been helping her with the wheelchair. He could not explain why he didn't think there was anything wrong with a patient so weak that she couldn't walk out to the car.

He blamed Sylvia's death on the hospital, saying, "They were successful in repairing the damage done in the abortion, but in doing that, they perforated an artery causing there to be blood loss in the chest cavity." 

The autopsy report, however, noted the chest tube incision but noted "lungs are well expanded and the pleural cavities are free of fluid and adhesions." An attorney with the Department of Professional Regulation said, "This patient should never have been allowed to leave Bickham's clinic with her mother. She should have left in an ambulance."

The postmortem report said: "The circumstances of injury, review of the Medical records, the findings at autopsy examination, and subsequent investigation of the circumstances of the case provide evidence of gross negligence and abandonment on the part of the original treating physician. In consideration of the above, the manner of death is determined to be Homicide."

No charges were pressed against Bickham. His attorney claimed that the actions against Bickham were a racist witch hunt, saying, "He's a black man who did an abortion and he's an ex-felon. That's strike one, two, and three."

Somehow the fact that Sylvia was also Black didn't seem to matter.

The suit filed by Sylvia's survivors noted that Bickham had failed to perform an ultrasound, and failed to have adequate staff or equipment. The specimen of abortion tissue sent from clinic contained segments of placental tissue, umbilical cord, and fetal intestinal parts and liver.

Sylvia left one child motherless.

Bickham's license was revoked by Illinois in October of 1988 due to Sylvia's death. The medical board had concluded that Bickham had performed the abortion "without adequate support staff and emergency equipment, and failed to recognize symptoms of abdominal bleeding...." He was arrested in September of 1989 for practicing medicine without license, and sentenced to 30 months probation and 2,600 hours of community service in lieu of 6 months jail, in addition to a $10,000 fine. 

Sylvia's mother found his punishment far too lenient. "I don't want to see this happen to any other mother."

Bickham had been a prolific abortionist, and in 1974 had been the highest-paid doctor in the country's Medicaid program, with total reimbursements of $192,266 (over $4 million in 2020 dollars). His medical license had been put on probation in 1979 after he had been caught performing abortions on women who had not actually been pregnant. That same year he was sentenced to two years in federal prison for defrauding the government out of job training funds.

Fortunately, Bickham eventually hung up his canula. On the downside, he became a pubic school administrator, still in a position where his poor judgment might cause harm but at least not death to any more children or young women. 

Watch Teen Shoved Out the Door to Die on YouTube.

Sources:

• "Doctor charged after woman dies of botched abortion," The Dispatch, February 18, 1987
• "Charges sought against doctor in woman's post-abortion death," Chicago Tribune, March 2, 1987
• "Abortion doctor sued in death," Chicago Tribune, July 23, 1987
• "Hospital to blame in abortion death, doctor's lawyer suggests," Chicago Tribune, February 10, 1988
• "Mother blames doctor in teen abortion death," Chicago Tribune, February 11, 1988
• "Doctor ripped in license hearing," Chicago Tribune, June 15, 1988
• "Abortion doctor loses his license," Chicago Tribune, November 1, 1988
• "Physician loses right to practice," Chicago Tribune, November 1, 1988
• "Former doctor did abortions, state charges," Chicago Tribune, September 14, 1989
• "No charges yet in 1986 death," Chicago Tribune, October 4, 1989

December 31, 1917: Another Deadly Chicago Midwife

On December 31, 1917, 40-year-old homemaker Victoria Chmileuski died in her Chicago home from an abortion perpetrated by Wilhemena Benn, whose profession is given only as "abortion provider," though she was actually a licensed midwife. Benn was acquitted on March 7, 1918.

Benn had been previously charged in the June, 1916 abortion death of Rosie Kawera and the March, 1906 abortion death of Otilia Winker.

Note, please, that with overall public health issues such as doctors not using proper aseptic techniques, lack of access to blood transfusions and antibiotics, and overall poor health to begin with, there was likely little difference between the performance of a legal abortion and illegal practice, and the aftercare for either type of abortion was probably equally unlikely to do the woman much, if any, good.

In fact, due to improvements in addressing these problems, maternal mortality in general (and abortion mortality with it) fell dramatically in the 20th Century, decades before Roe vs. Wade legalized abortion across America.

For more information about early 20th Century abortion mortality, see Abortion Deaths 1910-1919.



