September 30, 1985: Dead on the Scene

Life Dynamics identified 21-year-old Gaylene Michelle Golden on their “Blackmun Wall” as the woman who died after an abortion by by Dr. Joe Bills Reynolds. 

Reynolds performed the abortion on Gaylene in his Oklahoma City office on September 30, 1985. 

Due to a cervical laceration, Gaylene developed an embolism — both air and amniotic fluid in her bloodstream. This embolism killed her, leaving Gaylene’s son motherless.

The man Gaylene had entrusted with her life was a jack of all trades, doing a variety of elective surgeries, including safe and legal abortions, in his filthy clinic. His primary focus, though, seemed to be liposuction. Perhaps abortion seemed to be an easy way to make money using the same suction machine.

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.

The quality of care at Reynold's facility was appalling

Reynolds tried to collect $500,000 on his wife’s life insurance after she bled to death after he opened 25-inch incision, ostensibly for liposuction, on September 7, 1989. Reynolds was found guilty of second-degree manslaughter and fined $1. He voluntarily surrendered his Oklahoma license.

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. (“District Attorney Seeks Abortion Information, The Oklahoman, July 31, 1991)

Watch Wife-Killer's Forgotten Victim on YouTube.

Sources: 

• "Doctor’s Trial Nears In Liposuction Death,” The Daily Oklahoman, Apr. 22, 1991
• District Court of Oklahoma (OK) County, Case, CJ 87-2991
• Fatal Pulmonary Embolism During Legal Induced Abortion in the United States from 1972-1985,” Lawson, Herschel W., MD, Atrash, Hani K., MD, MPH, Franks, Adele L., MD, American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Vol. 162, No. 4, April 1990, p. 986-990

September 30, 1904: Scanty Information Again From Chicago

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. She was sentenced to a mere three months in prison.

Watch Possible Lay Abortionist in Chicago on YouTube.

September 29: Chicago Deaths, 1917 and 1923

On September 29, 1917, 27-year-old Annie DeGroote, who worked as a salad maker, died in her Chicago home from a criminal abortion perpetrated by Dr. Emma J. Warren. Warren, as well as Annie's husband Herman, were arrested for her death. Warren was indicted on October 15, 1917, but the case never went to trial. (Sources: Homicide in Chicago Interactive Database; death certificate)

On September 29, 1923, 18-year-old Mollie Monilson, a native of Montreal, died in Chicago from complications of a criminal abortion. The person or persons responsible for her death were never identified or brought to justice, so we can't know if Mollie availed herself of one of the many physicians or midwives practicing abortion in Chicago at the time. (Source: Homicide in Chicago Interactive Database)

September 29, 1915: Russian Immigrant Dies in Chicago

Rhodes Avenue Hospital, Chicago

Twenty-one-year-old Anna Marie Dimford, under the alias Marie Woodruff, died September 29, 1915 at Rhodes Avenue Hospital in Chicago after an abortion evidently perpetrated by Dr. Stanley T. Boguszewski and midwife Julia Statkiewz.

Anna Marie's father, Peter Dimford, was a farmer in Kewanee, Illinois. In 1910, Anna's mother, Maggie, was running a boarding house with four boarders and Anna, then 16 years old, was working as a bore maker in an iron mill to help support her five younger siblings. The family had immigrated from Russia around 1908.

“The girl left the farm for Chicago thirteen months ago and for a long time her parents didn't know how she earned her livelihood. The last time they heard from her she wrote that she was employed as check girl in a restaurant, her mother said.”

John Harris, a waiter, admitted to being the baby's father and to having paid $200 for the abortion. He gave the names and addresses of the doctors involved, both of whom fled, one reportedly to Oklahoma and the other to Buffalo.

Dr. Harold M. Weinbert, who attended Anna in her final illness, said she named a Dr. Ness on the West Side as her abortionist. When Weinbert learned of Anna's condition from Dr. C Hubert Lovewell at the Chicago Medical Society, he failed to notify police. He said he believed it was the hospital's duty, not his, to do so.

Eventually Dr. Stanley T. Boguszewski and midwife Julia Statkiewz were arrested and charged with murder in Anna Marie's death. The Chicago Tribune described Boguszewski as "wealthy and active in Polish circles."

Sources:

• “Seek Two Doctors,” Chicago Sunday Tribune, Oct. 3, 1915
• "Charge Doctor Killed Woman," Chicago Daily Tribune, Oct. 3, 1915
• “Inquest Fails to Show Abortion Doctor Identity,” Chicago Tribune, Oct. 13, 1915

September 29, 1923: Revelations at a Baby Farm

On September 29, 1923, 44-year-old Annie Allison, a London native living in Brooklyn, died at the office of chiropractor Henry Lee Mottard at 114 West 71st Street in Manhattan. Mottard practiced under the name of Dr. Henry L. Green. Annie was a homemaker. Her husband, Herbert Allison, was a music professor. According to census records, she and Herbert had two children Bernhard and Elsie, who were young adults at the time of their mother's death.

Annie was buried in Evergreen Cemetery, Brooklyn, on October 2. 

However, Annie's death certificate, signed by a Dr. Husson, attributed her death to chronic cardiac nephritis. 

Two years later, police were investigating 41-year-old Mottard for his suspected involvement in a kidnap/adoption scheme and the disappearance of an infant returned to him after a family backed out of an adoption. Somehow this investigation raised suspicions that Mottard was up to more than just kidnapping and selling infants. They had Annie exhumed. That's when things got really weird.

During the post-mortem examination, performed on April 17, 1925, doctors found that somebody had removed Annie's brain, heart, kidneys, and other organs. Mottard reportedly admitted that he had indeed performed an abortion but that Annie had actually died from falling down the shaft of a dumbwaiter on his premises while she was there recuperating. She had, he said, mistaken the dumbwaiter shaft for a bathroom. However, there were no broken bones or other injuries consistent with a fall. 

