Was a Doctor Really an Improvement?

On September 30, 1904, Stanislawa Zagonski died in Chicago from an illegal abortion performed that day. Mrs. Alexander Wojtanowski, whose profession is not given, was arrested and held by Coroner's Jury on October 5.

No matter if Mrs. Wojtanowski was a doctor or not, she was probably far more professional than Dr. Joe Bills Reynolds, whose practice left 21-year-old Gaylene Golden dead on September 30, 1985. Reynold was a jack of all trades, doing a variety of elective surgeries, including abortions, in his filthy clinic. Reynolds' anesthetist, age 60, had originally been hired as a janitor, and an untrained orderly was acting as his nurse. The operating room was littered with dirty cups and papers.


Reynolds performed the abortion on Gaylene in his Oklahoma City office. Due to a cervical laceration, Gaylene developed an embolism -- both air and amniotic fluid in her bloodstream. This embolism killed her on the spot, leaving her son motherless.

ADDENDUM: Reynolds' daughter, Shelly Reynolds, was charged with performing at least seven abortion without a license at her father's clinic after he was stripped of his own license.