March 11, 1974: The Legalization Fairy Fails in Louisiana

Sidney Knight was facing a number of criminal abortion charges in 1973, when Roe v. Wade made them a moot point. He hung out his shingle and began performing abortions legally. 

Presumably the Legalization Fairy would swoop in and improve the quality of care Knight provided. That didn't seem to have been the case.

Janet Lally had married Eugene Blaum in the Bronx in 1960. Janet was 37-years-old and divorced in March of 1974 when she went to Knight's New Orleans facility for a safe and legal abortion. 

Five days later, on March 11, she was dead of brain hemorrhage.

Eugene sued Knight on behalf of the couple's children, alleging that Knight had administered a fatal dose of anesthesia while preparing Janet for the abortion.

Knight isn't the only erstwhile criminal abortionist whose only known patient deaths were after legalization. Jesse Ketchum perpetrated fatal safe and legal abortions on Margaret Smith and Carole Schaner. Benjamin Munson perpetrated the fatal safe and legal abortions on Linda Padfield and Yvonne Mestheth. Milan Vuitch was responsible for the safe and legal abortion deaths of Wilma Harris and Jeannie English. 

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Sources: Orleans Parish Autopsy Protocol 74-3-89; Jefferson Parish Case No. 168-162 (1974)