History: Secrecy leads to suspicion and exhumation; abortion revealed

Twenty-five-year-old Lizzie Cook, a farmer's daughter, died suddenly on July 27, 1884, in Lockport, New York. The newspaper noted that "the secrecy in getting her body removed to her home created suspicion." Lizzie's body was exhumed for an examination, which showed that she had died from an abortion. Dr. Ira T. Richmond was arrested. Richmond had come to Lockport a year earlier and opened a sanitarium, "which died for want of patronage."



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

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