May 27: "Hollywood Play-Girl" Found Dead in an Alley

Patricia Steele, age 34, "Hollywood Play-Girl" found in a Los Angeles alley on May 27, 1952. Victor Cefalu, who performed the autopsy, said that she'd died from either hemorrhage or infection caused by an abortion that had taken place 24 to 48 hours before her death.

Patricia's physician, Dr. Louis J. Klingbell, reportedly told the police that Patricia had been four months into her pregnancy and had told him, "I'm going to do something about it."

Patricia was the daughter of financier Victor Steel and his wife, Jane. She had a "richly-furnished" apartment and travelled to Honolulu two months before her death. Her expensive convertible was still in her garage.

Victor said that he'd talked to Patricia on the telephone the morning of May 26 and she'd told him that she felt sick. He called back later but got no answer.

Source:

• "Hollywood Play-Girl Found Dead In Alley; Said Victim Of Abortion," Lancaster (PA) Intelligencer Journal, May 28, 1952

Family Planning Associates Death Count Up by One

Today I opened my mailbox to find the story of the seventeenth young woman I know of now to have died after an abortion at that National Abortion Federation flagship: Family Planning Associates Medical Group.

To preserve her confidentiality, I have given her the pseudonym "Kyla Ellis."

Kyla was 23 years old and about 11 weeks pregnant when she went to Family Planning Associate Medical Group at 601 S. Westmoreland Avenue in Los Angeles for an abortion on May 14, 2014. Like other young Black women, she was at higher risk of death than a white woman would be.

The day after the abortion, Kyla suffered agonizing abdominal pain. Her partner, whom I will call "Benjamin," called an ambulance, which rushed her to Centinela Hospital. She arrived at around 3:30 that afternoon. Kyla rated her pain at 10 on a scale of 10. Bright, fresh blood was flowing from her vagina. She couldn't pass urine at all. Hospital staff used a catheter to drain her bladder of about 200 cc of bloody urine.

Doctors decided that Kyla needed more intensive care than Centinela was able to provide. Kyla rode by ambulance to Kaiser West Los Angeles. She arrived shortly after midnight on May 16. At first she was awake, but at around 1:40 a.m. her gaze turned glassy and she became unresponsive. Staff took her to the lab for a CT scan, but on arrival Kyla went into cardio respiratory arrest. All efforts to revive her failed and she was pronounced dead at 2:45 a.m.

The autopsy found her uterus boggy and enlarged. The endometrium (lining) had been scraped away. 

Kyla had bled to death.

She's the seventeenth woman I'm aware of to have died after abortions at FPA. The others are: 

• 1970: Denise Holmes
• 1984: Patricia Chacon and Mary Pena
• 1985: Josefina Garcia
• 1986: Laniece Dorsey
• 1988: Joyce Ortenzio and Tami Suematsu
• 1992: Deanna Bell and Susan Levy
• 1994: Christina Mora
• 1995: TaTanisha Wesson
• 1998: Nakia Jorden
• 1999: Maria Leho
• 2000: Kimberly Neil and Maria Rodriguez
• 2004: Chanelle Bryant

Watch 17th Known Abortion Death at YouTube.

Autopsy pages 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15

May 23: Three Deaths in Different Eras

Dr. Amante Rongetti

On May 23, 1929, 24-year-old Elizabeth Palumbo died at West End Hospital in Chicago. Dr. Amante Rongetti signed a death certificate attributing her death to appendicitis. However, upon autopsy the coroner's physician, Dr. Thomas Dwyer, determined that her death had actually been caused by an abortion. 

Rongetti was held by the coroner on June 12 for having perpetrated the fatal abortion on May 10. However, he was acquitted.

All of these goings-on surrounding Elizabeth's death took place while Rongetti was out on bail pending a new trial in the abortion death of Loretta Enders, for which he'd been sentenced to die in the electric chair.

Newly-added source: "Rongetti Held Again on Serious Charge," Journal Gazette, May 27, 1929

Life Dynamics lists 29-year-old Rhonda Ruggiero on their "Blackmun Wallsafe and legal abortions. According to the information LDI put together, Rhonda underwent an abortion in May of 1982. She suddenly died of an abortion-related pulmonary embolism on May 23. An embolism is a flukey thing that can kill regardless of the doctor's skill, so Rhonda probably would have died regardless of whether abortion was legal or not.

Documents indicate that Josefina Garcia, age 37, mother of 2, died after abortion at a Family Planning Associates Medical Group (FPA) facility. Josefina's survivors filed suit against FPA owner Edward Campbell Allred, and 5 other doctors: Kenneth Wright, Leslie S. Orleans, Earl Baxter, Soon Sohn, and Thomas Grubbs. The family said that staff failed to determine that Josefina had an ectopic pregnancy before proceeding with a routine safe and legal abortion procedure by D&C on May 23, 1985. After her abortion, Josefina was left unattended in a recovery room, where she hemorrhaged. She died the day of her abortion. Regardless of whether or not abortion is legal, an ectopic pregnancy is something any abortionist should have diagnosed, if not before the abortion, then certainly after the abortion was completed and there were not pieces of fetus removed. Either way, there was little excuse for failing to detect the ectopic pregnancy. Whether Josefina lived or died would have depended on the state of medicine at the time, and the ordinary skills of doctors who were not abortionists.

