December 24, 1968: Abortion Homicide at Christmas Time

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"Thelma Mitchell," a 23-year-old stenographer, was a bright and active young woman. Her high school year book shows a stylish brunette, active in many extracurricular activities. According to public records, Thelma was the younger of two children of her widowed mother and lived in a small industrial city on the shores of Lake Michigan. 

On December 15, 1968, Thelma underwent an induced abortion by someone who used some sort of instruments. She took ill afterwards and was admitted to a city hospital where she died December on December 24, creating a bleak and tragic Christmas for her family.

An autopsy indicated that her cause of death was pulmonary emboli -- air or foreign matter that got into her lungs due to the abortion. Her death was ruled a homicide.

Newspapers of the time seem to make no note of the young woman's death beyond her obituary, which makes no mention of how Thelma came to her tragic end. All the coverage is expressing enthusiasm for the idea of legalizing abortion. Proponents of legalization no doubt thought that they would prevent tragedies like the one that took Thelma from her loved ones, but time would show that legalization had no impact on the number of young women dying. They merely replaced criminal abortion deaths with deaths from legal abortions. It was no longer a big deal if an abortionist's patient died.

Source: Death certificate