Mottard denied having been at his practice at the time that Annie died.

It was revealed that she had died from an abortion. Mottard was arrested on suspicion of homicide. His bond was set at $25,000. That's over $400,000 in 2022 dollars.

Police concluded that Mottard was running a very lucrative abortion business out of the Manhattan brownstone, bringing in as much as $100,000 a year. That's nearly $1.7 million in 2022 dollars. He admitted that he had performed many abortions and claimed no maternal fatalities. 

During the investigation, police searched Mottard's ten-acre farm outside the city for evidence of more bodies after allegations arose that Mottard had also performed an abortion there on a young woman the previous January. An operating room and a machine gun were found in the 14-room farmhouse. I haven't been able to find reports that they found the remains of any babies.

A second homicide case was filed against Mottard by officials of Suffolk County, where the farm was located. They had evidence that one of Mottard's rural abortion patients had suffered the same fate as Annie Allison. 

Mottard admitted to having performed three abortions in the farmhouse but recanted his admission that he had performed the fatal one on Annie. 

Mottard told officials that he had come to New York five years earlier from Wisconsin and had changed his name from Mottard to Green because he preferred the name. Records do show him practicing chiropractic in Milwaukee in the first quarter of the century.

Watch "She Fell Down the Elevator Shaft" on YouTube.

Sources:

• "M'Kenzie Search Leads to Arrest in B'klyn Death," Brooklyn Daily Eagle, April 9, 1925
• "Baby Butcher Held in $25,000," NY Daily News, April 14, 1925
• "Fake 'Dr. Green' Arraigned Today," NY Daily News, April 16, 1925
• "Quack's Knife Killed Woman," NY Daily News, April 17, 1925
• "More Light on Baby Farms," Sunday News, April 19, 1925
• "Babies' Butcher Indicted," NY Daily News, April 25, 1925

September 29, 1915: Jilted Teen Procures Fatal Abortion

Rosalla Marie Rockhill, age 19, of Etna Green, Indiana, died September 29, 1915 at Ravenswood Hospital in Chicago from an abortion. Rosalla went by her middle name, so news coverage identifies her as Marie.

She was a popular young woman at the tiny town of 1,000. Marie was a clerk at the post office and secretary of the Sunday School at the Methodist Episcopal church, a senior at the tiny town's red brick schoolhouse. She attended church regularly with her parents, Warren and Lena, and her three siblings.

The October 7, 1915 Bremen Enquirer described the situation as "a singularly sad story."  The reporter lamented that "the young man said to be responsible for the girl's shame is the son of respected parents long residents of this community, whose grey heads are bowed in shame because of his conduct." The parents reportedly raised him better than to get a girl pregnant and abandon her.

The young man in question was 27-year-old Wilbur Swank. He and Marie were engaged and had set a wedding date for August 10. It was postponed until September 9. But the morning of her wedding day, Marie "learned by telephone that her promised husband had left home the night before secretly, leaving no word for her, and realized that she must meet her approaching shame alone or in some manner escape it," said the Bremen Enquirer. 

Wilbur's reason for taking off was, he said, because in all of his travels he had already married another woman and had not obtained a divorce. 

At some point Marie told her mother about the pregnancy, insisting that she had not consented to sex with her betrothed. "Mamma, after I ate the candy he gave me I was helpless." 

Lena later admitted that upon learning that Wilbur had jilted the girl, they went to Chicago looking for an abortionist. They walked around the city, Lena said, and saw a sign in a window reading "Midwife." They consulted with the woman there and arranged for the abortion. Marie remained at the midwife's practice while Lena returned to Etna Green.

Marie sickened during her stay. On September 22 she went into convulsions and was admitted to Ravenswood Hospital. Warren and Lena were summoned to the hospital and were there for her death a week later. 

The bereaved couple returned home with their daughter's body for the funeral and burial. Nearly the entire town greeted them at the train station. A large crowd attended the funeral. The Fort Wayne Weekly Sentinel said, "Practically every business house in the town was closed during the services out of respect for the little secretary of the church. She was buried in the private cemetery on her family's farm.

While the townsfolk turned out to support the dead teenager, they held no cordial feelings towards Wilbur Swank. 

Watch Tiny Town Mourns Jilted Teen on YouTube.

Sources:

• "Sunday School Class to Bury Rockhill Girl," Chicago Tribune, October 1, 1915
• "Rockhill Girl is Not to Blame for Plight; Said she was Drugged," Fort Wayne (IN) Journal-Gazette, October 2, 1915
• "But Marie is Dead," South Bend (IN) Tribune, October 4, 1915
• "Marie Rockwell Buried," Fort Wayne (IN) Weekly Sentinel, October 6, 1915
• "Tragedy at Etna Green," Bremen (IN) Enquirer, October 7, 1915

September 28, 1971: "Maternal Indications" Kills Teen in Mental Institution

Joyce Teasley was a 15-year-old student and diagnosed with Marfan syndrome. This syndrome generally causes patients to be very tall and thin and affects connective tissues. One problem Marfan syndrome can cause is weakening of the aorta. Joyce had aortic valve disease, indicating that her Marfan syndrome had indeed cause a problem with her aorta. 

In September of 1971, doctors learned that Joyce was pregnant and performed an abortion at Dorothea Dix Hospital in Raleigh, North Carolina. Oddly, the death certificate says that a D&E abortion was performed, but also says that Joyce was only 4 weeks pregnant. 

