1978: Abortion by boyfriend proves fatal for St. Louis woman

On January 3, 1878, Maggie Gibbons died in St. Louis, Missouri. She had been ill since December 30, 1877, when her lover, Charles P. Emerich, had performed an abortion on her using instruments. He was found guilty of first-degree manslaughter in Maggie's death, and was sentenced to five years in prison.

And in case you think that such things never happen in the enlightened post Roe era, remember that Daisy Roe, a systems analyst for a defense contractor, let her boyfriend perform a fatal abortion on her in 1990.

Some risk-taking is done as the result of a cost-benefit analysis, however slipshod or ill-informed. And some is done because the person has mental health issues. And we can't always know why people did the things they did.



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

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