Three More Safe & Lethal

All three of today's safe, legal abortion deaths involve the discovery of the woman's body after she'd been sent home with undiagnosed complications.

• "Anita" Roe was a 23-year-old mother of two when she chose safe and legal abortion in 1971. She traveled from Massachusetts to New York for her abortion. She was 22 weeks pregnant. On May 11, the doctor initiated a saline abortion, then sent Anita home to expel the fetus. The next day, Anita was found unresponsive at her home. She was rushed to a local hospital, where she was pronounced dead on arrival. She had bled to death.

• Gladyss Delanoche Estanislao, 28-year-old mother of one, underwent a safe, legal aspiration abortion by Alan J. Ross at The Wisconsin Avenue Women's Health Care Center on April 25, 1989. All that Ross managed to remove was clots, so Ross concluded that Gladyss had miscarried already. He sent Gladyss home with some medications. On May 12, Gladyss was found unresponsive on the floor of the rest room near her college classroom. A doctor who was in the vicinity performed CPR while awaiting an ambulance. Gladyss was taken to a hospital, where she was declared dead on arrival from cardiac arrest due to blood loss from a ruptured ectopic pregnancy.

• The family of 34-year-old Colleen Chambers had become concerned about her after her safe, legal abortion in 1991. They called an employee of the place Colleen lived, and asked him to check on her. He found her dead in her room. Autopsy showed that she had died from blood clots in her lungs and legs, and gave her date of death as May 12, 1991.