RealChoice

"I cry every day when think of how horrible her death was."

2012-01-27T13:53:00.002-05:00

On January 24, 1987, 37-year-old Belinda Ann Byrd had a safe and legal abortion performed by Stephen Pine at Inglewood Women's Hospital in Los Angeles, California. Belinda was left unattended for three hours after the abortion, and was found unresponsive. Staff at Inglewood delayed an additional two hours before transferring her to a hospital with appropriate emergency services.Belinda was one of 74 women who had abortions in Inglewood's single operating room that day, and one of 24 whose abortions were performed in the final two hours of the day. Belinda remained comatose until her death on January 27.

Belinda's mother wrote to a Los Angeles district attorney:

I am the mother of Belinda Byrd, victim of abortionists at [Inglewood]. I am also the grandmother of her three young children who are left behind and motherless. I cry every day when I think how horrible her death was. She was slashed by them and then she bled to death ... and nobody cares. I know that other young black women are now dead after abortion at that address. ... Where is [the abortionist] now? Has he been stopped? Has anything happened to him because of what he did to my Belinda? Has he served jail time for any of these cruel deaths? People tell me nothing has happened, that nothing ever happens to white abortionists who leave young black women dead. I'm hurting real bad and want some justice for Belinda and all other women who go like sheep to slaughter.

In the wake of the series of abortion deaths at Inglewood, the authorities inspected the place. Among other things, they caught an abortionist writing post-operative examination notes without even examining the patients. When the state closed Inglewood for numerous violations, the facility simply re-opened as Inglewood Women's Clinic; as a clinic rather than a hospital they were no longer subject to the same intense scrutiny and were able to remain in business.

Other women known to have died after abortions at the Inglewood facility include Kathy Murphy, Cora Lewis,Lynette Wallace, and Elizabeth Tsuji.

1920, 1956, 1990 -- All Equally Dead

2012-01-26T10:37:00.003-05:00

On January 26, 1920, 23-year-old Lydia Swanson, daughter of Swedish immigrants, died at Chicago's Post Graduate Hospital from an abortion perpetrated by Dr. Rosa Gollnick. Gollnick was arrested on January 27 and went to trial, but was acquitted on June 18.

Clara Thornton survived her abortion at the hands of Santa Barbara abortionist Lois Brown, but her roommate, Lucy Sanchez, who used the same abortionist just a week later, was not so fortunate. She died on January 26, 1956. Brown was convicted of both abortions as well as murder in Lucy's death.

Ingar Weber, age 28, died January 26, 1990, in a Louisiana hospital. She had been treated for acute kidney failure after a safe and legal abortion performed at Delta Women's Clinic in Baton Rouge on January 20, 1990. Ingar's family sued the clinic and its doctors, Richardson P. Glidden and Thomas Booker. They faulted the doctors with failing to diagnose Ingar's kidney problems, or her deteriorating physical condition, before, during, or after the abortion. Delta had also been sued following the death of another abortion patient. This woman was most likely 27-year-old Sheila Hebert, who died after an abortion on June 6, 1984. Delta was sued for an abortion performed in 1984 which left the patient with a uterine laceration and a retained fetal leg. She had to be hospitalized. Delta was sued after an abortion in 1974 that so badly damaged the patient's uterus that she needed a hysterectomy. Another patient reported that after surgery at Delta in 1998, she had to have a colostomy. Delta shut down in 2001 after an electrical problem caused a fire which gutted the facility, but later reopened in another building.

One Year Later, No Action On Woman's Death

2012-01-25T16:15:00.001-05:00

Police and health officials announced an intention to investigate the death of 37-year-old Alexandra Nunez after an abortion performed at A1 Medicine in Jackson Heights, Queens on Monday.A year after her death, however, nothing has been said or done.

Operation Rescue describes the facility as "located in a run-down building in a predominately Hispanic neighborhood," and was operated by Salomon Epstein.

The abortion was performed at 3:30 p.m. on January 25, 2010. Alexandra began bleeding heavily and was transported by ambulance to Elmhurst Hospital Center, where she died. The source of the fatal bleeding was traced to a severed artery.

Alexandra was a single mom from New Jersey. She had told her family that she was going to a doctor's office in Newark for a procedure to remove a cyst. Her 19-year-old daughter, Daisy Davila, told the New York Daily News, "I'm upset because I never got a chance to say goodbye. She didn't want anyone to go with her. I made dinner and lunch ,,, hoping she would come back."

An employee at A1 insisted that all had gone well at their facility. "The patient was transferred to the hospital, she didn't die at the clinic. Nothing happened here."

In an email to Operation Rescue, Epstein not only denied having performed the fatal abortion, he denied any affiliation with the facility -- which would no confirm this lack of a relationship

Nothing happened. Except that a woman was fatally injured. It's like the thank you note that Steve Lichtenberg sent for the referral after Deanna Bell's death: "Uneventful D&E". A dead patient. "Uneventful." "Nothing happened."
A1 was an ambulatory surgical facility doing abortions and plastic surgery.

Alexandra's family indicated that she opposed abortion, which is likely the reason for her secrecy.

Here's the coverage:

I missed two days

2012-01-24T08:22:00.004-05:00

I've been so wrapped up in my research that I've totally forgotten to post for the past two days. There are no anniversaries in the Cemetery of Choice for today, the 24th, so I'll commemorate the women I missed blogging about on the 22nd and 23rd.

On January 22, 1900, Mrs. Barbara Shelgren, age 25, died at Augustana Hospital in Chicago of an abortion performed there that day. Paulina Bechtel, identified as a midwife, was arrested and held by Coroner's Jury and indicted of homicide by a grand jury, but the case was thrown out by Judge Holdom. Bechtel was implicated in the abortion death of Ida Henry in 1900, and went on to kill Mary Thorning in 1911.

On January 23, 1913, 33-year-old homemaker. Margaret Wagner died at Post Graduate Hospital in Chicago from an abortion perpetrated that day by midwife Caroline Orbach. Orbach was held by the Coroner on January 24. The case went to trial but Orbach was acquitted on November 25.

On January 23, 1914, 17-year-old Helen Kleich, who worked as a domestic, died in Chicago from sepsis, arising from an abortion performed that day by midwife Margared Wiedemann. Wiedemann was held by the Coroner for murder by abortion, but was acquitted.

