September 26, 1931: The First of Two Deaths Attributed to Dr. Aloysius Mulholland

SUMMARY AND CONTEXT: Jane Merrill , age 20, died September 26, 1931 from an abortion attributed to Dr. Aloysius Mulholland. This story highlights a seldom-addressed reality: Most pre-legalization abortions were perpetrated physicians or trained medical professionals, not the woman or some amateur. 

Mary Calderone

As then-Planned Parenthood Federation medical director Mary Calderone estimated in the July, 1960 American Journal of Public Health, "90 per cent of all illegal abortions are presently being done by physicians." Another researcher, Nancy Howell Lee, estimated in The Search for an Abortionist (1969) that 89% of illegal abortions were being done by physicians. These estimates are the result of independent research. Calderone was basing her estimates on Planned Parenthood's 1955 conference "Abortion in America," in which physicians, public health officials, and even one criminal abortionist worked together to draw as accurate picture as possible. Lee based her estimates on an extensive survey of women who had sought out abortions prior to legalization.

Jane's Story

Jane Gray Coult Merrill

Jane Coult was the 20-year-old daughter of former Essex County, NJ judge Joseph Coult, Jr. of Newark. According to public records, she was the youngest of five children born to the judge and his wife, Edna.

Jane lost her mother when she was only 8 years old. She went on to attend Montclair State Teachers College. There she sang first soprano in glee club, served as secretary of the Aldornia honorary English society, was assistant social editor of the La Campanilla yearbook, and served as secretary of the Student Dormitory Government, 

On September 22, 1931 she and John Merrill of Passaic had a wedding ceremony in her family's home.

Four days later, on September 26, she was dead.

The Deadly Doctor

Dr. Aloysius Mulholland

The cause of her death at Polyclinic Hospital was determined to have been an abortion attributed to 39-year-old Dr. Aloysius Mulholland of New York.

Mulholland had been attending to her since September 24. She had reportedly paid Mulholland $500 (over $10,000 in 2026) of a $600 abortion fee.

Jane's husband was also arraigned as an accessory. After his bride's death it became public that the couple had secretly wed two weeks earlier.

Mulholland went on to be implicated in the October, 1936 abortion death of 26-year-old Katherine DiDonato.

Context in Closing: 

The idea that legalizing abortion magically eliminated tragic deaths is false. The major decline in maternal mortality — including deaths from illegal abortion — occurred decades before Roe v. Wade (1973), driven primarily by sulfa drugs (1930s), penicillin and other antibiotics (1940s), improved blood transfusions, and advances in obstetric care. Legalization simply shifted many abortions from one set of physicians to another. In some cases it led those "back alley" physicians to move onto main street and start killing women with a carelessness they never would have dared before legalization, as exemplified by Milan Vuitch, Jesse Ketchum, and Benjamin Munson. All three had no criminal abortions deaths to their discredit but each went on to kill two patients with appalling malpractice after legalization. Legalization did not eliminate the human cost or the incentives for providers to cut corners. Claims of dramatically improved “safety” still rest on voluntary self-reporting from the facilities and physicians performing the procedures, a system with documented cases of falsified records and gaps in accountability.

Sources:

• "Doctor Arrested for Bride's Death," Asbury Park Press, Oct. 1, 1931
• "Doctor Held for Death of Bride After Operation," (NY) Daily News, October 2, 1931

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Veteran pro-life investigator Kevin Sherlock asks people of good will to help him have Planned Parenthood prosecuted for profiteering from the rapes and incests of underage girls many thousands of times each year.

Sherlock has  pulled the police records of hundreds of cities and has pulled the child protective services records of multiple states to prove Planned Parenthood staffers are violating mandated reporting laws designed to protect girl victims.   But there is more to be done. Sherlock will make sure more and more evidence gets to federal and state prosecutors who care about protecting girls from abusers and profiteers.

If you would like to help, please click the following link:

https://www.givesendgo.com/stop-pp-from-profiteering-from-the-rapes

Sherlock has talked to many girls and young women who trust him. Their stories and the forensic evidence shows most of them undergo pill abortions or humiliating invasive surgical abortions due to fear or ignorance or pressure or coercion. He treats the girls or women carrying children or devastated from their abortions as friends and neighbors in his home town, not afterthoughts.

Thank you for doing what you can to help girls and fight sexual predators and rape profiteers.