On July 10, Marian died in the apartment of Mrs. Hazel Brown, the cook for Myers' fraternity house and "the only person of mature age in the house during the 24 tragic hours preceding the girl's death."
Myers was charged with murder in Marian's death, and could have faced life in prison if convicted.
Dr. Roy Emanuel testified that Myers consulted him about a possible pregnancy but had asked for advise, not for an abortion. Emanuel said that he'd recommended a test to verify the suspected pregnancy, and had also told the young man to consult with his father. "Two or three weeks later he came back ... bringing the report, which showed the girl was not pregnant." Myers had Marian with him, and she said that she wanted an examination, because she didn't think the test was accurate. He did examine her and while he could not definitively say, he didn't think she was pregnant. The couple returned again the Thursday before Marian's death, and this time his examination verified that the girl was pregnant. Again, Emanuel said, he referred the couple to Myers' father.
Mrs. Brown, for her part, said that Myers had loved Marian and had wanted to marry her. He was opposed to the idea of an abortion. Marian, on the other hand, insisted that her parents would never accept Myers. Brown said that Marian had taken "a harmless drug" and that this was the only attempt that she personally knew of to abort the baby.
But evidently Marian had found an abortionist, or had done something herself more drastic than just take mild abortifacients, because doctors who examined her said that some sort of instruments had been used in the abortion that had caused her death.
Myers was supported by Brown, his father, and his fraternity friends during the trial. There were tears of joy in the courtroom when he was acquitted. Marian's father, Professor M. Elbert Mills, "maintained a strict silence."
I have been unable to find if the perpetrator of Marian's fatal abortion was ever identified.
For more on pre-legalization abortion, see The Bad Old Days of Abortion
5 comments:
Given the distinct lack of facts and that Marian thought that 'legitimizing' her pregnancy was unlikely, odds are that she self-harmed using a coat-hanger or knitting needle - ah! the bad old days, no safe and legal recourse. And this is what you want to reintroduce.
Right-to-lifers owe us blood for eight terrorist murders. Someone should kill eight famous right-to-lifers and even up the score.
OC, to "even the score", the families of the dead women would have to off the abortionists who took their daughters, sisters, wives, and mothers away from them forever. I wonder how many abortionists would still be topside if it weren't for prolifers encouraging families to pursue legal remedies rather than revenge.
Rupert, re: "An eye for an eye makes us all blind".
If I have to choose between a world in which my enemy blinds me but my enemy can still see, and one in which both I and my enemy are blind, I prefer the latter.
You write as if we had a choice whether or not the abortion conflict should be violent. But we do not have that choice. Peace is only possible when BOTH sides are peaceful. The right-to-lifers have ALREADY decided that the conflict is violent. Our choice now is between ONE-SIDED violence, and violence that goes both ways. I prefer the latter.
It's time to start answering right-to-lifers in their own language: the language of bombs and guns.
For a good first target, I would suggest Professor Robert P. George of Princeton. He's one of the most respectable right-to-lifers in the whole world. He is a member of the Council on Foreigh Relations and he served on George W. Cokehead-Burnout Bush's "Bioethics" committee. If he were killed by a pro-choice counterterrorist, it would send just the right message: as long as right-to-lifers continue perpetrating violence, NONE of them will be safe from counterterror.
Soon I will be posting his home address on my blog.
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