For more on pre-legalization abortion, see The Bad Old Days of Abortion

Sources: 

• Homicide in Chicago Interactive Database
• Death certificate

1972-1978: Heart Patient Dies of Internal Bleeding

In the 1970s, many women and girls died from legal abortion in America. One of them was “Blaire Roe,” whose death was reported in a medical journal years later.

Blaire’s story is sad. She had a heart condition known as Eisenmerger’s syndrome. It is highly likely that she was pressured to undergo an abortion because of this. She was eight weeks pregnant when she was put through a sharp curettage (D&C) abortion and surgically sterilized.

Instead of stabilizing Blaire’s condition and preserving her health, the abortion directly killed her. She bled to death internally from her injuries.

The same study documenting Blaire’s death also recorded the death of “Evie Roe,” another Eisenmerger’s patient whose “life-preserving” abortion killed her instead. Even in the 1960s, medical journals reported Eisenmerger’s patients who were pressured to abort but refused and had positive outcomes for both mother and baby. Although Eisenmerger’s and other health conditions warrant additional concern, today’s medical advances make it possible to provide better care to both. Patients with health conditions deserve better than abortion.

(Patient 13 in this study)

December 31, 1975: Sudden Death on New Years Eve

Pilar Carranco

It's not clear how 18-year-old Pilar Carranco of Watsonville, California decided to go to 32-year-old Dr. Richard J. Scotti for a safe and legal abortion that New Year's Eve of 1975. She hadn't consulted with her mother or even told her that she was pregnant. Likely she chose Scotti because he was an ob/gyn who specialized in abortions. 

Her faith in him was sadly misplaced.

The suction machine Scotti used was 8 years old and had never been intended for use on humans. One of its designers testified that the machine was lab equipment, not medical equipment, and lacked safety features to ensure that it could only produce suction, not blow air. 

According to Barbara Zappas, Scotti's assistant, after her boss turned on the machine he said that "it sounded strange." As Zappas knelt down to check to see if the bottles on the machine were leaking, "someone said [the patient] was going into convulsions." 

Scotti had started the abortion without ensuring that his equipment was working properly.

Zappas testified that she pulled the instruments out of the way while Scotty started chest compressions. She started providing rescue breaths while a receptionist called 911. Ambulance attendants arrived and took over CPR, which they continued on the ride to Dominican Hospital. There, staff took over Pilar's care and worked for 40 minutes to no avail. The young woman was dead.

An autopsy found air emboli in both her heart and in a vein leading from her uterus. Watsonville Hospital pathologist Harlow D Standage said that the emboli were the obvious cause of her death.

A pathologist testified that the machine being hooked up backwards is the most likely explanation for the air in Pilar's body, but another doctor concurred that it's the most likely explanation, but he also would have expected to see "a lot more air" in Pilar's body if the machine was the issue.

Scotti's defense strategy was to shift blame for Pilar's death from his carelessness to the actions of emergency room staff. His attorney questioned them on the stand about whether they had turned Pilar onto her left side and attempted to drain the air from her heart, which, the attorney said, was "a recommended procedure for treatment of an air embolism."

Scotti himself took the stand during his trial and accused the District Attorney with sensationalizing the case. He countered testimony by several witnesses in the hospital who said Scotti had admitted that he had "blown out" Pilar's uterus.

His testimony was internally inconsistent. He said that he had put his thumb over the end of the canula and felt suction before inserting it into Pilar's uterus. But after he had inserted it, "I wasn't getting any tissue back. I turned around or said to Barbara,' I think there may be a leak around the plug. Check the system for leaks.'"

It was at that point, Scotti said, that Pilar went into convulsions and he started emergency measures. 

After leaving the hospital, Scotti said, he went back to check the machine and it was indeed providing suction. 

In spite of saying that he had checked the machine before starting the abortion, Scotti also admitted that he'd told the ER doctor that he might have hooked the machine up backwards. One must wonder why he would say that if he had indeed been so certain that it had been producing suction.

Scotti testified that as doctors were fighting to save his patient, he "walked away and prayed." After Pilar was declared dead, Scotti said, a woman he described as "a sister" came to him and comforted him, saying that patients die sometimes and it wasn't his fault. "She was like a message from God."

Scotti's attorney also asked expert witnesses if other activities -- such as yoga, squeezing her legs together, or douching -- could have caused the fatal embolism. The doctor said no, but when asked about "oral copulation" he said he had read of some danger from this activity. 

The attorney also argued that the autopsy was not done properly and didn't check for other causes of death such as an allergic reaction to the xylocaine used for anesthesia during the abortion. 

