1926: Abortion by Chicago midwife proves fatal for teen

On December 21, 1926, fifteen-year-old Emily Mueller died from complications of an abortion that she had undergone somewhere in Chicago in December 11. Magdelane Stegeman, alias Motzny, was booked on December 28. The source document identifies Stegeman as a midwife, but since female doctors who delivered babies were often at that time referred to as midwives, it is possible that Stegeman was a physician.

The coroner initially cleared Stegeman. She was nevertheless indicted for felony murder by the Grand Jury on February 15, 1927.

For more about abortion practice at the time, see Abortion in the 1920s.



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

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