On January 22, 1925, 17-year-old Jean Cohen, a Connecticut native, died at Chicago's Montrose Hospital from an abortion performed earlier that day. On January 31, Louise Hagenow was arrested in Jean's death. Louise Hagenow was an alias of Dr. Lucy Hagenow (pictured), whose known or suspected victims included Marie Hecht, May Putnam, Lola Madison, Annie Horvatich, Lottie Lowy, Nina H. Pierce, Bridget Masterson, Elizabeth Welter, and Mary Moorehead.

On January 23, 1925, 34-year-old Kate Radochouski died at Chicago's Lakeside Hospital from complications of an abortion performed that day. The Homicide in Chicago database says that she died at the scene of the crime, and that there was an arrest on February 11. But there is no name given for the person arrested.

On January 23, 1929, 22-year-old Edna Vargo died in Chicago from an abortion performed that day by Katherine Bajda. Bajda was identified as a homemaker. She was held by the Coroner on February 14. On March 15, she was indicted for felony murder in Edna's death.

On January 21, 1972, 26-year-old Kathryn Strong went to Civic Center Hospital in Oakland, California for a legal abortion that was to be performed by Dr. Harold Van Maren. During the procedure, her uterus was perforated. According to her medical records, she suffered extensive hemorrhage and shock. She died the following day, leaving a three-year-old son.

The January 22, 1980 death of Vanessa Preston stands out because, if you are willing to grant that Curtis Boyd (pictured) actually thought abortion was legitimate medical care, he can't be faulted at all for how he handled the case. Boyd was performing a second-trimester D&E on Vanessa when she suddenly went into cardiac arrest. He had emergency procedures in place, which he and his staff followed, managing to resuscitate Vanessa and have her promptly transported to a fully equipped hospital, where efforts to save her failed. She had developed a clotting disorder -- something that just happens sometimes in abortion or childbirth -- and bled to death from a small liver laceration that doctors at the hospital didn't realize had happened during CPR. The laceration was just one of those complications of CPR and not a sign that it was performed improperly. Boyd wrote up a case study for a medical journal to inform other abortionists of this tragedy and to alert them so that if these complications happened to their patients, perhaps those women could be saved.

Three Criminal Deaths

2012-01-21T17:07:00.004-05:00

On January 21, 1919, 26-year-old Wanda Skrzypzak died at Chicago's St. Elizabeth's Hospital Michael Rozumski and Dr. John P. Wojtaleiwicz They were held by the Coroner for intentional manslaughter by abortion on January 22, and were indicted on February 15, but the case never went to trial. There were allegations of police corruption associated with the case.

On January 21 of 1926, 38-year-old homemaker Victoria Smith died in Chicago from a botched abortion, evidently performed at Jefferson Park Hospital. On January 26, the coroner pushed for the arrest of Peter Krakowski as the principal and Mary Sprochi as an accessory. Krakowski's profession is not given, though he might have been some sort of medical professional, since the abortion was performed at a hospital. On February 15, Krakowski was indicted for felony murder.

On January 21, 1961, Dr. Mandel M. Friedman contacted a Queens undertaker, asking him to arrange burial for 23-year-old Vivian Grant of New York. Friedman told the undertaker that Vivian, unmarried and working as a book editor, had died of a heart ailment. The undertaker notified authorities, who determined that although Vivian had not been pregnant, Friedman had attempted to perform an abortion on her, causing her death. Friedman was charged with homicide and falsifying a death certificate. While out on bail pending trial for Vivian's death, Friedman resurfaced, charged with homicide in the September 11, 1962 death of Barbara C. Covington, age 35, a Florida socialite. from an abortion perpetrated by Dr.

Five Equally Dead

2012-01-20T09:35:00.005-05:00

I have very scanty information about the January 20, 1846 death of Mary Ackerly of White Plains, New York. Mary was the illiterate, uneducated daughter of a poor family. So it was only natural that she would be won by the charms of Harry Nelson, "a person of considerable wealth and influence" who lived near Sing Sing, and who brought her to a brothel in New York and forced her to undergo the fatal abortion at the hands of Dr. Shove.

On or around January 20, 1909, Florence Wright, a 34-year-old Black woman born in Kentucky, died in Chicago from complications of an illegal abortion performed on January 3. Midwife Louisa Achtenberg, a white woman, was held without bail for the crime of murder by abortion. She was indicted for murder but the source document doesn't indicate that there was a trial. Achtenberg was implicated in three other Chicago-area abortion deaths.

On January 20, 1910, homemaker Elizabeth Lambacher, age 27, died in Chicago from an abortion. A nurse or midwife named Mrs. Hopp was indicted by a grand jury. The source document does not indicate that the case ever went to trial.

According to Life Dynamics, "Andrea" Roe was 26 years old when she underwent a newly legalized abortion at a New York City abortion facility on January 12, 1971. After her abortion, Andrea contracted an infection. Her system was unable to fight the infection, and she died on January 20, 1971, leaving behind six children.

Linda Fondren, age 21, had a safe and legal abortion performed by Mohammad Pourtabib at Pre-Birth in Chicago on New Years Day, 1974. She suffered bleeding, but Pourtabib did not provide follow-up care. Linda was admitted to Cook County Hospital, where doctors performed an emergency hysterectomy and provided care until her death on January 20. She left behind a small child.

1880: Scanty information on abortion death

2012-01-18T10:27:00.000-05:00

At the very beginning of 1880, Mary McCarty, wife of C.H. McCarty of New Haven, was the "unsuspecting and unfortunate victim of the criminal or culpably stupid operation" that ended her life. She was approximately 30 years old.
Dr. Banks was arrested on Pine Island.

1912: Doc's Efforts Kill Chicago Homemaker

2012-01-17T15:59:00.001-05:00

On January 17, 1912, 38-year-old homemaker Minnie Miller died from an abortion perpetrated that day by Dr. C.W. Klinetop. Klintop was identified by Coroner's Verdict on January 26, but the case never went to trial.

Note, please, that with overall public health issues such as doctors not using proper aseptic techniques, lack of access to blood transfusions and antibiotics, and overall poor health to begin with, there was likely little difference between the performance of a legal abortion and illegal practice, and the aftercare for either type of abortion was probably equally unlikely to do the woman much, if any, good.

In fact, due to improvements in addressing these problems, maternal mortality in general (and abortion mortality with it) fell dramatically in the 20th Century, decades before Roe vs. Wade legalized abortion across America.

For more information about early 20th Century abortion mortality, see Abortion Deaths 1910-1919.

