More beneficiaries of safe and legal abortion

Twenty-five-year-old Margaret Smith traveled from Michigan to New York for an abortion because she had been exposed to rubella. Her abortionist, Dr. Jesse Ketchum, had run a criminal abortion practice in Michigan, before carpetbagging to Buffalo when New York legalized abortion on demand. Ketchum performed a vaginal hysterotomy on Margaret at 10:30 the morning of June 16, 1971. Margaret was then left virtually unattended until her boyfriend retured at 2:00. He found Margaret unresponsive, and begged Ketchum and his staff to do something.

Paramedics were summoned, but they were unable to revive Margaret. She was taken to a hospital across the street from Ketchum's office, where she was pronouced dead on arrival. Margaret's vagina had been sutured, but a laceration in her uterus and cervix had not been repaired. She had bled to death.

Ketchum was charged with criminally negligent homicide in Margaret's death. Before his case went to trial, he performed a similar abortion on Carole Schaner of Ohio. Carol suffered similar injuries ad bled to death in her motel room after Ketchum discharged her.

Margaret Smith isn't the only Margaret whose death we should remember on June 16. Margaret Paula Clodfelter was 19 years old when she had an abortion at Richmond Medical Center For Women on June 2, 1989. After she was discharged from the clinic, Margaret had pain and bleeding. She called the facility to consult with them, but they did not tell her that she needed any further care. She developed infection, so doctors performed a hysterectomy. Their efforts were in vain. Margaret died on June 16, 1989. She left behind a husband and a one-year-old son.

And a third death to remember on this date is that of a 20-year-old Newark college student, identified in prolife sources as "Jane Doe of Newark" because her name is redacted from public record documents. She underwent an abortion by Dr. Steven Berkman at Metropolitan Medical Associates on June 16, 1993. Jane reportedly felt dizzy in recovery. Berkman examined her, noted that she had a perforated uterus, and had her taken to a hospital by ambulance. She died in surgery, leaving her four-year-old son motherless.

Save and legal is a lie. It's not safe when women die.

For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice:



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