Dr. James Weston, a teaching pathologist from the University of New Mexico testified that if the machine had been hooked up backwards, Pilar's uterus and heart would have been distended, and there would have been a large amount of frothy blood rather than two air bubbles. Those air bubbles, this pathologist held, could have been caused by the autopsy. the 50 to 100 cc of air in her heart could have been caused by other reasons. This pathologist also asserted that the original autopsy had not examined Pilar's brain and thus failed to rule out possible other causes of death.

The 7-woman 5-man jury listened to eight days of testimony in the manslaughter trial before retiring. After 4 1/2 hours of deliberation the they were deadlocked eight to four. The judge expressed frustration that they announced their were deadlocked after such a short time of deliberation. The foreman said that the split came on the third ballot, and "We have the opinion it will not change." 

They deliberated another hour then were sent home for the weekend. 

Pilar's parents, Juan and Carmelita Carranco, sued Scotti.

They were right. The case finally ended in a mistrial but faced additional charges with the medical board, both for Pilar's death and for botching a female circumcision on an adult woman.

Charges dismissed.

The prosecutor argued that Scotti hadn't been double checking when he went back to his office and took the hoses off the machine; he asserted that he was destroying evidence. The defense argued that instead of just taking the tubing off, Scotti would have made sure the tubing was on correctly. The prosecution argued that because embolism was a possible cause of death, the ME took precautions to keep air from entering the heart. 

Autopsy found placenta still in place along with a 9 - 10 week fetus. 

Scotti's license was revoked by the medical board effective January 30, 1978 on grounds of gross negligence both in Pilar's case and in the case of two adult women who suffered complications from female circumcisions performed by Scotti. 

When the judge declared a mistrail, Scotti said he wasn't suprised. Pilar's mother went outside and wept.

HT: killed-by-choice 

Sources:

• "Abortion/Death: Charges Filed," Santa Cruz Sentinel, May 10, 1976
• "Parents Sue Dr. Scotti," Santa Cruz Sentinel, June 4, 1976
• "Scotti Defense Opens In Abortion-Death Trial," Santa Cruz Sentinel, July 15, 2096
• "Scotti Superior Court Trial Set Aug. 3," Santa Cruz Sentinel, July 16, 1976
• "Abortion/Death Motion For Dismissal Is Denied," Santa Cruz Sentinel, September 30, 1976
• "The State," Los Angeles Times, March 2, 1977
• "DA Says Machine Wasn't Designed For Abortion Use," Santa Cruz Sentinel, March 2, 1977
• "Machine Not Meant For Use On Humans," Santa Cruz Sentinel, March 3, 1977
• "Cause of Death Cannot Be Established," Santa Cruz Sentinel, March 8, 1977
• "Scotti Charges D. A. With Sensationalism," Santa Cruz Sentinel, March 9, 1977
• "Closing Arguments In Dr. Scotti Trial," Santa Cruz Sentinel, March 11, 1977
• "Scotti Trial Deliberations Resume Monday," Santa Cruz Sentinel, March 13, 1977
• "Scotti Jury Still Has No Decision," Santa Cruz Sentinel, March 14, 1977
• "Jurors Split As Mistrial Is Declared," Santa Cruz Sentinel, March 15, 1977
• "Dr. Scotti Faces Further Charges," Santa Cruz Sentinel, March 16, 1977
• "Scotti Manslaughter Charges Dismissed," Santa Cruz Sentinel, March 17, 1977
• "Doctor said abortion device ran backward, witnesses say," (Torrance, CA) Daily Breeze, March 29, 1977
• "Dr. Scotti License Revoked," Santa Cruz Sentinel, January 10, 1978

December 30, 1967: Retroactively Safe and Legal

"Sophia," age 19, traveled from Youngstown, Ohio, to Duquesne, near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on December 27, 1967 to have an abortion performed by 50-year-old Dr. Benjamin King. King also had medical offices in both McKeesport and Homestead.

Sophia was a 19-year-old freshman at Ohio State University. She had gotten King's contact information from her boyfriend, who was also 19 years old. King put out word about his services on college campuses in Pennsylvania and Ohio.

Sophia's boyfriend accompanied her to King's office. They made a down payment of $110 toward the $300 fee for the abortion. (That's over $2,000 in 2020 dollars.) The young couple returned to Youngstown, where Sophia was admitted to South Side Hospital on December 29. She died the following day. King had perforated her cervix, causing both infection and hemorrhage.

