1929: Midwife abortion proves fatal for Chicago woman

On March 6, 1928, Lucille Smith, a 23-year-old store clerk, died at Chicago's Burrows Hospital from complications of an abortion performed that day at the office of midwife Emma Schulz.

Schulz was indicted for felony murder on April 1, 1929.

The following year, Schulz was arrested after the death of 23-year-old Gladys Schaffer.

Keep in mind that things that things we take for granted, like antibiotics and blood banks, were still in the future. For more about abortion in this era, see Abortion in the 1920s.



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

To email this post to a friend, use the icon below.