May 18, 1972: A College Student's Fatal Journey

Pamela Modugno, a college student, died Wednesday, May 17, 1972 during an abortion at Monsey Medical Center in New York. She was 18 years old. Cardiac arrest due to air embolism. She was the second death from a safe, legal abortion in the county since New York liberalized the abortion laws effective July 1, 1970. The first had been Edith Clark.

County Medical Examiner Dr. Frederick Zugibe postulated that reverse air pressure from a suction unit might have blown air into Pam's bloodstream.

Monsey Medical Center had opened two days after abortion was legalized. The director, Dr. Lester Lando, was a licensed OB/GYN.

Pam's father, Thomas Modugno sued for negligence in how the abortion was performed and under the theory that the abortion was "assault and trespass" against Pam because at the time of the abortion, no surgery was permitted on an unmarried patient without parental consent except in an emergency.

Pam is identified as "Danielle" in Life Dynamics' list of safe, legal abortion deaths.

Sources:

• "18-year-old student dies during abortion," The Journal News, May 18, 1972
• "Abortion death suit filed," The Journal News, January 18, 1973

May 12, 1989: Gladyss Estanislao Collapses on Campus

On May 12, 1989, Gladyss P. Delanoche Estanislao, 28-year-old mother of one, was found unresponsive on the floor of the rest room near her college classroom. A doctor who was in the vicinity performed CPR while awaiting an ambulance. Gladyss was taken to Greater Laurel Beltsville Hospital, where she was declared dead on arrival from cardiac arrest due to blood loss from a ruptured ectopic pregnancy.

Gladyss had gone to Dr. Alan J. Ross at Wisconsin Avenue Women's Health Center in Bethesda, Maryland on April 25 for an abortion. Ross diagnosed Gladyss as being 6 - 8 weeks pregnant and performed a suction abortion under local anesthesia. 

The medical board noted, "According to [Ross's] office records, the aspirate tissue obtained was abnormal, consisting of blood clots." He did not send the specimen for a pathological examination. He also did not do an ultrasound to figure out why there was no evident fetal tissue. He also failed to do serial HCG studies to measure pregnancy hormones over time to see if Gladyss was still pregnant.

He merely discharged Gladyss with a prescription for antibiotics.

The fact that the abortion specimen did not contain fetal parts should have indicated that Gladyss had an ectopic pregnancy. This condition is routinely treated by competent doctors, saving the lives of the mothers. But Ross missed his diagnosis and allowed Gladyss to leave his clinic with her life in danger. Because of the sloppiness of abortionists like Ross, women who choose abortion are more likely to die from a ruptured ectopic pregnancy than are women intending to carry to term.

Human Life International reported Gladyss's death to the medical board and they carried out an investigation. "In this inspection, the reviewers found that [Ross's] office records were grossly inadequate." They were hand-written so illegibly that Ross was often unable to read his own handwriting. They lacked detail. None of them showed an adequate medical history or physical examination. 

Inspectors also noted that Ross disposed of everything -- used needles, used gloves, and fetal remains -- in the regular trash.

Ross did all of his own lab testing for things such as RH factor, chlamydia, etc., even though he was not qualified to do so. He defended this on the grounds that he didn't charge patients for these services.

The board characterized Ross's medical services as "careless and inattentive." They suspended his license for one year and fined him $25,000. His license was also placed on probation under specific requirements that he clean up his act.

Gladyss had been born in the Philippines and had come to the United States as a child. She was a 1978 graduate of Oxon Hill High School. Her family sued on behalf of her motherless, who was two years old when the fatal abortion was performed. 

New documents: Alan Ross License Suspension Order

Matibag vs. Women's Health 

May 26, 1933: Another Dying Woman Named Dr. Mitchell as Abortionist

Dr. Justin Mitchell

While I was looking for more information about the February 2, 1936 abortion death of Alice Haggin, I found an article linking Alice's abortionist, Justin Mitchell, to yet another death. While dying in Chicago's West Side Hospital, Mrs. Florence Falske Jordan named Mitchell as the man who had perpetrated her fatal abortion on May 8, 1933. Florence died on May 26.

According to the 1930 census, Florence and her husband, Edward, lived in the home of Edward's grandmother, Elizabeth Jordan, with their 2-year-old daughter. Edward was a driver for a dry-goods company and Florence was a homemaker. 

Mitchell had been implicated in the 1931 abortion death of Ethel Vaughan. Mitchell was also implicated in the abortion deaths of Florence Jordan in 1933, of Mary Schwartz in 1934, and of Mary Nowalowski in 1936. 

Sources:

• "Physician Arrested After Woman Dies of Operation," Chicago Tribune, May 27, 1933.