It's highly unusual that a pregnancy would be diagnosed that early in 1971. She might have been 4 months pregnant rather than only 4 weeks. After all, a D&C or suction abortion, rather than a D&E, would have been performed very early in the pregnancy.

Regardless of how far advanced Joyce's pregnancy was, she suffered a likely pulmonary embolism, causing cardiopulmonary arrest. She died on September 28, 1971.

The location where Joyce died is also strange, since Dorothea Dix Hospital was a mental hospital, not a surgical, obstetric, or general hospital. Joyce was likely already a patient at the hospital when the pregnancy was discovered.

Since Joyce was black as well as young, unmarried, and disabled, it's possible that racism played a role in the decision to abort her baby.

Source: North Carolina Certificate of Death 33146

September 19, 1971: Bled Out After Hospital Abortion

Cassandra Bleavins, a 20-year-old clerk, died shortly after midnight on September 19, 1971, at LA County/USC Medical Center. She had been taken there just the day before, comatose after an abortion.

John Wesley Hospital

The abortion had been performed at John Wesley Hospital, owned by Los Angeles County, on September 2, 1971. Cassandra had bled heavily afterward, and the abortionist had tied off a portion of her cervix to control the bleeding, then sent her home.

On September 15, Cassandra returned to John Wesley Hospital, reporting heavy bleeding. She was given a follow-up D&C and again sent home. She returned again on September 17, still bleeding heavily, and went into convulsions during treatment. Cassandra slipped into a coma. The next day, she was brought to LA County/UCLA Medical Center, where she died.

The coroner discovered a 1.25 inch sutured laceration in Cassandra's uterus, additional sutures to her uterine artery, and uterine hemorrhaging. The medical examiner concluded that Cassandra had bled to death due to the lacerations and D&C.

The Centers for Disease Control published back in 1983, "Deaths from hemorrhage associated with legal induced abortion should not occur." In every hemorrhage death they investigated, "Lack of adequate postoperative monitoring or treatment of hemorrhagic shock" was a factor. 

Watch Bled to Death in California on YouTube.

Source: LA County Coroner Case No. 71-10001

September 18, 1993: Abortion Fatal for Black Woman in North Carolina

Thirty-six-year-old Kathy McKnight (pictured) of Charlotte, North Carolina underwent an abortion on September 17, 1993. Early the next morning, Kathy had trouble breathing. She was taken to University Memorial Hospital in Charlotte, North Carolina. Kathy died in the emergency room. Her autopsy revealed that she died of a pulmonary embolism.

Sources: 

• North Carolina Certificate of Death # 044550
• Chief Medical Examiner (Chapel Hill) Investigation Report # 93-1948
• North Carolina Deaths Indexes, 1908-2004

September 18, 2003: Falsified Documents at Prochoice Icon's Clinic

Dr. Alberto Hodari

According to this administrative complaint, Regina Johnson (Identified only by the initials R.J.) was 32 years old when she went to Womancare of Southfield, Michigan on September 17, 2003. The clinic was owned by Dr. Abraham Alberto Hodari, darling of Medical Students for Choice. 

Regina was pregnant for the fourth time, having given birth once, and either aborted or miscarried twice. Hodari, owner of Womancare, was not present at the time.

According to the Social Security Index, Regina Diane Johnson was a black woman born in Detroit.

A Falsified Signature Starts The Process

Nurse Cathy Litchtig performed an ultrasound, "even though there was no physician order for the study. She interpreted the study as showing a five week pregnancy and signed [Hodari's] name..." Dr. Milton Nathanson initialed  the ultrasound to confirm Lichtig's finding.

CRNA Barry Thompson did the anesthesia while Nathanson did the abortion. Regina was given 200 mg of Diprivan, 2 mg Fentanyl, .2mg Gylcopyrrolate, and Droperidol to anesthetize her for the abortion, which was charted as taking place from 9:55 to 10:05 a.m.

An Understaffed, Underequipped Recovery Room

Regina was then sent to the recovery room, along with five or six other patients under the care of Litchtig. Though clinic protocol required more than one staff person present when patients were in recovery, Lichtig was sometimes alone in caring for the patients.

Though Hodari's recovery room was equipped with a stethescope, oxygen bag/valve mask, and digital blood pressure cuff, it was not equipped with an EKG monitor, pulse oximeter, or automatic blood pressure/pulse monitor with alarm for monitoring patients, or with oxygen, a defibrillator, or other resuscitation equipment.

Lichtig recorded Regina's blood pressure and pulse manually upon admission to recovery, and at 10 - 15 minute intervals. At 10:05, Regina's blood pressure and pulse were a normal 116/72 and 82. At 10:15, they were 108/56 and 88. This fall in blood pressure and rise in pulse, especially in combination, are an early sign that a patient might be suffering complications such as blood loss. However, Lichtig reported that Regina's respiration was easy and unlabored.

The document notes that Lichtig was actually performing above the call of duty: Womancare protocol only required her to check a patient's vitals upon arrival in recovery, at 15 minues, and at discharge, usually after about an hour in recovery. Hodari's protocol also allowed for the nurse to discharge patients from the clinic. "There was no provision that the patient be seen by a physician once she was transferred to the recovery room."

Delay in Calling EMS

At 10:30, Lichtig was unable to rouse Regina, who still had a pulse and unlabored breathing. Lichtig tried for about ten minutes to awaken Regina. At about 10:40, she could no longer detect a pulse. She immediately told CRNA Thompson, who was then wheeling another patient into recovery. The two of them brought Regina back to the OR and began performing CPR. However, nobody called 911 until 11:00, twenty minutes after noting that Regina was pulseless. EMS arrived promptly, at 11:05.

