October 7, 1963: The Only Kind of Abortion Death They Care About

On October 7, 1963, 21-year-old Ann Hartman Keenan died at Wyandotte General Hospital near Detroit. Her cause of death is identified on her death certificate as as "Subarachnoid hemorrhage (a brain bleed) following septic (massively infected) criminal recent abortion with septic thromboembolism pneumonia  (a clot getting into her lungs and causing septic pneumonia) and hepatitis with focal necrosis (spots of dead tissue) of liver."  

Ann Keenan was the sister of Mitt Romney's brother-in-law, Loren Keenan. During the 2012 Presidential election, Obama supporters dug into the past, and the story of Ann's tragic death went viral. The meme was that Romney's current pro-life stand would "let [her] die again." His change of stand to one of opposition to abortion was painted as opportunistic and based entirely on polling, not personal conviction. Romney's opponents, clearly, can not grasp that a mature adult can come to very different conclusions than he might have as a 16-year-old boy. 

The coverage was pretty thorough, including quotes from Ann's friends and relatives and an image of part of her death certificate. 

Much was also made of the fact that her parents had requested that memorial funds be given to Planned Parenthood. Never mind the women who died after abortions at Planned Parenthood. Never mind that Roselle Owens, Tonya Reaves, Vivian Tran, Diana Lopez, Elise Kalat, Cree Erwin-Sheppard, Edrica Good, and Alyona Dixon ended up dead after trusting Planned Parenthood. Go ahead and give your money to a place where women die the same kinds of death Ann died. It's legal. So it's okay.

Exactly who perpetrated the fatal abortion doesn't seem to pique the interest of those who want to hang her death around her distant-relative-by-marriage's neck. There was a lot of speculation but no facts were offered. For all the Keenan keeners know, Ann could have had an abortion performed by a reputable doctor in a clean office. Around 90% of women who sought abortions before legalizations did. At some level I think they don't want to know, precisely because of that possibility. The abortion was illegal, and that's why she died. Full stop as far as the abortion lobby cares.

Watch When the Prochoice Care  and Comparing Unacceptable vs. Unacceptable Abortion Deaths on YouTube.