Update on Planned Parenthood's Latest Victim

The latest patient to die from the care at Planned Parenthood has been identified.

Tonya Reaves, age 24, was rushed to Northwest Memorial Hospital in Chicago and pronounced dead at 11:20 p.m. on Friday, July 21, 2012.

She was taken there from the Planned Parenthood facility at 18 S. Michigan Avenue, which advertises abortions up to 18 weeks. Tonya had undergone a D&E abortion, which indicates that she was likely between 14 and 18 weeks pregnant, although a misdiagnosis of fetal age might be the underlying cause of the injury.

Tonya was engaged to be married and had a little son, Alvin, who had just celebrated his first birthday. Her FaceBook page shows a vibrant, smiling young woman having fun on vacation with her family and friends.

Tonya's twin sister, Toni, told CBS Chicago, "We were born the same day. She was my other half." She expressed her bewilderment and shock:

"It happened so fast. She was just fine one day and then the next day she was gone. We’re just trying to figure out what happened… what happened."

Since the Centers for Disease Control said that, given the tools available to a modern abortion facility, there's no legitimate reason for a woman to bleed to death from abortion injuries, Planned Parenthood has a lot of explaining to do.

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"Woman Dies Following Abortion At Planned Parenthood Clinic," CBS Chicago, July 21, 2012
"Family Seeks Answers After Woman's Death Following Abortion," CBS Chicago, July 21, 2012
"Woman Dies After Abortion at Planned Parenthood Clinic," Chicago Sun-Times, July 22, 2012

Two Chicago Deaths from the Early 20th Century

On July 21, 1907, homemaker Madeline Paffrath died at German American Hospital in Chicago. She was approximately 21 years old. The coroner's jury determined that she had died from an abortion performed. They held two midwives -- Alice Rastone and Hacrone Schuetner -- responsible. Another woman, Alice F. Gustafson, whose profession is given as "abortion provider" was also arrested. Mrs. Paffraths' abortion was unusual in that it was not performed by a physician.

On July 21, 1923, 28-year-old Mrs. Mary Federowicz died at Chicago's St. Mary's Hospital from complications performed that day. Mrs. Anna Mithnewicz, whose profession was not given, was identified by the coroner as the person responsible, but no arrest was made.

Woman Bled to Death on Friday from Abortion at Chicago PP

An unidentified 24-year-old woman I'll call "Bella" Roe was rushed to Northwest Memorial Hospital in Chicago and pronounced dead at 11:20 a.m. on Friday, July 21, 2012.

She was taken there from the Planned Parenthood facility at 18 S. Michigan Avenue, where she had just undergone a D&E abortion, which indicates that she was likely between 14 and 20 weeks pregnant.

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"Woman Dies Following Abortion At Planned Parenthood Clinic," CBS Chicago, July 21, 2012

Two Pre-Roe Abortion Deaths

On July 18, 1918, 18-year-old Margaret Smith, an unmarried clerk, died at Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh. The coroner determined that she had died of septicemia from a self-induced abortion.

Note, please, that with overall public health issues such as doctors not using proper aseptic techniques, lack of access to blood transfusions and antibiotics, and overall poor health to begin with, there was likely little difference between the performance of a legal abortion and illegal practice, and the aftercare for either type of abortion was probably equally unlikely to do the woman much, if any, good. In fact, due to improvements in addressing these problems, maternal mortality in general (and abortion mortality with it) fell dramatically in the 20th Century, decades before Roe vs. Wade legalized abortion across America.




Barbara Riley was 23 years old when she chose abortion. She had a history of sickle cell anemia and three previous term pregnancies -- two live births and a stillborn child. She was in her first trimester of pregnancy when she underwent the abortion on July 11, 1970 at Harlem Hospital. The abortion had been recommended by hospital staff because Barbara had a history of sickle cell disease. The abortion would probably have been recommended as beneficial to Barbara's health, under New York's old abortion law; the new law just meant that they didn't need to leally justify going ahead with it. But instead of improving, Barbara's health deteriorated. Her blood started to break down. Nine days after the abortion, July 20, Barbara died. The other women I've identified as dying from sickle cell crisis triggered by an abortion are Margaret Davis andBetty Hines.