EMS took Regina to Providence Hospital, where with continued CPR and got a pulse. Regina was put on life support, but was pronounced brain dead. She was taken off life support and declared dead on September 18. An autopsy determined that Regina had died from anoxic encephalopathy due to cardiac arrest. In other words, she died because her brain had been deprived of oxygen.

The Findings

The Administrative Complaint found Hodari to be negligent, incompetent, and lacking in good moral character. Hodari did not contest the findings, instead cooperating with bringing his facility up to standards to pass an inspection by an anesthesiologist in February of 2009. But in the mean time, he'd performed the fatal abortions on Tamiia Russell and Chivon Williams in 2004.

The state Attorney General's office fined Hodari $10,000 on March 4, 2009, for his part in the death.

The latest National Abortion Federation update no longer lists Womancare as a member, though they were recently. They certainly were in 2004, when Chivon and Tamiia died, which is the oldest page of Michigan NAF members that I can find on the Internet Archive. Womancare was also still a member in 2007, the most recent update on the Internet Archive. I'd be very interested in having NAF Annual Reports so I could look up what years Hodari and his mills were members.

September 18, 1958: An Unknown Perp in Oklahoma

Shortly after 1:00 in the morning on September 18, 1958, Frank Tarbet of Norman, Oklahoma, was awakened by a knock on the door. Outside he found "Bettina," the 12-year-old daughter of his neighbor, 31-year old "Glenda Coe" (named changed at request of family). The little girl said that her mother was "very cold." Tarbet went with Bettina to Glenda's bedroom, where he found her dead on her bed, dressed in street clothes except for shoes. Tabet notified the police at 1:18 a.m.

The police questioned Bettina, who said that at around 8:00 the previous evening she and her four younger sisters had gotten ready for bed. At around 8:30 Glenda had taken off her shoes and laid down on her bed. The girls retired for the night. Bettina woke at around 1:00 and been unable to awaken her mother. 

Tabet told police that he had seen a pickup truck leave Glenda's house at around 10:45 the previous evening. His daughter told police that she'd seen the pickup at around midnight, and somebody had carried a woman from the truck into the Coe home. Glenda's first husband, plumber James P. Morton, was picked up by the police and brought to the station at around 2:40 a.m. He owned a pickup truck matching the description of the truck the neighbors had seen at Glenda's house. The couple had been divorced for about a year. Glenda and her second husband, "Oscar Coe," had been married for about eight months but he and Glenda has separated and she had filed for divorce in July. Oscar was quickly dismissed by the police as not involved in Glenda's death.

There were no obvious signs of foul play. At first, authorities suspected either natural death or a suicide. However, Glenda's neck was slightly swollen and discolored and all evidence indicated that Glenda, a former waitress, had been in good health before her death. X-rays found no injuries. An autopsy found that Glenda had died due to air bubbles in her bloodstream, and that she had been pregnant at the time of her death. A more careful examination determined that Glenda had died from an abortion attempt.  

Morton was held for murder by the police but I have been unable to determine if or how the case proceeded.

Sources:

• "Mother of Four Found Dead Here," The Norman Transcript, September 18, 1958
• "1st Husband Held In Woman's Death," The Norman Transcript, September 19, 1958
• "Death Probe Continuing," The Norman Transcript, September 22, 1958
• "Norman Police Investigate Strange Death of Waitress," Miami (OK) Daily News, Sept. 18, 1959
• "Ex-Husband Held For Questioning In Norman Death," Miami (OK) News-Record, Sept.19, 1958
• "Death Tied to Abortion" The Oklahoman, Sept.20, 1958
• "Ex-Mate of Dead Woman Released," Miami OK Daily News-Record, Sept. 23, 1958

September 18, 1979: Happy Birthday, Joshua Vandervelden

Joshua Vandervelden

Linda Noie was between six and eight weeks pregnant when she went to Fox Valley Reproductive Health Care in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on January 10, 1979. She was accompanied by her baby's father, Brian Rusch. They met with a clinic counselor and went home.

The couple returned on the morning of January 12. Linda read and signed the consent forms. Several hours later, Dr. Benjamin Victoria (John Roe 740 in Lime 5) performed the abortion. 

Linda was discharged under the impression that the abortion had been successful. It had not. 

On September 18, Linda was in labor but there were signs of fetal distress so the baby that had survived the abortion attempt was delivered via C-section. He was named Joshua Vandervelden. 

Joshua was placed on a respirator and hospitalized for two weeks prior to discharge. He was left with brain damage and partial hearing lost.

Joshua was awarded $1,125,000 in damages against the doctor who had tried to kill him in the womb. Victoria appealed the verdict, and the US Supreme Court asserted that Joshua had no grounds to sue the doctor because his mother had consented to the abortion.

Linda went public with her story and became a prolife activist. 

Sources:

• "Survivor of abortion gets award for damages," Tampa Bay Times, September 26, 1992
• "High court denies appeal on failed-abortion award," The (Fox River Valley, WI) Post-Crescent, November 1, 1993
• "Court refuses to hear case; doctor's lawyers are pleased," The (Waukesha, WI) Freeman, November 2, 1993
• Vandervelden v. Victoria, 177 Wis. 2d 243 (1993) 502 N.W.2d 276

September 18, 1979: Filipino Woman Dies in Chicago

 "Sabina Gago" was a 28-year-old Filipino woman working as a nurse in Chicago. 

On September 18, 1979 she died of septic shock from an induced abortion while an inpatient at Columbus Hospital. 

Though there was an autopsy performed, no apparent effort had been made to determine where the abortion had been done. This indicates that there was nothing that would lead anybody at the hospital or medical examiner's office to raise suspicions of an illegal abortion or a particularly appalling abortion facility.