Five Tragic Anniversaries

2012-01-16T13:05:00.003-05:00

There are so many anniversaries today that I can only provide brief snippets. Click on each woman's name to learn more about how abortion was the last choice she ever made.

On January 16, 1901, Jennie Mallard died at Alexian Brothers Hospital in Chicago from an abortion performed that day. Mrs. Margaret Simmons, who was either a nurse, a midwife, or a physician, was arrested and held in the death.

Jennie Martin, a 28-year-old homemaker, died January 16, 1906 from complications of a criminal abortion. Dr. William F. Briney was held by the coroner's jury.

On December 23, 1941, Dr. Samuel Roth was sentenced to a year in prison after pleading guilty to manslaughter in the illegal abortion death of a woman I identify as Jane Roe of 1937. Roth, whose license was suspended at the time, performed the abortion in his office on January 16, 1937.

Former abortion entrepreneur Carol Everett, in Blood Money, tells of how the abortionist in one of her clinics sent a woman home to bleed to death over a pitcher of margaritas. Carol opens her book with the story of the woman she calls "Sheryl Mason." At Life Dynamics, we did some detective work and found 34-year-old Shary Graham, who died January 16, 1982 after an abortion at one of Carol's Dallas-area abortion mills.

Thirty-eight-year-old Pamela A. Wainwright was admitted to Shallowford Community Hospital in Dunwoody, Georgia on January 15, 1987, for an abortion and tubal ligation. Pamela was taken to the operating room for her surgery the next day. Dr. Wendell Phillips placed a needle into Pamela's abdomen to pump in carbon dioxide. He did not ensure proper placement of the needle. Instead of pumping carbon dioxide into her abdomen, he pumped it into her bloodstream. Pamela died almost immediately from cardiac arrest, due to vapor lock in her heart.

Three Equally Dead

2012-01-15T10:09:00.003-05:00

On January 15, 1907, 24-year-old housekeeper Sarah M. Cushing died in Wesley Hospital in Chicago, from complications of a criminal abortion performed there that day. A midwife named Gertrude Plenz was arrested on January 24, and held by the coroner's jury. Mrs. Plenz was also arrested in the abortion death of Margaret McCarthy in 1904.

On January 15, 1915, 22-year-old Margaret Jenickes died in Chicago after an abortion perpetrated that day, presumably by Dr. C.A. Erickson. Joseph Martin was also held. Though Erickson was indicted on February 1, the case never went to trial because the me wee exonerated by a Grand Jury. No other suspect in Margaret's death is mentioned in my sources.

Eurice Agbagaa, a 26-year-old immigrant from Ghana, went to Abram Zelikman for a safe, legal abortion on January 7, 1989. After the abortion, Eurice bled so heavily that the receptionist, Yolanda Penalzer, became alarmed and asked Zelikman to do something. Zelikman told her that the bleeding was normal and that she should put an ice bag on the patient. He then left the facility, leaving Yolada to care for the patients in recovery. Yolanda tried repeatedly to reach Zelikman at his home, but couldn't contact him. Finally she called an ambulance. The ambulance crew found Yolanda performing CPR on Eurice, who was in shock from bleeding due to a perforated uterus and severed abdominal artery. Eurice remained in a coma until her death in the early morning of January 15.

Eurice isn't the only woman who ended up having an abortion far later in the pregnancy than she intended. read more about
**Unintended Late Abortions**.

Two More Beneficiaries of Safe, Legal Abortion

2012-01-14T18:03:00.003-05:00

Today's anniversaries mark the benefits of safe, legal abortion to a teenage girl and a young woman.

Christella Marie Forte, age 16, screamed, convulsed, and went into cardiac arrest 27 hours after instillation of saline for an abortion. at New Centre Hospital in Detroit on January 14, 1986. She died without ever expelling the 23-week fetus.The concentrated salt solution that had been injected into Christella's uterus to kill the fetus got into her bloodstream, poisoning her and causing cardiac arrest. What is particularly disgusting about Christella's death is how utterly needless it was: saline abortions had been discredited as far too dangerous for over a decade. The documents surrounding her death do not explain why her abortionist chose an outdated, high-risk procedure for his young patient.

Twenty-two-year-old Chanelle Marion Bryant was given the drugs for a safe and legal chemical abortion at a Family Planning Associates Medical Group facility in California. She was instructed to use the prostaglandin as a suppository, rather than take an oral prostaglandin. This off-label use is being investigated by the CDC and FDA after Chanelle and four other US women died of infection after RU-486 abortions. Chanelle suffered terrible pain four days after self-administering the medication. She sought emergency care at Huntington Memorial Hospital, where she died during surgery. Chanelle had been perfectly healthy before her abortion, according to her mother, Lynn Bryant.

Chanelle joined the sad ranks of women known to have died after FPA abortions: Denise Holmes,Mary Pena, Josefina Garcia, Lanice Dorsey, Joyce Ortenzio, Tami Suematsu, Christina Mora, Susan Levy,Patricia Chacon, Kimberly Neil, and Deanna Bell. FPA is a member of the National Abortion Federation, an organization that ostensibly ensures that abortions are done safely.

Fruits of "Abortion Care" -- 1911, 1915, and 2005

2012-01-13T10:00:00.004-05:00

On January 13, 1911, 27-year-old homemaker Rauha Wilen died at the scene of an abortion. Midwife Mary Rominel was arrested and indicted by a grand jury.

On January 13, 1915, 23-year-old Mrs. Beulah Rehm died at Wesley Hospital after an abortion perpetrated at Dr. A.L. Blunt's Chicago practice. Blunt was held by the Coroner but the case never went to trial. He did, however, eventually end up in Leavenworth for drug dealing.

Moving forward in time to the safe, legal days of competent, compassionate abortion care, we have the case of Christin Gilbert (pictured), a 19-year-old woman with Down Syndrome pregnant through sexual abuse by an undetermined perpetrator. Christin's parents brought her to George Tiller's late-term abortion practice in Wichita, where they cared for her themselves in a motel room between visits to the facility for the various steps in achieving the death and expulsion of Christin's unborn baby. In spite of serious complications, Christin was not taken to the hospital until she stopped breathing in Tiller's clinic, under the care of that other hero doctor of legal abortion supporters, LeRoy Carhart. Clinic staff lied to 911 about Christin's condition, and when medics arrived Carhart was being so inept in his attempts at resuscitation that he was mistaken for a bystander. Christin was taken to a hospital but the damage was done and she died on January 13, 2005.

