Three tragic anniversaries: Betty Hines, Alice Roe, and Gertrude Wynants

Betty Hines was 21 years old when she was checked into Doctors Hospital in California for an abortion to be performed by Dr. A. Mitchell on July 19, 1971, who had been her physician for three or four years. Betty was eight weeks pregnant. There didn't seem to be anything wrong during the procedure. Betty was transferred to the recovery room, when she suddenly went into cardio-respiratory arrest.

Mitchell theorized that perhaps Betty had died because of a bad vial of Inovar, because the next patient who was injected from that vial also went into cardiac arrest but was successfully resuscitated. Betty's autopsy, however, found no trave of Inovar in her system. A toxicology check was also done on the vial of medication, and found nothing wrong with the Inovar. Betty's death was attributed to massive intravascular sickling due to underlying sickle cell disorder.

Other women who died of sickle cell crisis triggered by abortion include Margaret Davis and Sheryl Roe.

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"Alice" Roe was 31 years old when she underwent a 14-week saline abortion in New York City.

She had a history of rheumatic heart disease and two previous live births. After the saline was injected, she developed acute pulmonary edema and died.

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Very little is on record about the death of 17-year-old Gertrude Wynants. According to the New York Times, Gertrude died on July 19, 1925, of a criminal abortion. Mrs. Margaret Shott Higgens, age 23, was indicted for manslaughter in Gertrude's death.

For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice:



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