Abortion Deaths and Who Is Mourned

On April 4, 1907, Mrs. Norma Beck, age 32, died at Lakeside Hospital (pictured) in Chicago from the effects of a criminal abortion. Dr. Eahatchett was held by the coroner's jury and indicted, but there is no record that the case went to trial.

Operating on a tip, police, accompanied by an ambulance, broke into a private home in the Bronx on April 4, 1954. There they found Gertrude Pinsky, age 35, dead from septic poisoning from an illegal abortion. Police arrested Florence Cavalluzzo, a resident of the home, and Hugo Francese, an unlicensed physician. Dr. Samuel E. Witt was charged with referring women to the abortion ring, evidently run by Dr. Herbert S. Wolfe. Four doctors were charged with referring women and receiving a $30 kickback for each referral: Joseph F. Pacelli, Abraham Cohen, Kalman Molnar, and Poon Lim.

Mary Bradley, a 41-year-old mother of four, underwent a safe, legal 20-week abortion performed Dr. George Wayne Patterson in March of 1985. Because of severe bleeding, she was admitted to a hospital and had a total hysterectomy on March 28. Mary developed blood clotting and respiratory difficulties, and finally died on April 4. According to official documents, another Alabama woman, Janyth Caldwell, died after an abortion performed by Patterson, who himself also suffered an early death at somebody else's hands. He was gunned down outside a pornography theater in an apparent gangland slaying. The Feminist Majority Foundation and Revolutionary Worker lament the gangland shooting of an abortionist, while ignoring the fact that he himself had killed two women, underscores where the abortion lobby's priorities are.