Four Victims of Abortionists

2012-01-12T08:50:00.003-05:00

On January 12, 1900, Mrs. Ida Henry, age 26, died at the home she shared with Dr. Paulina Bechtel, from complications of an abortion Bechtel had performed on her there that day. Bechtel was held by the Coroner's Jury. Bechtel was also implicated in the death of Barbara Shelgren shortly thereafter, but was identified as a midwife in that case. According to Leslie Reagan, author of When Abortion Was a Crime, it was common for female physicians to be misidentified as midwives, particularly if they practiced obstetrics. Bechtel went on to kill Mary Thorning in 1911.

On January 12, 1912, 19-year-old Lottie Roeder died at St. Elizabeth's hospital from an abortion perpetrated on January 5 by a nurse/midwife referred to as "Mrs. Theodore Larson." Larson was held by the Coroner's Jury on January 12 and indicted, but the case never went to trial.

Shirley Williams was 30 years old when she underwent a safe and legal abortion in January of 1980. On January 12, she was pronounced dead, from hemorrhage.

Former criminal abortionist and prochoice hero Milan Vuitch (pictured) had been operating his clinic without a license for two years when 32-year-old Georgianna "Jeannie" English came to him for a safe and legal abortion on January 12, 1980. Vuitch administered general anesthesia for Jeannie, and she never woke up. She was transported to a nearby hospital where she died. Vuitch settled with Jeannie's family for $150,000. When Vuitch was investigated, it was discovered that he kept patients overnight in his home (an unlicensed facility) which he designated "The Annexe." Inspectors also noted repeated violations of medical standards regarding sanitation and anesthesia. Vuitch also admitted during another case that he had lacked hospital admitting privileges since 1963. Vuitch was also responsible for the 1974 abortion death of 17-year-old Wilma Harris.

Vuitch is one of three abortionists I know of who started out as criminal abortionists with clean records -- no patient deaths attributed to them -- who went on to kill two patient by performing the supposedly safer legal abortions. They are Jesse Ketchum (Margaret Smith and Carole Schaner) and Benjamin Munson (Linda Padfield and Yvonne Mesteth).

Two Equally Dead

2012-01-09T20:52:00.001-05:00

Today's first death is one of the illegal kind the abortion lobby gets upset about. The second is of the safe and legal kind that are dismissed with, "All surgery has risks."

On January 9, 1918, 39-year-old Mary Cusack nee Kelly, a widowed homemaker, died at Chicago's West Side Hospital from an abortion perpetrated that day by Dr. William A. McFarlane. He was indicted on January 15, 1918, but the case never went to trial. Mary was an immigrant from Ireland.

Note, please, that with overall public health issues such as doctors not using proper aseptic techniques, lack of access to blood transfusions and antibiotics, and overall poor health to begin with, there was likely little difference between the performance of a legal abortion and illegal practice. In fact, due to improvements in addressing these problems, maternal mortality in general (and abortion mortality with it) fell dramatically in the 20th Century, decades before Roe vs. Wade legalized abortion across America.

For more information about early 20th Century abortion mortality, see Abortion Deaths 1910-1919.

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

Life Dynamics lists 17-year-old Sharon Davis on their "Blackmun Wall" of women killed by safe and legal abortions. Life Dynamics says that Sharon was a high school student, 14 weeks pregnant, when she submitted to an abortion at a hospital in Tucumcari, New Mexico on September 20, 1982. Her uterus and bowel were perforated, and she developed an infection.
For over three months, she was treated for her infection before she died on January 9, 1983.

Three Equally Dead

2012-01-08T10:11:00.004-05:00

On January 8, 1918, 20-year-old homemaker Margaret Marie Balch, nee Farnsworth, died in a Chicago home from an abortion perpetrated by a person who was never identified.

With overall public health issues such as doctors not using proper aseptic techniques, lack of access to blood transfusions and antibiotics, and overall poor health to begin with, abortion, like any invasion of the body by outside instruments, was far more likely to cause death than it is today. In fact, due to improvements in addressing these problems, maternal mortality in general (and abortion mortality with it) fell dramatically in the 20th Century, decades before Roe vs. Wade legalized abortion across America.

And as you can see, even after legalization, women continue to die from abortions.

Twenty-five-year-old Rita G. Goncalves took ill after her safe and legal abortion in late 1983. At some point after her abortion, she was taken to Roger Williams General Hospital in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. There, she died on January 8, 1984, from abortion complications. So little information is available about her death that I can not conclude whether this was a case of malpractice or just an example of, as abortion advocates love to point out when confronted with safe, legal abortion deaths, "All surgery has risks."

The same can not be said about the January 8, 2004 death of 15-year-old Tamiia Russell (pictured), who was pregnant as a result of sexual exploitation by Stacy Glenn, a man nearly ten years her senior. Glenn's sister, Taish, hauled Tamiia around Detroit to one abortion facility after the other, looking for somebody willing to perform an abortion very late in the pregnancy. Tamiia's pregnancy was so far advanced, in fact, that one abortion facility offered her prenatal vitamins. Finally, National Abortion Federation member clinic Woman Care, run by Medical Students for Choice hero Abraham Alberto Hodari, agreed to abort Tamiia's six-month pregnancy, taking the proffered ID of an older teen, who looked nothing like Tamiia, to circumvent Michigan's parental consent law. Laminaria were inserted to dilate Tamiia's cervix, and she was sent home. Only then did her mother learn of the abortion-in-progress. She called Woman Care, wanting to have the laminaria removed and her unborn grandchild saved. Woman Care lied, telling her that Tamiia would die if the abortion was not completed. Tamiia's reluctant mother took her in for the procedure and took her bleeding daughter home. Woman Care dismissed calls reporting excessive bleeding, and instructed Tamiia's family not to take her to a hospital. They ignored these instructions and called an ambulance, but Tamiaa was dead on arrival from hemorrhage.

Two Doctors' Fatal Handiwork

2012-01-07T12:54:00.002-05:00

On January 7, 1901, 21-year-old Juliet K. Pottinger (alt. Julia K. Pettinger) died in her home at 520 Wood St., Chicago, from an abortion performed there that day. Dr. Maggie Becker was arrested April 24, based on a coroner's verdict that day. Juliet had been a homemaker. Her husband, 23-year-old James A. Pottinger, was left to raise their toddler daughter. Becker was held to grand jury, tried, convicted, and sentenced to 14 years in Joilet Penitentiary. Julia's abortion was typical of criminal abortions in that it was performed by a physician.