Abortion Deaths -- Prevented by Legalization?

Very little is on record about the death of 17-year-old Gertrude Wynants. According to the New York Times, Gertrude died on July 19, 1925, of a criminal abortion. Mrs. Margaret Shott Higgens, age 23, was indicted for manslaughter in Gertrude's death.

In late July of 1941, Mrs. Agnes Pearson of White Plains, New York died at Grasslands Hospital in New York of suspected complications from an abortion. Dr. Nathan Schwartz and Dr. Samuel Schwartz (not related) were charged with manslaughter in Agnes' death. The charges were dismissed in 1946. Agnes's abortion was typical of pre-Roe abortions in that it was performed by a physician. During the 1940s, while abortion was still illegal, there was a massive drop in maternal mortality from abortion. The death toll fell from 1,407 in 1940, to 744 in 1945, to 263 in 1950. Most researches attribute this plunge to the development of blood transfusion techniques and the introduction of antibiotics. Learn more here.

Carmen Rodriguez was 31 years old when she underwent a 14-week saline abortion at Lincoln Hospital in New York City. She had a history of rheumatic heart disease and two previous live births. After the saline was injected, it got into Carmen's blood stream. This caused acute pulmonary edema -- fluid accumulation in the lungs -- and Carmen went into a coma from which she never recovered. She died on July 19, 1970, leaving behind a husband along with her children. After Carmen's death, a militant Puerto Rican group, The Young Lords, swung into action. They pointed out that doctors at Lincoln Hospital knew that Carmen had heart problems and failed to take proper precautions -- a very valid claim. After all, saline abortions had long been known to be risky to the woman's heart. What responsible physician would choose to perform an abortion on a heart patient, using a technique that has been documented as potentially causing heart-damaging electrolyte imbalances? The Young Lords distributed leaflets in the neighborhood of the hospital, denouncing Carmen's death as "murder". For 12 hours, the group occupied an administration building connected with the hospital, denouncing the hospital as "a butcher shop that kills patients". Merle Goldman, spokeswoman of an abortion advocacy organization, did not share The Young Lords' outrage. Ms. Goldman said she hoped that Carmen's death wouldn't deter other women from undergoing abortions. She touted abortion's reputed safety and stressed that her group was lobbying against proposed health department regulation of abortion practice. New York City Chief Medical Examiner Milton Helpern, on the other hand, expressed concern that ill-equipped and poorly-staffed freestanding legal abortion facilities were posing a danger to women.

Betty Hines, a native of Tennessee, was 21 years old when she was checked into Doctors Hospital in California for a safe, legal abortion to be performed by Dr. A. Mitchell on July 19, 1971, who had been her physician for three or four years. Betty was eight weeks pregnant. There didn't seem to be anything wrong during the procedure. Betty was transferred to the recovery room, when she suddenly went into cardio-respiratory arrest. Mitchell theorized that perhaps Betty had died because of a bad vial of Inovar, because the next patient who was injected from that vial also went into cardiac arrest but was successfully resuscitated.Betty's autopsy, however, found no trave of Inovar in her system. A toxicology check was also done on the vial of medication, and found nothing wrong with the Inovar. Betty's death was attributed to massive intravascular sickling due to underlying sickle cell disorder. Other women who died of sickle cell crisis triggered by abortion include Margaret Davis and Barbara Hoppert.

A Typical Death, 1921

On July 14, 1921, 23-year-old Mrs. Edna Rohner died at Illinois Masonic Hospital in Chicago from an abortion perpetrated by Dr. Otto Klemmick. He was held by the coroner and tried, but acquitted on June 12, 1923.

