April 30, 1923: Physician and Repeat Offender

On April 30, 1923, 29-year-old homemaker Emma Herod died in her home from an abortion performed there that day. One of Chicago's many physician/abortionists, Dr. Emma J. Warren, age 53, was arrested for the death. On July 15, Warren was indicted for felony murder in Emma's death.

Warren had already been implicated in the 1917 abortion death of 27-year-old Annie DeGroote and in 1916 for an abortion that left a woman identified as "Mrs. Philip Machler" seriously ill.

Emma, a native of Milwaukee, was the daughter

of German immigrants Fred H. and Anna (Fischer) Groen, and the wife of William M. Herod.

Emma's abortion was typical of criminal abortions in that it was performed by a physician.

Keep in mind that things that things we take for granted, like antibiotics and blood banks, were still in the future. For more about abortion in this era, see Abortion in the 1920s.

Watch Criminal Physician Was Repeat Offender on YouTube.
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For more on pre-legalization abortion, see The Bad Old Days of Abortion

Source:

• Homicide in Chicago Interactive
• "Dr. Emma Warren Held," Chicago Daily Tribune, September 22, 1916