Note, please, that with overall public health issues such as doctors not using proper aseptic techniques, lack of access to blood transfusions and antibiotics, and overall poor health to begin with, there was likely little difference between the performance of a legal abortion and illegal practice, and the aftercare for either type of abortion was probably equally unlikely to do the woman much, if any, good. For more about abortion and abortion deaths in the first years of the 20th century, see Abortion Deaths 1900-1909.

The January 7, 1922 death of Irene Michaelson of Philadelphia presents ground for head-scratching. Irene reportedly died of peritonitis at City Hospital in Atlantic City, New Jersey, after leaping from the second-story window of the Bricker Sanitarium, "in the heart of the most exclusive residential section of Atlantic City." Dr. William H. Bricker Jr., of Philadelphia and Atlantic City, was was captured in Philadelphia. At trial, he, was found guilty of performing the abortion that killed Irene and was sentenced to 10 to 15 years in prison, and fined $5,000. News coverage says, "Bricker collapsed when sentence was pronounced."

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

Two Chicago Deaths, Two Decades Apart

2012-01-06T08:52:00.001-05:00

Twenty-eight-year-old Ida Vierow was found dead in a ditch near Dunning, Illinois. It was determined that she had died January 6, 1905, from an abortion performed in Chicago. Two midwives, Amella Maichrowicz and Anna Becker, were arrested, along with Maichrowicz's husband, Joseph.

On December 30, 1923, 26-year-old Helen Koss underwent an illegal abortion somewhere in Chicago. On January 6, 1924, she died at Norwegian American Hospital of complications. Midwife Mrs. Emma Morch was arrested, and indicted for homicide by a grand jury. Helen, the daughter of German immigrants Carl and Rose Koss, lived with her widowed mother and three grown siblings. She worked as a clerk in an office.

1930: Russian immigrant dies at unknown perp's hands

2012-01-05T00:17:00.001-05:00

On January 5, 1930, bookkeeper Sonia Ragins, age 26, died from an illegal abortion performed at an unknown location by an unknown person. On January 6 the coroner recommended identification and arrest of the guilty party.

Two Criminal, Two Legal, All Lethal

2012-01-02T05:25:00.004-05:00

Margaret Crowe, age 25, died from Dr. Anna Sorenson's dubious care at Chicago's Norwegian Deaconnes Hospital on January 2, 1918.

Mary Strugnall, age 17, died January 2, 1929 from an abortion performed that day by Dr. Joseph A. Harter. Harter was held by the coroner on February 28. His brother, a student named Irving Harter, and Vernon Keyser, the baby's father, were arrested as accessories.

"Amy" is one of the women Life Dynamics identifies on their "Blackmun Wall" as having been killed by a safe and legal abortion. Amy was 35 years old when she had a legal abortion December 24, 1970. She was 14 weeks pregnant. During the abortion, Amy suffered from a massive pulmonary embolism. Efforts to save her life finally failed, and she died on January 2, 1971, leaving behind two children.

Sherry Emry's friends were worried about her as 1977 rolled over into 1978. She'd been sick, unable to rise from bed, pale and sleeping fitfully, with chills and sweating. They came to check on her as the day started on January 2, and found her dead in her bed. The autopsy found that she had bled to death from an undiagnosed ectopic pregnancy. The coroner blamed Sherry's death on the fact that Arnold Bickham's Water Tower Reproductive Center in Chicago, where Sherry had submitted to an abortion on December 28, threw fetal remains away without a pathology analysis. The police found that Sherry had a receipt from Water Tower indicating a $50 discount. They hypothesized that staff might have noted the lack of a fetus in the aspirator, concluded that Sherry hadn't been pregnant, and given her a partial refund rather than provide her with the follow up care that would have saved her life.

Sherry wasn't the only woman to die after abortion in a Bickham facility. Sylvia Moore, age 18, died after Bickham (pictured) shoved her out the door of his clinic New Years Eve of 1986. Bickham was eventually drummed out of the medical profession, and became a high school principal. I'm still tracking down information about his less-than-stellar post-abortion career. But at least he stopped killing people for a living.

Is Only Today's First Anniversary the Outrageous Death?

2011-12-31T07:54:00.003-05:00

On December 31, 1917, 40-year-old homemaker Victoria Chmileuski died in her Chicago home from an abortion perpetrated by Wilhemena Benn, whose profession is given only as "abortion provider". Benn was prosecuted, but acquitted on March 7, 1918.

Those who respond with sadness and outrage at Victoria's unsafe illegal abortion death might find it in their hearts to muster a bit of sadness, and a lot of outrage, over our safe and legal anniversary today.

Eighteen-year-old Sylvia Jane Moore underwent a safe and legal abortion at the hands of Arnold Bickham on New Year's Eve of 1986. She was in the second trimester of her pregnancy, but Bickham used a suction technique suitable for a first-trimester pregnancy. After the abortion, Bickham gave Sylvia repeated injections of Demerol because she was reporting severe abdominal cramps.

According to Sylvia's mother, Sylvia was bleeding, weak, and unable to walk. When Sylvia tried to get to her feet and collapsed, Bickham called her "lazy," put her in a wheelchair, and physically ejected her from his Chicago clinic.

Sylvia's mother took her to a nearby hospital, where staff tried in vain to save Sylvia, who had arrived with no pulse and no blood pressure. An emergency hysterectomy was done to remove her lacerated uterus, which still had a plastic instrument embedded in it. The instrument was embedded in a 6.5 cm laceration, and Sylvia also had a 2.2 cm laceration of her vagina. Sylvia bled to death.

Bickham claimed that he "didn't think there was anything wrong" with Sylvia, and said that he'd merely been helping her with the wheelchair. He blamed Sylvia's death on the hospital, saying, "They were successful in repairing the damage done in the abortion, but in doing that, they perforated an artery causing there to be blood loss in the chest cavity. That was something she was not able to survive." The autopsy report, however, noted the chest tube incision but noted "lungs are well expanded and the pleural cavities are free of fluid and adhesions." An attorney with the Department of Professional Regulation said, "This patient would never have been allowed to leave Bickham's clinic with her mother.

The postmortum report said: "The circumstances of injury, review of the Medical records, the findings at autopsy examination, and subsequent investigation of the circumstances of the case provide evidence of gross negligence and abandonment on the part of the original treating physician. In consideration of the above, the manner of death is determined to be Homicide." However, no charges were pressed against Bickham.