Source: Death certificate

September 17, 2003: Planned Parenthood "Medication Abortion" Kills Teen

With abortion, as with anything else, it seems, you need a cute blue-eyed blonde to get the MSM's attention. Thus they noticed when Holly died. 

Holly Patterson, age 18, was a high-achiever. She graduated from Granada High School in Livermore, California in only three years.

When she got pregnant in the early fall of 2003, she only told one person: her boyfriend, Ehsan Bashi. He accompanied her to a Planned Parenthood in Hayward, California on September 10. There, Holly was diagnosed as 7-weeks pregnant and administered the first drug for her abortion: mifepristone. She was sent home with pain medications and the second drug: misoprostol. She was told to self-administer the misoprostol at home the next day and return in a week ton confirm that the abortion had been successful.

The FDA recommended regimen calls for the second drug to be administered between the cheek and gums. However, this can cause nausea and vomiting, so Planned Parenthood instructed women to administer the drug vaginally. 

Three days later, Holly called Planned Parenthood and reported severe abdominal cramping. The person she spoke to told her that this was normal and to take her painkillers. If the symptoms didn't improve, she was told, then she should go to the emergency room.

The following day Holly was still in severe pain and was bleeding heavily. She went to the emergency room at Valley Care Medical Center and told the doctor there about the abortion. That doctor injected her with narcotic pain medications and sent her home.

The narcotics didn't help. On the morning of September 17 -- weak, vomiting, and unable to walk -- Holly returned to the hospital. They admitted her shortly after 9 a.m. and called her father, Monty Patterson, telling him to hurry because his daughter was intensive care. 

This was the first Monty knew about the pregnancy and abortion.

He rushed to the hospital. "Holly was intubated, and I went and held her and said, 'I don't know what happened but I'm here to help, to get you well.' The look in her eyes said, 'Dad, save me.'"

She died shortly before 2 pm, with her father at her side. The cause of death was septic shock from Clostridium sordelli.

Monty told the San Francisco Chronicle, "The medical community treats this as a simple pill you take, as if you're getting rid of a headache. The procedure, the follow-ups, it's all too lackadaisical. The girl gets a pill. Then she's sent home to do the rest on her own. There are just too many things that can go wrong."

Monty wanted to know why Planned Parenthood didn't follow the FDA-recommended regimen. He wanted to know why they sent her to the emergency room instead of to a specially trained doctor who would know how to treat abortion pill complications. He wanted to know why Holly and other women like her weren't given enough information to understand what is and isn't cause for concern in these kinds of abortions. 

Three other women were identified as having died of infection deaths after RU-486 abortions in the Los Angeles area: Chanelle Bryant, Oriane Shevin, and Vivian Tran. Like Holly, Chanelle got her abortion drugs at a Planned Parenthood, as did Vivian. Oriane got hers at a National Abortion Federation member clinic.

Watch Planned Parenthood's Fatal Abortion Pills on YouTube.

Sources:

• "Teen dies after taking abortion pill," NBC News, September 22, 2003
• "Family, friends pay tribute / Woman who died after taking abortion pill buried in Livermore," SFGate, September 25, 2003
• "Taker of abortion pill died due to infection," SFGate, November 1, 2003
• "One dad's questions about pill / RU-486 proven safe, yet a daughter died," SFGate, September 26, 2004
• "Safety Of Abortion Pill Questioned," CBS News, November 16, 2004
• "Abortion Pill Investigated in Four California Deaths," Los Angeles Times, August 15, 2005
• "Man Blames Daughter's Death on Abortion Pill," ABC News, May 17, 2006
• "Monty Patterson learns about RU-486 the hard way," SFGate, December 5, 2011
• Patient Safety Movement: Holly Patterson

September 17, 1937: Doctor Implicated in Schoolgirl's Death

SUMMARY: Phyllis Brown, a 16-year-old Riverside High schoolgirl, died at Grant Hospital in Chicago on September 17, 1937 after an abortion performed by Dr. C. Harold Edmunds (pictured, right).

While looking for clippings about Dr. Emil Gleitsmann, I found mention of him at the end of an article about an abortion death that was new to me.

On June 17, 1937, 16-year-old Riverside High schoolgirl Phyllis Brown was attacked and raped by an acquaintance near Villa Park in Chicago. She kept the assault a secret from her parents even after learning of the resulting pregnancy. Instead, she confided in her friend, 17-year-old Lillian Pernicka. 

Lillian (pictured, left) told Phyllis that she herself had undergone an abortion on March 8 at the hands of Dr. Clarence Harold Edmunds in Oak Park. The girls went to Edmunds's office in Oak Park on September 1. There, Edmunds performed an abortion. 

When Phyllis took ill afterwards, her parents summoned Dr. S. A. Sugar. He examined her on September 13 and admitted her to Grant Hospital. He believed that she might be suffering from abortion complications so he notified the police.

On September 18, Edmunds, age 48, and his secretary, Marie Trampush, age 27, were arrested. Edwards was released on $25,000 bond and Trampush on $3,000.

Phyllis's father, Samuel, put all the blame on the boy who had raped his daughter. "You don't need police to run down the boy," he said at the inquest. "He murdered my daughter and wherever he is, I'll find him and take care of him in my own way."

Both Edmunds and Trampush (pictured, right) denied having any knowledge of an abortion performed on Phyllis.

Edwards was originally licensed in Saskatchewan, Canada, in 1913. He moved to North Dakota and practiced there before relocating first to Florida and then to Oak Park, where he set up practice in 1931.

The case had originally been struck off because there were legal issues with Phyllis's dying declaration. The charges were filed again and both Edmunds and Trampush were indicted. However, in January of 1938 the charges were dropped for reasons I've been unable to determine.