1921: A Typical Abortion Death

On July 14, 1921, 23-year-old Mrs. Edna Rohner died at Illinois Masonic Hospital in Chicago from an abortion perpetrated by Dr. Otto Klemmick. He was held by the coroner and tried, but acquitted on June 12, 1923.

Three Tragedies, 1926, 1934, 1998

On July 13, 1926, a laborer on his way to work stumbled across a grisly find: the dismembered remains of a young woman, tossed along the side of a lonely road between two cemeteries near Boston. The dismemberment was expertly done, indicating that the killer might be a skilled surgeon. Nearly twenty families of missing women contacted the morgue in the first hours after the body was found, but the descriptions of their loved ones did not fit the victim. By July 15, the young woman had been positively identified as 20-year-old Edith Green, who had been an attendant at the Boston Psychopathic Hospital.
Police concluded that 21-year-old James V. Ford was the "sweetheart" responsible for Edith's pregnancy. Ford admitted to police that he had arranged for an abortion to be performed on Edith by Dr. Thomas E. Walsh. Edith had died on July 10. Ford said that Walsh had asked for his help in disposing of Edith's body, but that he had refused. Walsh and his wife were charged with murder in Edith's death.

In 1934, pretty Marian Mills was the 19-year-old "campus sweetheart" of Neal Myers, a 21-year-old pharmacy student. On July 10, Marian died in the apartment of Mrs. Hazel Brown, the cook for Myers' fraternity house and "the only person of mature age in the house during the 24 tragic hours preceding the girl's death." Myers was charged with murder, and could have faced life in prison if convicted. Mrs. Brown said that Myers had loved Marian and had wanted to marry her. Marian, on the other hand, insisted that her parents would never accept Myers. Brown said that Marian had taken "a harmless drug" and that this was the only attempt that she personally knew of to abort the baby. But evidently Marian had found an abortionist, or had done something herself more drastic than just take mild abortifacients, because doctors who examined her said that some sort of instruments had been used in the abortion that had caused her death.


Virginia Wolfe, age 33, went to Methodist Women's and Children's Hospital on July 6, 1998, to have a suction abortion performed by Dr. Lillian Jones. JoDuring the procedure, she punctured Virginia's uterus and bladder. Virginia suffered massive hemorrhage, losing so much blood that her heart stopped. Doctors repaired her bladder and removed her uterus, but Virginia's brain had already been damaged by the lack of oxygen. She was pronounced dead on July 10, 1998.

One Illegal, Two Legal, and an Unusual Prosecution

On July 9, 1916, 27-year-old homemaker Mina Malletti died at Chicago's Washington Park Hospital from complications of a abortion performed that day by an unknown perpetrator.

Luz Rodriguez was 40 years old when she went to Moshe Hachamovitch's abortion clinic in the Bronx for a first-trimester abortion on July 5, 1986. She bled heavily after the abortion. Just before she was to be discharged, she stopped breathing. Staff summoned an ambulance, which took Luz to a hospital. Efforts to resuscitate her were successful, but she remained hospitalized. Four days later, July 9, she died. The autopsy found that she had bled to death from an incomplete abortion.Hachamovitch was also either direction responsible for the deaths of Jammie Garcia , Lisa Bardsley, Christina Goesswein, Tanya Williamson, and Lou Ann Herron., or he owned and was supposed to properly supervised the facilities where they were fatally injured.