The suit filed by Sylvia's survivors noted that Bickahm had failed to perform an ultrasound, and failed to have adequate staff or equipment. The specimen of abortion tissue sent from clinic contained segments of placental tissue, umbilical cord, and fetal intestinal parts and liver.

Today's Anniversary Calls For More Research

2011-12-29T09:30:00.003-05:00

On December 29, 1907, 19-year-old Marcie Mayer died in St. Elizabeth's hospital in Chicago from complications of a criminal abortion. Mary Bing, a midwife, was arrested, tried, and sentenced to Joliet. A man named John Mansfield was also held by the coroner's jury, but acquitted by the judge. Marcie's abortion was atypical in that it was not performed by a physician.

A search for more details on Marcie's death has led only to a mystery: The Coroner's Inquest Database lists a Mamie Meyer, rather than a Marcie Mayer, as having died on that date, with the inquest on the same date that Mary Bing was held by the coroner. It's getting to the point where I'm juggling my finances, wondering how and when I'm going to be able to get to Chicago and slog through the 75 coroner's inquests I've identified as holding more information I need.

When I do research like this, I'm struck with the contrast between my own work and the "research" done by abortion advocacy organizations on criminal abortion deaths. If you click women's names in my blog, you'll be taken to the women's pages on my Cemetery of Choice wiki. There, I cite my sources. When you go to prochoice pages that belabor illegal abortion deaths, you'll notice what's missing: sources. They simply assert their stories and leave it at that.

What really puzzles me about the whole thing is how many verifiable cases there are. And it's not like their own researchers haven't found them. Leslie Reagan did extensive and meticulous research for When Abortion Was a Crime. (Follow the link and read at least some of it.) Why do abortion advocacy organizations instead fuel their fires with unverified stories? That is a mystery deeper than Marcie/Mamie Mayor/Meyer's name.

1921: Mystery Abortionist Kills Immigrants' Daughter

2011-12-28T09:35:00.001-05:00

On December 28, 1921, Belle Keehn died at the Chicago Lying-In Hospital from an abortion perpetrated by an unknown doctor on or about November 27. Documents are unclear as to how it was determined that the perpetrator was a doctor. The hospital was a reputable facility, not a seedy abortionarium, so Belle would have received superior care as doctors tried to save her life.

Belle, a native of Wisconsin, was married to Max Keehn and worked as a housekeeper. She was the daughter of immigrants -- Frank Luzenski of Poland, and Mary (Weir) Luzenski of Germany.

Keep in mind that things that things we take for granted, like antibiotics and blood banks, were still in the future. For more about abortion in this era, see Abortion in the 1920s.

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

1919: Unidentified perp leaves Pennsylvania woman dead

2011-12-26T10:25:00.001-05:00

On December 26, 1919, Rose Kulamer, a 33-year-old homemaker who had emigrated from Hungary, died at Columbia Hospital in Wilkensberg, Pennsylvania. The coroner found that she had died of septicemia from an abortion, and recommended that the person responsible be identified and arrested.

Note, please, that with overall public health issues such as doctors not using proper aseptic techniques, lack of access to blood transfusions and antibiotics, and overall poor health to begin with, there was likely little difference between the performance of a legal abortion and illegal practice, and the aftercare for either type of abortion was probably equally unlikely to do the woman much, if any, good. For more information about early 20th Century abortion mortality, see Abortion Deaths 1910-1919.

Two Holiday Tragedies

2011-12-23T12:51:00.004-05:00

On December 23, 1885, Dr. Truman Sawdy's 21-year-old daughter, Sylvia, was in Grand Rapids, Michigan, ostensibly visiting the mother of Harry McDowell, the young man who had been courting her. Sylvia had left her home in Howard City by train to make the 40-mile trip on December 10. Dr. Sawdy hadn't heard of or from her since she'd left. And he was never going to hear from her again. On the morning of Christmas Eve, Harry's father came to the house and said that he'd heard from Harry. Sylvia had taken ill and wanted her mother, Cornelia, to go to her. The following day, Christmas day, Dr. Sawdy opened his newspaper and read that his daughter was dead. It came out in the trial that in November, Sylvia had consulted with Drs. Bodle, Hake, and Bradish, indicating that she was pregnant. Evidence indicated that McDowell had performed an abortion on Sylvia on December 23, and that she died that day. McDowell was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to 15 years.

"Kimberly" was 25 years old and 18 weeks pregnant when she underwent a safe, legal pre-Roe abortion in New York City on December 23, 1970. During the abortion, she went into cardiac arrest and died, leaving behind two children.

Three Pre-Roe Anniversaries

2011-12-21T09:22:00.004-05:00

On December 21, 1915, 34-year-old Anna Hunt died at Chicago's Rhodes Avenue Hospital from complications of an abortion perpetrated that day by an unknown person.

On December 21, 1926, fifteen-year-old Emily Mueller died from a criminal abortion performed December 11 somewhere in Chicago. Midwife Magdelane Stegeman, alias Motzny, was indicted for felony murder by the Grand Jury on February 15, 1927. According to the Cook County Death Index, Emily was the daughter of William and Josephine (Krajecki) Meuller and, in spite of her youth, worked as a stenographer.

Denise J. Holmes, a 24-year-old Australian woman living in Texas, decided to undergo a safe and legal abortion at Avalon Hospital in Los Angeles, California, on her way home for Christmas of 1970. Denise checked into Avalon Hospital (an abortion facility owned by Edward Campbell Allred) on December 21. She suffered an amniotic fluid embolism that carried pieces of fetal bone marrow into her lungs. She was pronounced dead by Edward Allred at Avalon at 5pm.

Denise is the first confirmed abortion death at an Allred facility. She was just the first to die before the National Abortion Federation was founded, with Allred's Family Planning Associates Medical Group as a member. Others known to have died after abortion at Allred's facilities include Patricia Chacon, Mary Pena, Josefina Garcia, Laniece Dorsey, Joyce Ortenzio, Tami Suematsu, Susan Levy, Deanna Bell, Christina Mora, Kimberly Neil, and Chanelle Bryant.

A Death from the Dark Ages and one from Our Enlightened Age

2011-12-20T13:29:00.002-05:00

On December 13, 1926, 23-year-old Chicago native Mary Paradowski underwent a criminal abortion. She died on December 20 at Chicago Hospital. On January 15, 1927, midwife Josephine Petrova was indicted for felony murder in Mary's death.

Keep in mind that things that things we take for granted, like antibiotics and blood banks, were still in the future. For more about abortion in this era, see Abortion in the 1920s. For more on pre-legalization abortion, see The Bad Old Days of Abortion.