Sources:

• "Doctor Charged With Murder in Abortion Death," Chicago Daily Tribune, September 18, 1937
• "Chicago Physician is Held in Death of School Girl," Journal Gazette, September 18, 1937
• "Woman Charged With Murder in Abortion Death," Chicago Tribune, September 19, 1937
• "Charge Doctor with Murder," Cicero (IL) Life, October 10, 1937
• "Abortion Death is Reconsidered; Doctor Indicted," Chicago Tribune, October 30, 1937
• "Arraign Doctor and His Secretary After Death by Abortion," Chicago Daily Tribune, November 9, 1937
• "Free Doctor, Aide in Death Of Girl, 16," Berwyn Life, January 12, 1938

September 16, 1941: Blind Abortionist Leaves Woman Dead

SUMMARY: Helen Clark, age 23, died September 16, 1941 after an abortion perpetrated in New York by Sarah Howe, whose profession I've been unable to determine.

One of the few cases I've found in which a criminal abortionist wasn't a doctor is also one of the strangest cases I've found. The abortionist, Sarah Howe, age 57, had been blind since she was three years old.

Authorities had been aware that Howe was an abortionist, and had struggled for 25 years to get enough evidence to actually win a conviction once 23-year-old Helen Clark took ill.

Helen had undergone the abortion at Howe's hands on September 6, 1941. Helen took ill. On September 14, Helen identified Howe as the person who had perpetrated her abortion. Two days later, September 16, Helen died.

Howe was charged with abortion and with manslaughter in Helen's death. The jury deliberated for seven hours before finding Howe guilty of abortion but not of manslaughter. She could have saved everybody, including a lot of trouble, had she just gone with the plea bargain initially offered to her: guilty on the abortion with the manslaughter charge dropped.

"Now I have a chance to go right and to make myself right in the eyes of God," Howe said after hearing the verdict. "I will never again return to that practice."

She was sentenced to two to four years in prison.

During the 1940s, while abortion was still illegal, there was a massive drop in maternal mortality from abortion. The death toll fell from 1,407 in 1940, to 744 in 1945, to 263 in 1950. Most researches attribute this plunge to the development of blood transfusion techniques and the introduction of antibiotics. Learn more here.


For more on pre-legalization abortion, see The Bad Old Days of Abortion

---

Source: "Jury Convicts Blind Woman," Poughkeepsie (NY) Eagle-News, March 6, 1942

September 14, 1925: Lucy Hagenow's Penultimate Victim

Elizabeth Welter moved from Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin to Chicago in the fall of 1924. On September 14, 1925, the 19-year-old clerk died at John B. Murphy Hospital from complications of an abortion perpetrated about a week earlier. 

Mrs. Alta Vail told the deputy coroner, "Elizabeth roomed at 658 Roscoe street. A week ago she came to me and said she was very sick. I told her to stay at my home until she was better. Little by little she told me her story. She had obtained a position as a clerk in a store. Some months ago she began going out with a man. This man, she said, was responsible for her condition. She did not even know his name, she told me."

Lawrence Vail -- who according to 1930 census records was Alta's husband --  was identified by the coroner as responsible for the pregnancy, and the coroner recommended his arrest, along with the arrest of known abortionist Dr. Lucy Hagenow.

Hagenow was held to the grand jury on $20,000 bond (nearly $150,000 in 2020 dollars). However, because Vail refused to give a statement, police were unable to gather enough evidence to prosecute. 

Elizabeth was the 17th of 18 abortion deaths that have been connected to Hagenow. She had been connected to four abortion deaths in San Francisco --Annie Dorris, Abbia Richards, Louise Derchow, and Emma Dep. Prosecutors were not giving up on prosecuting Hagenow in spite of one hung jury after the other, so she relocated to Chicago, which was a far more congenial atmosphere for abortionists. She started piling up bodies there as well, including Minnie Deering, Sophia Kuhn , Emily Anderson, Hannah Carlson, Marie Hecht, May Putnam, Lola Madison, Annie Horvatich, Lottie Lowy, Nina Pierce, Jean Cohen, Bridget Masterson, and Mary Moorehead.

Sources:

• "Girl's Brief Fling With City Night Life," Mattoon (IL) Journal Gazette, September 14, 1925
• "Woman Surgeon Sought Following Girl's Death," Chicago Tribune, September 15, 1925
• "Lucy Hagenow, Midwife, Held in Death of Girl," Chicago Tribune, September 16, 1925

September 14, 1992: Deadly Abortion at a Philadelphia Clinic

Rhonda Rollinson underwent a safe, legal abortion by Dr. Jay I. Levin at Malcom Polis's Philadelphia Women's Center September 3, 1992. The abortion attempt was unsuccessful. Rhonda was then sent home, with instructions to return on September 12 to try again.

Rhonda experienced such severe pain, dizziness, fever, and discharge that on September 10 she sought emergency care at a hospital. She was suffering "severe non-cardiogenic pulmonary edema consistent with adult respiratory distress syndrome."

Doctors did a laparoscopy, dilation and evacuation, abdominal hysterectomy, and splenectomy, to no avail. Rhonda died on September 14. 

The autopsy revealed a perforation from her vagina into the uterine cavity, sepsis, disseminated intravascular coagulopathy (a severe and often fatal clotting disorder), non-bacterial thrombotic endocarditis, pulmonary infarctions, and dysplastic kidney.

The suit filed by Rhonda's survivors also charged the facility and Polis with hiring Levin despite his lack of competence, failure to properly supervise his work, violation of applicable laws and regulations, lack of informed consent, failure to give proper post-operative instructions, and failure "to respond to the requests of [Rhonda] and her family for post-operative medical advice."

