Wednesday, February 08, 2012

Which one was typical?

On February 8, 1919, Ruth Fragale, a 20-year-old clerk, died at her home in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.The coroner found that she had died of peritonitis from a self-induced abortion.

University of Oklahoma co-ed Nancy Ward, age 19, died February 8, 1968, from complications of an abortion arranged with the help of her boyfriend's father. The abortionist, Richard Mucie, was an ear, nose, and throat specialist in Kansas City, Missouri. After Roe v Wade was handed down, Mucie was able to use it to get Nancy's abortion retroactively declared legal and win his freedom.

Which abortion was more typical of pre-legalization abortions: self-induced, like Ruth's, or performed by a licensed doctor, like Nancy's?

Nancy's was more typical.
external image Illegals.png
For more on pre-legalization abortion, see The Bad Old Days of Abortion

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