1932: One of a string of victims of quack abortionists in Oklahoma

On April 14, 1932, Mrs. Isobel F. Ferguson died of suspected abortion complications. Two physicians in the University of Oklahoma area, J. W. Elsiminger and Richard E. Thacker, were suspected in the case, one of a string of abortion deaths in the area.

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 1930s.



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