A Doctor's Fatal Work in 1879

On November 8, 1879 police discovered a woman named Elizabeth Foley seriously ill with septicemia at "a rather mysterious sort of rookery" run by Mr. and Mrs. William J.F. Bullerman in Chicago. Police suspected that the abortion which had caused her infection had probably been perpetrated by Dr. Franklin Brooks, "who, a few years ago, was awarded six years at Joliet for abortion." They took Elizabeth to Cook County Hospital, where she died later that day.

Notice that Elizabeth's abortion was performed by a doctor -- as was typical for abortions before legalization.