Guadalupe Negron, age 33, went for a safe, legal abortion at Metro Women's Center in Queens, New York, on July 9, 1993.  After Dr. David Benjamin had performed Guadalupe's abortion, she was moved to the recovery room  and left unattended for over an hour. When paramedics arrived, they found Guadalupe naked and bloody, with a nurse screaming and trying to revive her in a small, unventilated room with an inadequate oxygen tank and no necessary equipment such as a blood pressure cuff. They also noted that Benjamin had inserted a breathing tube into Guadalupe's stomach instead of her trachea, causing stomach fluids to travel up the tube, into her mouth, and down into her lungs. The autopsy report found that in trying to extract a 20-week fetus, Benjamin had lacerated Guadalupe's cervix and punctured her uterus, leaving a tear over 3 inches long. She hemorrhaged and went into shock and cardiac arrest. Authorities determined that Benjamin had initiated the risky procedure without having first examined the patient. One of the paramedics told a reporter, "I wouldn't take my dog there (Benjamin's clinic)." New York newspapers covering Benjamin's murder trial discovered that the Iranian immigrant had a long history of malpractice and had changed his name from Elias Bonrouhi to David Benjamin in order to cover up his record. The told reporters that they were appalled by Benjamin's arrogance, lack of remorse, and lack of appreciation of how badly he had bungled the case. because of the egregiousness of Benjamin's behavior, he was charged with manslaughter. The jury forewoman said, "It was quite a quick decision. The pictures of his clinic were disgusting. The inside was very unsanitary." She and the other jurors also noted that, "Throughout the trial, his lawyer said Dr. Benjamin didn't know the woman had died. But when we listened to the tape, we clearly heard his wife say, 'She's dead! She's dead!'"  Abortion activist Bill Baird attended the trial with Benjamin's wife and her mother, and denounced the sentence as "a public stoning, and said that the judge who sentenced his fellow abortionist was incapable of compassion or mercy.
 

Legalization No Help at All

On July 8, 1929, 26-year-old Frances Rogers died from a criminal abortion. The source summary says that the abortion was done in an unknown location, but the description of the offense says that she died at the scene of the crime. The person responsible was never identified.

Keep in mind that things that things we take for granted, like antibiotics and blood banks, were still in the future. For more about abortion in this era, see Abortion in the 1920s. For more on pre-legalization abortion, see The Bad Old Days of Abortion.

Fast-forward to our safe, enlightened days.

Junette Barnes, a 27-year-old mother of four, had a tubal ligation on June 16, 1988. One week after this operation, she found out that she had been pregnant at the time of the surgery, and was still pregnant. She saw her family physician, Dr. Ted Shields on July 8, 1988, and he performed a safe, legal abortion on her at Surgicare Outpatient Center in Victoria that day. During the abortion, he perforated her uterus and cut an artery and several veins. Junette was transferred to a hospital, where she died of during emergency surgery.

1950 & 1982: Equally Dead, Not Equally Remembered

I was originally very skeptical about the story told on the National Organization for Women web site. They said that Vivian Campbell was a recently-separated 24-year-old mother of two when she discovered she was pregnant. NOW indicated that Vivian sent her children to stay with her parents while she obtained some sort of illegal abortion. NOW provided no details of the abortion, but did say that Vivian asked for her estranged husband, who came to the hospital only after she had died of peritonitis on May 6, 1950. I decided to check the story out when I was able to visit the archives of the Allegheny County Coroner's Office in Pittsburgh. What I found left me totally bewildered as to why NOW and other abortion advocacy organizations using Vivian's story didn't bother to do any research.They certainly would have it pay dirt, verifying the fact that Vivian did indeed die from complications of an illegal abortion -- evidently self-induced with castor oil. This was unusual, since the majority of pre-legalization abortions were done by physicians, but typical abortions don't make good PR for those promoting legalization.



Legal abortion deaths, on the other hand, slide under the radar of the self-appointed champions of women's lives. On July 2, 1982, 23-year-old Darlene Wood was put under anesthesia for a second trimester abortion at Temple University Hospital. The abortionist was Renga Rajan; the anesthethesiologist was William Stevenson-Smith. Darlene was given nitrous oxide by face mask. She started coughing after the procedure began. After the abortion was completed, she was admitted to the respiratory intensive care unit, where she was diagnosed with primary pulmonary hypertension. Over the next several days, Darlene experienced increasing respiratory distress. She was given medication to maintain her blood pressure. But on July 7, Darlene went into cardio-respiratory arrest. She was pronounced dead at 2:50 p.m. The administratrix of Darlene's estate contended that the lack of appropriate medical and anesthetic clearance was a substantial factor in her death. Rajan was also successfully sued for the 1987 abortion death of Iris Velazquez.