Fast forward to our more enlightened and woman-loving era. Jennifer M. Halner, 27 years old, died in Maryland on December 21, 1997, after a purportedly safe, legal abortion at Potomac Family Planning for a safe, legal abortion. She was given Versed (for sedation and memory impairment), Sublimaze (a short-acting narcotic used for short-duration pain control), Propofol (a sedative for anesthesia), with Lidocaine, a local anesthetic. She was taken off the monitor in recovery even though she was already showing signs of a possible life-threatening complication. A nurse noticed and asked a doctor for some medication -- on two different occasions, because the first drug the nurse asked for didn't help -- but no doctor went to evaluation Jennifer's condition. Only when the nurse noticed that Jennifer had no pulse or respiration was she able to get a doctor do help. He started resuscitation, using the wrong equipment.Only after numerous clumsy attempts to revive the patient themselves did staff do what they should have done at the first sign of life-threatening trouble: call 911. The medics arrived and started actually providing appropriate emergency care, and took Jennifer to a hospital. Hospital staff managed to stabilize her, but only temporarily since the damage had already been done.

1921: Oklahoma-born Woman Dies in Chicago

2011-12-19T05:40:00.000-05:00

On December 19, 1921, 18-year-old Marie Pickle died in Chicago after an abortion perpetrated by Clarence Shoere, who was identified as a nurse or midwife. Shoere was held by the coroner but not tried.

Marie, a native of Howe, Oklahoma, was a single Black woman whose occupation was listed as "Housework, general." SHe was the daughter of Robert and Bertha (Walters) Pickle.

Keep in mind that things that things we take for granted, like antibiotics and blood banks, were still in the future. For more about abortion in this era, see Abortion in the 1920s.

external image Illegals.png

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

Three Illegal Abortion Deaths -- The Last With a Twist

2011-12-18T06:03:00.002-05:00

On December 28, 1871, a Coroner's Jury was called to investigate the death of Mrs. Amanda McCoy. Amanda had died at the home of Dr. Fahlbusch, a German woman practicing as a midwife and described as "of good reputation." She was cleared of any suspicion in Amanda's death. The Coroner's Jury concluded that Amanda had undergone her fatal abortion before coming into the city.

On December 18, 1923, 40-year-old Sophia Hartozinski died at Chicago's County Hospital due to a criminal abortion performed there that day. The coroner identified midwife Mary Roback as having been responsible for Sophia's death.

News articles indicate Myrta Baptiste, age 26, had a safe and legal abortion of her 10 week pregnancy performed by Orlando Zaldivar at Woman's Care Clinic December 18, 1982. Myrta arrived at the hospital in critical condition due to delay of transfer by the clinic staff. She bled to death from two uterine perforations. Zaldivar could not be reached for seven hours while hospital staff were struggling to save his patient's life. Since Zaldivar's license was inactive at the time he performed Myrta's abortion, the CDC classified her death as being due to illegal abortion rather than legal abortion. The other deaths at that facility -- Ruth Montero, Shirley Payne, and Maura Morales -- were counted as legal abortion deaths.

1914: Unknown Perp Leaves Three Children Motherless

2011-12-17T17:07:00.001-05:00

On December 17, 1914, 24-year-old Emma Fertig, wife of Edward Fertig, died at Chicago's West Side Hospital from an abortion performed by an unknown perpetrator. She left behind three children: Howard (1910), Evalyn (1912), and George (1913).

In fact, due to improvements in addressing these problems, maternal mortality in general (and abortion mortality with it) fell dramatically in the 20th Century, decades before Roe vs. Wade legalized abortion across America.

For more information about early 20th Century abortion mortality, see Abortion Deaths 1910-1919.

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

Legal and Illegal, Six Anniversaries

2011-12-16T10:24:00.002-05:00

Today marks many tragic anniversaries. Click on each woman's name to learn more about her.

"How Mrs. Seifred was Killed by Female Quacks -- The Verdict of a Jury" reads the subhead on a December 29, 1874 edition of The Brooklyn Eagle. The paper was covering the coroner's inquest into the December 16 death of Christine Seifred. Christine had been unfaithful to her husband when he was away in Europe, and when he returned and learned of the pregnancy, he left her. Christine went to a midwife, Mrs. Johanna White, "whose den is at No. 99 Station street, when an operation was performed, from the effects of which both the woman and the child died."

On December 11, 1911, 34-year-old homemaker Mary Thorning underwent an abortion performed by Paulina Bechtel. The Homicide in Chicago Interactive Database indicates that Mary died at the scene that day, but her memorial at Find-a-Grave indicates that she actually died on December 16, leaving behind her husband, John, and daughter, Ruth. (If you leave a message at Find-a-Grave, keep in mind that Mary's daughter and grandchildren are likely still alive. Show discretion.)

On December 16, 1925, 22-year-old factory worker Bridget Masterson died in her Chicago home from a botched abortion. Police were able to question Bridget prior to her death, but she refused to implicate anybody. John O'Malley, a boarder and the father of Bridget's baby, committed suicide by gas after learning of Bridget's death. He left a note implicating "a lady doctor at 310 W. North Ave." This was the address of notorious Chicago quack abortionist Dr. Lucy Hagenow.

Barbara Auerbach was 38 years old when she went to a New York hospital for a safe, legal abortion and tubal ligation, performed December 11, 1982. The autopsy showed that Barbara died on December 16 from an obstruction of her small bowel, which caused massive infection

Mary Pena underwent a safe and legal abortion at San Vincente Hospital in Los Angeles. During the procedure, Mary sustained two cervical lacerations, and because she was bleeding heavily, a hysterectomy was performed in an effort to save her life. The surgery was not successful, and at 1:50 am on December 16, 1984, she died while on the operating table. Mary was 43 years old and the mother of five. Abortion entrepreneur Dr. Edward Allred slipped Mary through the morgue without an autopsy, but Kern County Health Department found the death certificate fishy and ordered the autopsy that revealed the malpractice that had killed her.

Venus Ortiz died in a nursing home on December 16, 1998, of lingering complications of a botched abortion she underwent at age 23 in 1993 at National Abortion Federation member Eastern Women's Center. Venus had remained in a permanent vegetative state for the remainder of her life. Two other patients, Dawn Ravenelle and Dawn Mack, also died of complications of abortions done at Eastern Women's Center.
throughout her body.

