Ruth Montero, age 23, underwent a safe and legal vacuum abortion of her 8-week pregnancy, under general anesthesia, August 1979, at Women's Care Center in Miami. Ruth awoke from anesthesia in the recovery room, and went into convulsions and cardiopulmonary arrest. She died from hemorrhage, and a prolapsed mitral valve, August 7. Ruth Montero, Myrta Baptiste, Maura Morales, and Shirley Payne all died in a clinic owned by Hipolito Barreiro, trained in Argentina and West Africa, but not licensed in U.S. Barreiro was accused of practicing without a license and tampering with witness. Yeah, legalizing abortion really cleared out all the bad characters.
Mary Ives was 28 when she had an abortion 19 weeks into her pregnancy. She was admitted to W.W. Backus Hospital in Norwich, Connecticut, for treatment of complications of the abortion, but her heart and lungs failed due to amniotic fluid embolism (amniotic fluid in her bloodstream). Mary was pronounced dead on August 7, 1983.
Teresa Smith is one of the women Life Dynamics notes on their "Blackmun Wall" of women killed by legalized abortion. Teresa was 31 years of age when she submitted to a D&C abortion. She went into cardio-respiratory arrest from a pulmonary embolism and was pronounced dead at a local hospital on August 7, 1988. Both Mary and Teresa died from foreseeable, but difficult to treat, complications, so it is entirely possible that their deaths, however sad, fall into the popular prochoice category of "All surgery has risks." However, if Teresa and Mary belong there, so do all the women who died of similar complications prior to legalization. If "all surgery has risks," then all surgery has risks even if the surgery in question is criminal abortion.
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