Abortion Deaths, 1930 & 1970

On July 6, 1930, Mary Tulis, age 34, died in Chicago from complications of an abortion performed that day. Marie La Montagne, who lived at the scene, was fingered in the abortion. Dr. O.W. Sommer of Francis Willard Hospital had been brought to the scene by somebody when it became apparent that Mary had peritonitis. Neither Montagne nor Sommer is mentioned in the coroner's verdict.

Pearl Schwier, age 42, was 20 weeks pregnant when she sought a safe, legal abortion under New York state's new law, at St. Luke's hospital in New York City. She was brought into the operating room on July 6, 1970 for a hysterotomy abortion, which is simply a c-section in which the intention is to allow the baby to die rather than to deliver him or her alive. It was performed under general anesthesia. About 45 minutes into the procedure, Pearl had a reaction to the anesthesia and died.

As you can see from the graph below, abortion deaths were falling dramatically before legalization. This steep fall had been in place for decades. To argue that legalization lowered abortion mortality simply isn't supported by the data.

A Typical Early 20th Century Death

Homemaker Rosa May Swope of Canton, Illinois, died in mid-July of 1901 of complications of a botched abortion. Both her husband, George W., who was a coal miner, and Dr. F.D. Smith of Astoria, Illinois, were arrested. Smith denied having performed the abortion, saying that he'd been summoned in early July to attend to Mrs. Swope, and had found her "suffering greatly and in an abortive condition, though whether from drugs or otherwise is not known." Smith said that Dr. D. W. Bottorf had performed the abortion in question.

Note, please, that with overall public health issues such as doctors not using proper aseptic techniques, lack of access to blood transfusions and antibiotics, and overall poor health to begin with, there was likely little difference between the performance of a legal abortion and illegal practice, and the aftercare for either type of abortion was probably equally unlikely to do the woman much, if any, good. For more about abortion and abortion deaths in the first years of the 20th century, see Abortion Deaths 1900-1909.

For more on pre-legalization abortion, see The Bad Old Days of Abortion.

Historic Deaths, Perps Professions Unknown

"The community around Oyster Bay are greatly excited over an abortion case that has been brought to light."
The woman, Miss Bertram, was engaged to a New York man. The wedding was to take place on July 4, 1875. But Miss Bertram became pregnant before the wedding. She purchased an abortifacient which didn't have the effect she desired, so she took some other sort of abortifacient. This second abortifacient did the job, leading to the birth of a near-term infant, which was buried in a potato patch. Miss Bertram, however, took ill and died a few days later. The physician who was attending her declared the cause of death to be the abortion. Miss Bertram's fiance denied being the father of the dead baby. "There is a suspicion entertained of another young man". Police began an investigation into who he might be, and into who sold Miss Bertram the fatal drugs.

On July 4, 1913, Russian immigrant 33-year-old Mary Goldstein died in Chicago from an abortion perpetrated by Minnie Bernstein. Bernstein is identified only as "abortion provider", so she might have been a lay abortionist. She was held by the Coroner, and indicted by the Grand Jury for felony murder on September 1, but the case never went to trial.

Note, please, that with overall public health issues such as doctors not using proper aseptic techniques, lack of access to blood transfusions and antibiotics, and overall poor health to begin with, there was likely little difference between the performance of a legal abortion and illegal practice, and the aftercare for either type of abortion was probably equally unlikely to do the woman much, if any, good.

In fact, due to improvements in addressing these problems, maternal mortality in general (and abortion mortality with it) fell dramatically in the 20th Century, decades before Roe vs. Wade legalized abortion across America.