Source: Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas Case No. 291, 1994

September 14, 1928: A "Massaguer" Implicated in Abortion Death

On September 14, 1928, 20-year-old Stella Wallenberg, a bindery worker, died from a criminal abortion performed in Chicago. According to death records, she was the daughter of Polish immigrants and the wife of Leo Wallenberg.

Loretta Rybicki, identified as a "massaguer", was held by the coroner for murder by abortion. Dr. Nicholas Kalinowski was held as an accessory. Rybicki was indicted for felony murder on November 15.

It was not unusual for a lay abortionist to have a physician as an accomplice. Such physicians would do things such as train the lay abortionist, supply instruments and drugs, and provide aftercare if a woman suffered complications.

Source: Homicide in Chicago Interactive Database

September 13, 2007: Parents Blindsided By Daughter's Death

• 
  It was 7pm, we had just finished dinner and settled down to watch the evening news. My husband's cell phone rang with Laura's name on the ID. We always loved hearing from her. Laura was so full of life, your spirits were lifted just by talking to her. Except this time it wasn't her voice. There was guttural screaming and sobbing on the other end by a voice I did not immediately recognize. I heard the words "Laura", "Hospital" and the worst one, "Not Breathing," and then "abortion". My brain tilted, my heart sank, and life as I knew it ceased. It was Laura's friend Karen on the phone. She told me what happened, that Laura was having an abortion and something went terribly wrong. Karen was at the ER and the Doctor needed to talk to me. What Karen didn't know was that Laura had arrived at the ER already deceased. The EMT's found her this way at the abortion mill. The hospital was looking for next of kin to give the news to first, and Karen wasn't kin. "Laura's gone" the doctor told me. I wanted to hear "50-50 chance"...I would even accept "90-10 chance." But the word "chance" was not in the doctor's statement. All hope was gone, along with my daughter.

That call came on September 13, 2007 to Eileen and Tom Smith. Laura had died on a Hyannis, Massachusetts abortion table. 

The bewildered couple hadn't even known that their daughter was pregnant. 

Karen and Laura had arrived at Women Health Center in the morning for preparatory steps to abort Laura's 13-week baby. The two young women were to return in the afternoon for the actual procedure. Laura wasn't supposed to drive, so Karen drove and the two ran errands. Because Laura wasn't supposed to eat, Karen fasted with her friend.

They returned to the facility at about 4 in the afternoon and waited. Laura was called in at about 5, back to where Dr. Rapin Osathanondh and his instruments waited for her. Karen stepped out briefly, expecting her friend to be out of surgery in about fifteen minutes. But Laura didn't emerge from the bowels of the clinic. A worried Karen grew increasingly distressed.

"And then all of a sudden [an assistant] comes out and says she's not breathing. And I was like, what do you mean she's not breathing," Karen told the Cape Cod Times.

Fire department rescuers were dispatched to the clinic at 5:49 p.m., and found an unresponsive patient. They initiated CPR and took her to the hospital. Karen followed, but was not permitted to see her friend. She asked about Laura's condition. "It doesn't look good," she was told. Because next of kin hadn't been notified yet, the doctor couldn't tell Karen the truth: Laura was already dead on arrival. It was 6:22 p.m.

• I met with the doctor who aborted my grandchild, and who saw my daughter take her last breath. He would only meet me in a public place, without my husband. We talked for an hour and a half. Based on that meeting I believe I know what happened to Laura. He denies doing anything that caused her death. When we were done talking about Laura, I prayed, and asked God if there was anything He would have me say to the doctor. This is what I said next.... "The blood of my daughter is on your hands; the blood of my grandchild is on your hands; the blood of every life you have ever taken is on your hands," and I went on from there. He was silent with his head hung low. When I was ready to leave, I asked him if he would think about my daughter, and consider not doing any more abortions”he said he would think about it. When I left there I was praying, and said to God, "Can You stop this man from doing abortions? Is this what You have in mind, that he might even stop doing them?" I was thinking too small. I thought if one girl changed her mind [about having an abortion], I could find some comfort. I then realized that the Lord had much bigger plans. I have never experienced in my life, such tragedy, nor such grace.

OR also reports that Eileen Smith said she was "appalled and sickened" by her daughter's death, but can not give more details due to a pending lawsuit against the abortionist. What has come out afterward is just what prolifers have come to expect from abortionists: an untrained "hand holder" was assisting with general anesthesia, nobody in the clinic knew CPR, and there was no emergency resuscitation equipment. Osathanondh had been playing Russian roulette with his patients' lives. Laura paid for his callous carelessness with her life.

"My daughter was 22, healthy, and alive when she walked into that clinic," OR quotes Eileen Smith. "She didn't even have a cold. There is no reason for her to be dead."

OR says, "Laura was born into abject poverty in Hondurus on May 25, 1985, and was abandoned at an orphanage. An American couple that adopted Laura abused her terribly and gave her up. Laura was then adopted by Tom and Eileen Smith, a Christian family that lovingly raised Laura in the Cape Cod community of Sandwich." She graduated from Upper Cape Tech in 2004, trained as a cosmetologist, but she left that field to work in retail management.

It's particularly sad to me that Laura resorted to abortion despite being a Christian active in her local church. Her mother also reported that Laura was strongly opposed to abortion. Which goes to show that anybody can panic, and our churches need to be teaching young women how to get past the panic that too often leads to the abortion table. Laura's mother has now devoted her life to that mission.

OR reports that over 600 people attended Laura's funeral, and at least one young woman decided to reject abortion after learning of Laura's needless death. National Catholic Register reports that the young woman was being pressured by her parents to abort, and was about to capitulate when she learned of Laura's fate.

