Friday, January 28, 2011

Anniversary: Another Black woman on the altar of Choice

On January 28, 1974, after twelve days on life support, 38-year-old Evangeline McKenna was pronounced dead in Cedars of Lebanon Hospital in Los Angeles.

She had checked in for a safe, legal abortion two weeks earlier, and had opted to have a tubal ligation at the same time. Two days later, she had a seizure, stopped breathing, and went into cardiac arrest. Doctors told the family that Evanegline was brain dead, but they held out hope and asked that she be put on life support, where she remained until her death twelve days later.

Evangeline's death, in addition to being a tragedy for her family and loved ones, also highlights the disproportionate damage that legal abortion causes among Blacks in the United States. Though black women are only 13% of the female population in the US, and though they are more likely than white women to oppose abortion, they account for a full 35% of legal abortions reported. Black women, like Evangeline, also account for fully 50% of reported legal abortion deaths.

Evangeline's story in a minute:

For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice:



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5 comments:

OperationCounterstrike said...

She died TWO DAYS AFTER the abortion. The likelihood is the abortion did NOT cause her death.

Cecilia said...

OC: What kind of dictor are you? Don't you lnow that a serious infection can come from an abortion, and that they can take a couple days to develop? If you don't know that, I wouldn't even let you put a band aid on me. I never spent even one day in medical school, but it seems I know more about medicine than you do.

Cecilia said...

Oh heck, I hate typos. I meant "doctor," not "dictor."

OperationCounterstrike said...

Sure, it's possible. But the LIKELIHOOD is that this death had nothing to do with the abortion.

Katie said...

Right, obviously it's totally unlikely that a significant medical procedure occurring 48 hours before an unexpected death could have anything to do with that death. Nope. Not at all.

Unless, of course, she had given *birth* and then died two days later. Then OC wouldn't hesitate to make a connection between the medical event and the death.