RealChoice: May 12, 1971: Sent Home to Bleed to Death

Tuesday, May 12, 2026

May 12, 1971: Sent Home to Bleed to Death

Anita's Journey

Grok AI illustration

"Anita" was a 23-year-old mother of two when she chose safe and legal abortion in 1971. She was 22 weeks pregnant.

She traveled from Massachusetts to New York for her abortion. She had not told her husband that she was planning on the abortion. She used a fictitious name at the facility.

A Dangerous Choice

On May 11, 1971 the doctor initiated a saline abortion by injecting a strong sterile salt solution into Anita's uterus. The idea was that the fetus would inhale and swallow the fluid, which would cause massive internal hemorrhaging and death. this would then trigger labor.

Saline abortion was hardly a pleasant experience. The abortionist would remove as much amniotic fluid as he could using a needle and syringe. He would then replace the amniotic fluid with a concentrated saline (salt) solution that would poison and kill the fetus. The woman would then go into labor and expel the fetus.

Saline abortions became very popular in Japan following WWII. Within the Japanese medical community, however, word quickly spread: this method was unsatisfactory. Too many women were being injured and killed. Over 70 papers were published in the Japanese medical community reporting hazards of saline abortions, including at least 60 maternal deaths. The Japanese Obstetrical and Gynecological Society condemned the technique, and it was quickly abandoned. But the Japanese abortionists kept news of the trouble among themselves -- until Western nations discovered instillation abortions and embraced them with great enthusiasm.

Two Japanese doctors, Takashi Wagatsuma and Yukio Manabe, broke the silence. Wagatsuma wrote, "It is, I think, worthwhile to report its rather disastrous consequences which we experienced in Japan." Manabe wrote, "It is now known that any solution placed within the uterus can be absorbed rather rapidly into the general circulation through the vascular system of the uterus and placenta. Thus any solution used in the uterus for abortion must be absolutely safe even if given by direct intravenous injection. ... A solution deadly to the fetus may be equally toxic and dangerous to the mother. ... In spite of the accumulating undesirable reports, the use of hypertonic saline for abortion is still advocated and used ... in the United States and Great Britain. I would like to call attention to the danger of the method and would predict the further occurrence of deaths until this method is entirely forgotten in these countries."

As western abortionists gained experience with saline abortions, other grim reports arose. A British study published in 1966 found that the saline would enter the mother's bloodstream and cause brain damage. Swedish researchers noticed an unacceptably high rate of complications and deaths. Sweden and the Soviet Union abandoned saline abortion as too dangerous for women in the late 1960s.

For whatever reasons, American abortionists were deaf to these warnings. When New York had completely repealed its abortion law, doctors had tremendous leeway in abortion practice. In New York City in particular, it became popular to inject the woman with the saline in the office, then send her home with instructions to report to a hospital when she went into labor. This was, to say the least, a highly irresponsible way to use an abortion technique that was risky even when performed in a hospital under close medical supervision. Women started dying from these reckless saline abortions.

Sent Home to Die

Anita's doctor sent her home to expel the fetus with no aftercare arranged beyond a phone number. The next day, May 12, Anita's husband found her unresponsive on the bathroom floor, lying in a pool of blood.

She was rushed to a local hospital, where she was pronounced dead on arrival. An autopsy found a 630-gram fetus partially protruding from Anita's uterus. At this size, Anita's baby would have been about 24 -25 weeks of gestation. The placenta was still about 25% firmly implanted. A small puncture wound from the saline injection was also identified.

Anita had bled to death on the bathroom floor.

Not an Isolated Incident

In addition to “Anita,” these are the women I know of who had the dubious benefit of dying from the newfangled safe-and-legal kind of abortion in pre-Roe New York:

Carmen Rodriguez, July, 1970, salt solution intended to kill the fetus accidentally injected into her bloodstream
Barbara Riley, July, 1970, sickle-cell crisis triggered by abortion recommended by doctor due to her sickle cell disease
Pearl Schwier, July, 1970, anesthesia complications
"Amanda" Roe, September, 1970, sent back to her home in Indiana with an untreated hole poked in her uterus
Maria Ortega, October, 1970, fetus shoved through her uterus into her pelvic cavity then left there
"Kimberly" Roe, December, 1970, cardiac arrest during abortion
"Amy" Roe, January, 1971, massive pulmonary embolism
"Andrea" Roe, January, 1971, overwhelming infection
"Sandra" Roe, April, 1971, committed suicide due to post-abortion remorse
Margaret Smith, June 1971, hemorrhage from multiple lacerations during outpatient hysterotomy abortion
"Annie" Roe, June, 1971, cardiac arrest during anesthesia
"Audrey" Roe, July, 1971, cardiac arrest during abortion
"Vicki" Roe, August, 1971, post-abortion infection
"April" Roe, August, 1971, death after saline abortion
"Barbara" Roe, September, 1971, cardiac arrest after saline injection for abortion
"Tammy" Roe, October, 1971, massive post-abortion infection
Carole Schaner, October, 1971, hemorrhage from multiple lacerations during outpatient hysterotomy abortion
"Beth" Roe, December, 1971, saline injection meant to kill fetus accidentally injected into her bloodstream
"Roseanne" Roe, February, 1971, vomiting with seizures causing pneumonia after saline abortion
"Connie" Roe, March, 1972, cardiac arrest during abortion
"Julie" Roe, April, 1972, holes torn in her uterus and bowel
"Roxanne," May, 1972, convulsions and death at start of abortion
"Robin" Roe, May, 1972, lingering abortion complications
Pamela Modugno, May, 1972, air in her bloodstream