For more on pre-legalization abortion, see The Bad Old Days of Abortion

Midwife in 1917, Doctor in 1929

On July 3, 1917, 31-year-old homemaker Helen Skoza died at Chicago's Henroten Hospital from an abortion perpetrated by Elizabeth Schade. Schade never went to trial for Helen's death, and went on to kill Fern Strecker in 1926.

Dorothy Schultz, age 19, graduated from high school in June of 1929, and was planning to move from her family home in Tomah, Wisconsin to take a government job in Washington, DC. In mid-June, her mother brought her to Dr. W. B. Parke in Camp Douglas for an abortion, performed June 19 for $150. Parke insisted that Dorothy's concerned parents leave her at his home overnight for the abortion. Her parents took her home the next day, but she became ill with chills. After several days they summoned Parke, who boiled some instruments to sterilize them before performing a procedure to clean out Dorothy's uterus. Neither this care, nor continuing care over the next several days, improved her condition, so her parents called in another doctor, Dr. Winter, who found Dorothy delirious with a 105 degree fever. At first she seemed to improve under his care, but she developed pneumonia and died on July 2. Parke expressed his condolences to the family, refunded the abortion fee, and paid them an additional $850. His efforts to convince a jury that he had merely been caring for Dorothy after a self-induced abortion failed, and he was convicted of second-degree manslaughter.

Note, please, that with overall public health issues such as doctors not using proper aseptic techniques, lack of access to blood transfusions and antibiotics, and overall poor health to begin with, there was likely little difference between the performance of a legal abortion and illegal practice, and the aftercare for either type of abortion was probably equally unlikely to do the woman much, if any, good.

In fact, due to improvements in addressing these problems, maternal mortality in general (and abortion mortality with it) fell dramatically in the 20th Century, decades before Roe vs. Wade legalized abortion across America.

For more information about early 20th Century abortion mortality, see Abortion Deaths 1910-1919.

1900 Abortion Kills Patient, Midwife

On July 2, 1900, Mrs. Sarah Bonda, age 20, died at her home as a result of a criminal abortion performed on her there that day. When police arrested Mrs. Martha Heisig, a midwife, in connection with the death, she committed suicide.

Note, please, that with overall public health issues such as doctors not using proper aseptic techniques, lack of access to blood transfusions and antibiotics, and overall poor health to begin with, there was likely little difference between the performance of a legal abortion and illegal practice, and the aftercare for either type of abortion was probably equally unlikely to do the woman much, if any, good. For more about abortion and abortion deaths in the first years of the 20th century, see Abortion Deaths 1900-1909.

Four Abortion Deaths, 1882 - 1981

On Saturday, July 1, 1882, Gussie Ellergood of Carlisle, Illinois, died in a St. Louis hospital. She had been admitted the previous Wednesday after having taken sick. Her death was due to a botched abortion. Gussie was a servant working in the home of Dr. Edgar Park. She made a deathbed statement naming Dr. R. McWilliams as her abortionist, though McWilliams denied any knowledge of her.

On July 1, 1936, Madell Williams died in a Rocky Mount, North Carolina hospital, from peritonitis caused by a criminal abortion. Melton Baker, a man she had been associating with for about 18 months, was found guilty of arranging the fatal abortion, and was sentenced to 3 - 5 years in prison. His conviction was upheld on appeal.

"Audrey" was 44 years old when she underwent a first-trimester abortion in New York on July 1, 1971, now legal under New York's liberalized abortion law. During the abortion she went into cardiac arrest. Attempts to revive her failed; she died that day, leaving three children motherless.

Sheryl Cottone was 23 years old when she underwent a first trimester abortion in June of 1981. She was rushed to Veteran's Memorial Hospital in Waukon, Iowa, on July 1. She was pronounced dead on arrival. An autopsy found that she had died from an embolism that lodged in her heart.