Two On The Same Day in 1970, and an Historic Death

"Judy" is one of the women Life Dynamics identifies on their "Blackmun Wall" as having been killed by a safe and legal abortion. Judy was a 42-year-old mother of four from upstate New York when she chose safe and legal abortion in 1970. She was to have a tubal ligation done at the same time. Judy underwent the procedure, but went into cardiac arrest. Her heart was started again, but she remained in a coma for six days until her death on July 12.

Another woman, 42-year-old Pearl Schwier, died that very same day in New York City. At 20 weeks pregnant, she had 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 never regained consciousness.

As you can see from the graph below, abortion deaths were falling dramatically before legalization. This steep fall had been in place since the beginning of the 20th century -- perhaps earlier. To argue that legalization lowered abortion mortality simply isn't supported by the data.

On July 12, 1889, Annie Doran, from Traverse City, Michigan, was died suddenly in Chicago from an illegal abortion perhaps perpetrated that day. The coroner's inquest concluded that she had bled to death from an abortion, possibly self-induced.News coverage, however, indicated that a physician, Dr. McMullen, was believed to have provided Annie with abortifacients.