Thursday, January 22, 2009

Notorious Chicago abortionist of the early 20th Century

On January 22, 1925, 17-year-old Jean Cohen died at Chicago's Montrose Hospital from an abortion performed earlier that day. On January 31, Louise Hagenow was arrested in Jean's death. However, Hagenow, though a known abortionist, was cleared in Jean's death -- though sources are not clear why.

There were a number of deaths in Chicago attributed to either a Lucy Hagenow or a Louise Hagenow. These are the same woman, a physician/midwife who also called herself Ida Von Schultz. The deaths include:

  • 1899: Marie Hecht
  • 1906: Lola Madison
  • 1907: Annie Horvatich
  • 1925: Lottie Lowy, Nina H. Pierce, Bridget Masterson, and Elizabeth Welter
  • 1926: Mary Moorehead

    Hagenow was typical of criminal abortionists in that she was a physician.

    Prochoicers would do well to remember that today's "professional provider of vital reproductive health care services" was yesterday's "back alley butcher". Pen on paper changed nothing about the kind of person who is attracted to abortion as a profession.

    Prolifers would do well to remember how hard it can be to pin abortion quacks down and keep them locked up.

    As long as the idea persists that women and their children are mortal enemies, women and children will continue to die from abortions.



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

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  • 1 comment:

    Joe said...

    We need to have a requirement, if possible, in any future statute that criminal abortionists cannot be let out on either personal recognizance or bail, just like murderers and rapists and armed robbers, because they are clearly a threat to the community.

    Mothers who have been caught in a sting trying to kill their unborn children will also have to be held, otherwise if let out they will very likely make a second attempt to kill that child.