July 6: Lottie Lowy new information including verified date

Info on Google Drive

July 2: Hannah Carlson first time I have a date. Write up with information at Google Drive

 More on Google Drive

June 24: "Annie" is Edith Clark

 "Annie" is Edith Clark. Edith traveled from her home in Newark, New Jersey to the Sparkhill, New York office of Dr. Robert Livingston to avail herself of the new law, for a first-trimester abortion on June 24, 1971.

Shortly after she was given an injection of Innovar for anesthesia, Edith went into cardiac arrest, and attempts to revive her failed. She left behind three children.

Edith was the first woman to die in New York's Rockland County from a newly legalized abortion. The second, 18-year-old Pamela Modugno, died in May of 1972 after an abortion in one of the many freestanding abortion facilities that opened immediately after New York decided to permit outpatient abortion-on-demand up to 24 weeks.

May 27: "Hollywood Play-Girl" Found Dead in an Alley

Patricia Steele, age 34, "Hollywood Play-Girl" found in a Los Angeles alley on May 27, 1952. Victor Cefalu, who performed the autopsy, said that she'd died from either hemorrhage or infection caused by an abortion that had taken place 24 to 48 hours before her death.

Patricia's physician, Dr. Louis J. Klingbell, reportedly told the police that Patricia had been four months into her pregnancy and had told him, "I'm going to do something about it."

Patricia was the daughter of financier Victor Steel and his wife, Jane. She had a "richly-furnished" apartment and travelled to Honolulu two months before her death. Her expensive convertible was still in her garage.

Victor said that he'd talked to Patricia on the telephone the morning of May 26 and she'd told him that she felt sick. He called back later but got no answer.

Source:

• "Hollywood Play-Girl Found Dead In Alley; Said Victim Of Abortion," Lancaster (PA) Intelligencer Journal, May 28, 1952

Family Planning Associates Death Count Up by One

Today I opened my mailbox to find the story of the seventeenth young woman I know of now to have died after an abortion at that National Abortion Federation flagship: Family Planning Associates Medical Group.

To preserve her confidentiality, I have given her the pseudonym "Kyla Ellis."

Kyla was 23 years old and about 11 weeks pregnant when she went to Family Planning Associate Medical Group at 601 S. Westmoreland Avenue in Los Angeles for an abortion on May 14, 2014. Like other young Black women, she was at higher risk of death than a white woman would be.

The day after the abortion, Kyla suffered agonizing abdominal pain. Her partner, whom I will call "Benjamin," called an ambulance, which rushed her to Centinela Hospital. She arrived at around 3:30 that afternoon. Kyla rated her pain at 10 on a scale of 10. Bright, fresh blood was flowing from her vagina. She couldn't pass urine at all. Hospital staff used a catheter to drain her bladder of about 200 cc of bloody urine.

Doctors decided that Kyla needed more intensive care than Centinela was able to provide. Kyla rode by ambulance to Kaiser West Los Angeles. She arrived shortly after midnight on May 16. At first she was awake, but at around 1:40 a.m. her gaze turned glassy and she became unresponsive. Staff took her to the lab for a CT scan, but on arrival Kyla went into cardio respiratory arrest. All efforts to revive her failed and she was pronounced dead at 2:45 a.m.

The autopsy found her uterus boggy and enlarged. The endometrium (lining) had been scraped away. 

Kyla had bled to death.

She's the seventeenth woman I'm aware of to have died after abortions at FPA. The others are: 

• 1970: Denise Holmes
• 1984: Patricia Chacon and Mary Pena
• 1985: Josefina Garcia
• 1986: Laniece Dorsey
• 1988: Joyce Ortenzio and Tami Suematsu
• 1992: Deanna Bell and Susan Levy
• 1994: Christina Mora
• 1995: TaTanisha Wesson
• 1998: Nakia Jorden
• 1999: Maria Leho
• 2000: Kimberly Neil and Maria Rodriguez
• 2004: Chanelle Bryant

Watch 17th Known Abortion Death at YouTube.

Autopsy pages 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15

May 23: Three Deaths in Different Eras

Dr. Amante Rongetti

On May 23, 1929, 24-year-old Elizabeth Palumbo died at West End Hospital in Chicago. Dr. Amante Rongetti signed a death certificate attributing her death to appendicitis. However, upon autopsy the coroner's physician, Dr. Thomas Dwyer, determined that her death had actually been caused by an abortion. 

Rongetti was held by the coroner on June 12 for having perpetrated the fatal abortion on May 10. However, he was acquitted.

All of these goings-on surrounding Elizabeth's death took place while Rongetti was out on bail pending a new trial in the abortion death of Loretta Enders, for which he'd been sentenced to die in the electric chair.

Newly-added source: "Rongetti Held Again on Serious Charge," Journal Gazette, May 27, 1929

Life Dynamics lists 29-year-old Rhonda Ruggiero on their "Blackmun Wallsafe and legal abortions. According to the information LDI put together, Rhonda underwent an abortion in May of 1982. She suddenly died of an abortion-related pulmonary embolism on May 23. An embolism is a flukey thing that can kill regardless of the doctor's skill, so Rhonda probably would have died regardless of whether abortion was legal or not.

Documents indicate that Josefina Garcia, age 37, mother of 2, died after abortion at a Family Planning Associates Medical Group (FPA) facility. Josefina's survivors filed suit against FPA owner Edward Campbell Allred, and 5 other doctors: Kenneth Wright, Leslie S. Orleans, Earl Baxter, Soon Sohn, and Thomas Grubbs. The family said that staff failed to determine that Josefina had an ectopic pregnancy before proceeding with a routine safe and legal abortion procedure by D&C on May 23, 1985. After her abortion, Josefina was left unattended in a recovery room, where she hemorrhaged. She died the day of her abortion. Regardless of whether or not abortion is legal, an ectopic pregnancy is something any abortionist should have diagnosed, if not before the abortion, then certainly after the abortion was completed and there were not pieces of fetus removed. Either way, there was little excuse for failing to detect the ectopic pregnancy. Whether Josefina lived or died would have depended on the state of medicine at the time, and the ordinary skills of doctors who were not abortionists.

May 18: A College Student's Fatal Journey

Pamela Modugno, a college student, died Wednesday, May 17, 1972 during an abortion at Monsey Medical Center in New York. She was 18 years old. Cardiac arrest due to air embolism. She was the second death from a safe, legal abortion in the county since New York liberalized the abortion laws effective July 1, 1970. The first had been Edith Clark.

County Medical Examiner Dr. Frederick Zugibe postulated that reverse air pressure from a suction unit might have blown air into Pam's bloodstream.

Monsey Medical Center had opened two days after abortion was legalized. The director, Dr. Lester Lando, was a licensed OB/GYN.

Pam's father, Thomas Modugno sued for negligence in how the abortion was performed and under the theory that the abortion was "assault and trespass" against Pam because at the time of the abortion, no surgery was permitted on an unmarried patient without parental consent except in an emergency.

Pam is identified as "Danielle" in Life Dynamics' list of safe, legal abortion deaths.

Sources:

• "18-year-old student dies during abortion," The Journal News, May 18, 1972
• "Abortion death suit filed," The Journal News, January 18, 1973