Lack of Action Allows Quacks to Keep Killing

On April 23, 1920, 30-year-old homemaker Violet McCormick died at the Chicago practice of an abortionist named Achtenberg, leaving behind three children ages 12, 9, and 6. Fom information about other Chicago area abortion deaths, we can gather that the abortionist in question was Dr. Louise Achtenberg, who had already been implicated in the abortion deaths of Dora Swan in 1907 and Florence Wright in 1909.  After Violet's death, Achtenberg was held by the coroner and tried, but acquitted, freeing her to cause the 1924 death of Madelyn Anderson. It is clear that unless law enforcement and the judicial system have the means and the will to lock up quack abortionists, doctors like Achtenberg will be able to ply their trade with impunity, just as Chicago abortionist Steve Lichtenberg continues to ply his trade in spite of the deaths of Deanna Bell in 1992, Nakia Jorden in 1998, Maria Leho in 1999, and Maria Rodriguez in 2000 at his National Abortion Federation member clinic.

Abortionist Dr. Richard Thacker

Another example of what happens when abortionists are allowed to operate at large swept through Oklahoma City. Marie Epperson died February 26, 1929 after an abortion by Dr. Richard Thacker, but he was not prosecuted for her death. He seemed to lay low for a while without killing anybody else. That all changed in 1932. Ethel Hestland died on April 3 from a criminal abortion; Thacker had signed her death certificate. He was implicated in the abortion deaths of Isobabell Ferguson on April 14. Ruth Hall on April 15, Robbie Lou Thompson on April 23, Lennis May Roach on April 24, Nancy Joe Lee on April 25. Had Thacker been sentenced to even 8 years for Marie's death, he would never have harmed another woman; he died of natural causes in 1937.