Police had Sophia's boyfriend contact King, saying he had the rest of the money. When King came to collect, he was arrested. 

Consistently In Trouble

While awaiting sentencing for Sophia's death, King was sentenced to 90 days for trafficking in amphetamines.

King insisted that while he had indeed seen Sophia, he had only examined her and had only been paid $20. He remained free on a $5,000 bond during the trial. A jury deliberated for 1 1/2 hours before finding King guilty. He was remanded to jail to await sentencing pending a $100,000 bond. The judge justified the high amount on the grounds that King had previously been convicted of an abortion charge after a 26-year-old patient had to be hospitalized in February of 1966. King also had another abortion charge pending against him. 

Convictions and Sentences

King was sentenced to 1 to 3 years in Western Penitentiary for the 1966 charge. In passing sentence, Judge David Olbum told King, "If abortion laws were repealed tomorrow, you would not be qualified to perform abortions." The judge asserted that King "had run an abortion mill for years and years." King's wife, 46-year-old Regina B. King, was charged with being an accessory before the fact and sentenced to three years of probation. I haven't been able to determine how long the sentence was for Sophia's death.

King's attorney said that King only perpetrated abortions because of his "compassionate nature" and not to profit. The Pittsburgh Courier described King as a "well-known Western Pennsylvania physician, an former high school and college star quarterback."

Though convicted and sentenced to prison, King won his freedom in March of 1973 by citing the Roe vs. Wade decision striking down the abortion law.

Watch Retroactively Safe and Legal on YouTube.

Sources:

• "Cops Say 3rd Abortion Fatal," Pittsburgh Courier, January 13, 1968
• "Doctor Guilty Of Abortion In Fatality," Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, December 12, 1969
• "Doctor Gets 90 Days In Drug Sale," Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, January 15, 1970
• "Abortion Count Brings 1-To-3 Years," Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, April 1, 1970
• "Physician Sentenced For Abortion," Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, April 2, 1970
• "Pa. Court Nullifies Antiabortion Laws," Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, March 30, 1973

December 29, 1971: “Safe and Legal” Coma, Convulsions and Death

“Beth Roe” was a Massachusetts resident, but she traveled to New York City at 22 weeks pregnant for an abortion that was advertised to her as safe and legal. She had no idea that she would never make it home.

When a toxic concentration of hypertonic saline was injected into Beth’s uterus, blood was aspirated. She became comatose almost immediately. The abortionist had made a fatal mistake and injected the saline fluid directly into her vascular system.

Eight and a half hours after Beth became comatose, she went into convulsions. Fourteen hours after the abortion, she was declared dead. Because of a preventable mistake with a highly dangerous (yet “safe and legal”) procedure, this healthy young woman suffered hypernatremia, cerebral edema, coma and convulsions in her final day of life. She died on December 29, 1971.

Beth was 23 and perfectly healthy. She had no history of any significant medical problems and by all accounts she and her baby should have enjoyed a long life. Sadly, New York’s pre-Roe legalization led to both of their deaths.

"Maternal Mortality Associated With Legal Abortion in New York State: July 1, 1970 - June 30, 1972," Berger, Tietze, Pakter, Katz, Obstetrics and Gynecology, 43:3, March 1974, 325 (See above image for her section of the chart)

December 29, 1971: Antiquated Abortion Method Legal but Unsafe

"Beth" was 23 years old when she traveled from Massachusetts to take advantage of New York's liberalized abortion law in 1971. Beth's doctor chose saline abortion, which is performed by injecting a strong salt solution into the amniotic fluid. The fetus inhales and swallows the fluid, which causes massive internal bleeding and death. The woman then goes into labor. 

The abortion was initiated by injecting saline into Beth's uterus. But instead of the amniotic sac, the saline went into Beth's bloodstream. Beth immediately began to have seizures and went into a coma. She was pronounced dead on December 29, 1971.

What is a Saline Abortion?

Saline abortion was hardly a pleasant experience. The abortionist would remove as much amniotic fluid as he could using a needle and syringe. He would then replace the amniotic fluid with a concentrated saline (salt) solution that would poison and kill the fetus. The woman would then go into labor and expel the fetus.