• I know that God is going to bring good out of my daughter's death. What a horrible thing; for my daughter to be associated with abortion. But, if God's going to use it for good and for His glory, then so be it. We're going very public with a very shameful, private thing because I believe God wants to use it to save lives. I believe the truth will come out, and the light of God will shine on this. Laura's death has had tremendous impact around the country, and even into Canada, without the local news mentioning it. It just came out in the secular media this week, 5 weeks after Laura's death. I now believe it is my calling to keep telling Laura's story to the Church, and the world. I naively believed that abortion was not a choice for a Christian girl. A Pastor had even apologized to me and the Lord, for not speaking about this from his pulpit. We both had false assumptions. This is a problem in the Church, and one that needs to be spoken about from the pulpits. We have to take the "A" word out of the closet, put it out in the open, and discuss it. And maybe, possibly, hopefully, we'll even become active against it. Please keep our family in your prayers, and please tell someone Laura's story.

Watch Pro-Life Woman's Abortion Death on YouTube.

Sources:

• "Doctor indicted in Cape abortion death," Cape Cod Times, July 16, 2008
• "Doctor gets 6 months in abortion patient death," NBC News, September 14, 2010
• "Ten Years Later, the Abortion Death of Laura Hope Smith Still Hurts," Operation Rescue, September 14, 2017
• "Mother speaks for life after daughter’s death during abortion," Baptist Press, February 26, 2008
• Blog: The Laura Hope Smith Story

September 11, 1918: Obstetrician Arrested After Chicago Death

On the evening of September 11, 1918, 35-year-old homemaker Gertrude Mathieson Harrington died in Chicago's Wesley Hospital. She had been admitted by Dr. John J. Gill, who noted evidence of an abortion when treating her. 

According to public records, Gertrude had been born in Kansas to Charles and Sarah Jane Snowden Mathieson in 1883. She was a homemaker, and there is no record that she and her husband had children.

Dr. Helen Dugdale, an obstetrician, was arrested. 

Dugdale, an obstetrician who advertised as a midwife (which was common for female obstetricians at that time), was born Helen Wolschlager on June 24, 1873 in Germany. Irony of ironies, this reputed abortionist's husband was a butcher, according to the 1920 census. 

She went on trial in June of 1920 but I haven't been able to determine if this was for Gertrude's death or for the death of another woman.  

Helen Dugdale eventually divorced George Dugdale, owner of Chicago's infamous "Bucket of Blood" saloon -- allegedly a combination brothel and drug den. She died January 10, 1938 in Chicago at the age of 64. 

Dugdale had been implicated the previous year in the abortion death of Marie Benzing.

Sources:

• "Suspect Illegal Operation Caused Death of Woman," Chicago Tribune, September 12, 1918
• "Sixteen More Face Trial as Slayers Today," Chicago Tribune, June 1, 1920

September 11, 1970: Choosing The Riskier Alternative

William R. Day, a 21-year-old microbiology student at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, was given a five-year suspended sentence at Walpole State Prison, to serve five years of probation instead, after pleading guilty to charges relating to the death of his girlfriend, 21-year-old Nancy Kierzek a senior at Westfield State College. 

Nancy, the daughter of Stanley and Jennie Skwira Kierzek, had been born on September 2, 1948. She was a graduate of Holyoke High School and was also survived by three siblings, Thomas, Elaine, and Catherine. 

Day, who intended to become a doctor, had studied the information he could find about abortion methods, then perpetrated the abortion in his apartment using a catheter at around 3 pm on September 10, 1970. 

Nancy bled heavily so Day rushed her in his car to Holyoke Hospital, arriving at around 6 pm. At that point Nancy was unconscious. She was rushed into intensive care.

Hospital staff notified the police, who arrested Day at around 7:30 that evening at the hospital. A search of his car revealed what authorities characterized as abortion instruments. He was initially held without bail.

Nancy, who had been about three months into her pregnancy, died just after midnight on September 11, 1970, around six hours after her admission. Her death was tentatively attributed to an embolism but an autopsy indicated that she had quickly gone septic.

William's attorney had argued for a suspended sentence, characterizing the decision to commit a home abortion as a "tragic mistake." He asserted that William had meant Nancy no harm; they had been dating for two years and planned to marry eventually. District Attorney Matthew J. Ryan Jr. had no objection, saying, "This boy is not a criminal type; sending him to jail to meet the types of people there would be a second tragedy."

Abortion-rights advocates such as D. P. Kline made the claim that "pregnant women in Western Massachusetts faced two choices: to continue the pregnancy to term (and either keep the child or put it up for adoption) or to seek an illegal abortion." However, abortion had been legalized in New York, and hospitals in Boston were loosening their guidelines for "therapeutic" abortions. Why Nancy would submit to an illegal abortion when she was within less than 2 hours driving distance of a legal abortion remains a mystery.

Sources: 

• "UMass Student Charged With Abortion," (Pittsfield MA) Berkshire Eagle, September 11, 1970
• "Abortion-Try Charges Filed Against Man," Holyoke (MA) Transcript-Telegram, September 11, 1970
• "Abortion Blood Poisoning Ruled As Cause Of Death," Holyoke (MA) Daily Transcript, September 12, 1970
• "Youth, 21, Faces Abortion Charge," Springfield (MA) Union, September 12, 1970
• "UM Student's Abortion Case Delayed," Greenfield (MA) Recorder, October 27, 1970
• "Bound Over In Abortion Death Case," Holyoke (MA) Daily Transcript, November 19, 1970
• "Youth in Abortion Death Admits Guilt, Gets Probation," Springfield MA Daily News, January 30, 1971
• "Do-It-Yourself Abortionist Sentenced," (Pittsfield MA) Berkshire Eagle, February 2, 1971
• D. P. Kline, Creating Choice, Palgrave Macmillan, New York, 2006