Saline abortions became very popular in Japan following WWII. Within the Japanese medical community, however, word quickly spread: this method was unsatisfactory. Too many women were being injured and killed. Over 70 papers were published in the Japanese medical community reporting hazards of saline abortions, including at least 60 maternal deaths. The Japanese Obstetrical and Gynecological Society condemned the technique, and it was quickly abandoned. But the Japanese abortionists kept news of the trouble among themselves -- until Western nations discovered instillation abortions and embraced them with great enthusiasm.

Two Japanese doctors, Takashi Wagatsuma and Yukio Manabe, broke the silence. Wagatsuma wrote, "It is, I think, worthwhile to report its rather disastrous consequences which we experienced in Japan." Manabe wrote, "It is now known that any solution placed within the uterus can be absorbed rather rapidly into the general circulation through the vascular system of the uterus and placenta. Thus any solution used in the uterus for abortion must be absolutely safe even if given by direct intravenous injection. ... A solution deadly to the fetus may be equally toxic and dangerous to the mother. ... In spite of the accumulating undesirable reports, the use of hypertonic saline for abortion is still advocated and used ... in the United States and Great Britain. I would like to call attention to the danger of the method and would predict the further occurrence of deaths until this method is entirely forgotten in these countries."

As western abortionists gained experience with saline abortions, other grim reports arose. A British study published in 1966 found that the saline would enter the mother's bloodstream and cause brain damage. Swedish researchers noticed an unacceptably high rate of complications and deaths. Sweden and the Soviet Union abandoned saline abortion as too dangerous for women in the late 1960s.

For whatever reasons, American abortionists were deaf to these warnings. When New York had completely repealed its abortion law, doctors had tremendous leeway in abortion practice. In New York City in particular, it became popular to inject the woman with the saline in the office, then send her home with instructions to report to a hospital when she went into labor. This was, to say the least, a highly irresponsible way to use an abortion technique that was risky even when performed in a hospital under close medical supervision. Women started dying from these reckless saline abortions.

Other women who died in the pre-Roe days of "safe and legal" New York abortions include:

• Carmen Rodriguez, July, 1970, salt solution intended to kill the fetus accidentally injected into her bloodstream
• Barbara Riley, July, 1970, sickle-cell crisis triggered by abortion recommended by doctor due to her sickle cell disease
• Pearl Schwier, July, 1970, anesthesia complications
• "Amanda" Roe, September, 1970, sent back to her home in Indiana with an untreated hole poked in her uterus
• Maria Ortega, October, 1970, fetus shoved through her uterus into her pelvic cavity then left there
• "Kimberly" Roe, December, 1970, cardiac arrest during abortion
• "Amy" Roe, January, 1971, massive pulmonary embolism
• "Andrea" Roe, January, 1971, overwhelming infection
• "Sandra" Roe, April, 1971, committed suicide due to post-abortion remorse
• "Anita" Roe, May, 1971, bled to death in her home during process of outpatient saline abortion
• Margaret Smith, June 1971, hemorrhage from multiple lacerations during outpatient hysterotomy abortion
• "Annie" Roe,, June, 1971, cardiac arrest during anesthesia
• "Audrey" Roe, July, 1971, cardiac arrest during abortion
• "Vicki" Roe, August, 1971, post-abortion infection
• "April" Roe, August, 1971, death after saline abortion
• "Barbara" Roe, September, 1971, cardiac arrest after saline injection for abortion
• "Tammy" Roe, October, 1971, massive post-abortion infection
• Carole Schaner, October, 1971, hemorrhage from multiple lacerations during outpatient hysterotomy abortion
• "Roseanne" Roe, February, 1971, vomiting with seizures causing pneumonia after saline abortion
• "Connie" Roe, March, 1972, cardiac arrest during abortion
• "Julie" Roe, April, 1972, holes torn in her uterus and bowel
• "Roxanne," May, 1972, convulsions and death at start of abortion
• "Robin" Roe, May, 1972, lingering abortion complications
• Pamela Modugno, May, 1972, air in her bloodstream

Sources: 

• "Maternal Mortality Associated With Legal Abortion in New York State: July 1, 1970 - June 30, 1972," Berger, Tietze, Pakter, Katz, Obstetrics and Gynecology, 43:3, March 1974, 321
• Wagatsuma, "Intraamniotic Injection of Saline for Therapeutic Abortion," Am. Journ. Ob Gyn 11/1/65
• Manabe, "Danger of Hypertonic Saline Induced Abortion," JAMA 12/15/69
• Cameron, "Association of Brain Damage with Therapeutic Abortion Induced by Amniotic Fluid Replacement: Report of Two Cases," British Medical Journal, 4/23/66