Two Beneficiaries of Safety and Legality

2011-12-15T10:40:00.002-05:00

Twenty-year-old LaSandra Russ, from Berkley, California, went to Los Angeles to have an abortion on December 13, 1971. She was six weeks pregnant. The abortion was performed at Memorial Hospital of Hawthorne the next day, December 14. LaSandra went into cardiac arrest almost immediately after the abortion. Attempts were made to revive her, but she was finally pronounced dead on December 15, 1971.

Abortionist Andre Nehorayoff was disciplined over the abortion death of a patient identified by the medical board as "Patient F." Since other accounts of her death refer to her as "Faye Roe," I will use this pseudonym as well.

Faye was 19 years old when she went to Nehorayoff's office for a safe and legal abortion on December 15, 1979, for an abortion. Nehorayoff failed to record an adequate history or medical exam for Faye. Nehorayoff left Faye in a recovery room at 2:25 p.m., without any monitoring. When somebody finally checked on her an hour later, she was cyanotic (blue) and had no pulse. She was pronounced dead at a hospital. Nehorayoff was also disciplined regarding Patient E, an 18-year-old patient who bled to death after Nehorayoff sent her home in 1983 with a fetal leg still in her uterus. Nehorayoff's other cases are described here.

How Lead Leads to Lead and Reveals More on Abortion Death

2011-12-14T18:42:00.003-05:00

My original research on the November 18, 1942 abortion death of 26-year-old Madeline McGeehan was based on New York Times articles.

Recently I started doing one of my periodic prowls through Find-a-Grave, looking for leads to additional information about the Cemetery of Choice women and I found a memorial for Madlyon McGeehan.

At first I did bad math and calculated the Luzurne County Madlyon as being 36 years old, became bewildered, and decided to do a little more investigating. It seemed unlikely that two women with different spellings of the same name both died in the Bronx on the same day. How could I reconcile a 10-year age difference?

Well, thank God for bad math, because otherwise I'd not have gone delving for more, and I'd not have learned more about Madlyon's life and tragic death.

This AP story published in a Texas paper on November 27, 1942, reveals that 58-year-old Dr. Joseph Nisonoff, the abortionist, was held on $150,000 bail on a charge of homicide in connection with Madlyon's peritonitis death. Nisonoff's nurse, Camille Ewald, was held on $50,000 bail, and the "friend," Henry Elters, was held on $15,000 as a material witness.

Elters reportedly told Assistant District Attorney James Carney that he had known Madlyon
for about seven years, and that they had gone to Nisonoff's office in Queens on an unspecified date, and gave Ewald $600. She told Elters to "take a walk." He returned to find Madlyon resting on a couch. On November 15, Elters was told that Madlyon needed a blood transfusion. She was admitted to Prospect Hospital as Betty McGee. After her death there, she was correctly identified by her sister, Mary, who had come came from the family home at Hazleton, PA, to claim Madlyon's body.

During six hours of questioning, Nisonoff himself denied any connection with Madlyon's death.

Madlyon was an OPA employee who had been living in Washington DC.

Sharon's Death: Your Tax Dollars at Work

2011-12-13T00:43:00.004-05:00

First, a little background.

In one session of a National Abortion Federation Risk Management Seminar, a participant indicated that when he pulled bowel (extracted part of a patient's bowel through a perforation in her uterus), his preferred method of treatment (if you can call it that) was to stuff the bowel back through the perforation, administer medications to make the uterus contract and control bleeding, monitor the woman more carefully in recovery, and if she seemed okay, send her home none the wiser.

The moderator was appalled. He pointed out that even if there was no obvious injury to the bowel, it might be bruised and damaged. The recommended procedure is to admit the patient to the hospital and examine her bowel, and observe her for signs of further injury. The moderator then asked how many of the other participants followed this method of stuffing the bowel back in and hoping for the best. Six participants raised their hands to be counted.

I knew it was only a matter of time before one of these bowel-stuffing abortionists killed somebody. That's where the unwitting Sharon Hamptlon (left) stepped into the picture. She went to Bruce Steir (rhymes with fear) at A Lady's Choice Women's Medical Center for a safe, legal abortion on December 13, 1996. She was 20 weeks pregnant.

Steir remained at the facility for about an hour after Sharon's abortion. She was still in the recovery room when he left.

Excerpts from Doris's statement to the medical board can be found at ...And So I Could Hold You and You Could Go to Sleep. I'll let her tell the story:

Maybe around 3:00 pm I took Curtis inside to use the bathroom. I saw a grey haired man dressed in green surgical clothes sitting at a desk. He said, "You know she is far along." I said, "No. I didn't know because she didn't tell me." Then I saw Sharon in the recovery room about 3:30 or 4:00 pm. She looked so bad that I felt scared. She was laying on a lazyboy style chair with an IV in her left arm and a blood pressure cuff on the other. She looked very pale. Her eyes were partially open and I could see only the whites of her eyes as if she were in shock. She was not speaking and her whole body was shaking real hard in big shivers. Her legs were especially bad. The doctor said, "She doesn't react to drugs well." .... A woman came in and said that Sharon didn't need the blankets that were on her already and pulled the blankets off. Other girls in the recovery room were vomiting and the attendant woman told the girls to keep vomiting, that vomiting was good for them at this time. I went back to the waiting room and a Spanish lady came out and said that Sharon would be ready in a few minutes as soon as the IV finished.

Sharon was in the recovery for only about 45 minutes, because at 5:00 pm they came out and said she was ready to leave. I heard someone say that the doctor was real busy and he had to rush out like he was going to the airport, something about him having to go to Sacramento or San Francisco. I saw two women struggling to place Sharon in a wheelchair. Sharon could not walk at all and she was not speaking. She looked very, very pale now.

....On the way home to Barstow, I stopped at Wendy's to get a sandwich for little Curtis. I tried to wake Sharon but all she said was "Huh, Huh." Then Curtis said, "Mamma, I love you. Do you need anything? Are you okay?" And Sharon said, "Okay. I'll take a drink." Sharon was lying in the backseat of the car and said to Curtis, "Come on back with me Curtis. I love you and so I could hold you and you could go to sleep." She was silent for about one hour. Near Victorville, she said, "I'm so hot. Please let the window down." I opened the window a bit. After that, Sharon was silent forever.

We got home to Barstow and I saw that Sharon, still laying in the back seat was naked from the waist up, having removed her shirt, shoes and socks. I started yelling, "Sharon. Sharon. Wake up," but she didn't and my husband, Ben Hamptlon, said, "Call 911."

According to Nancy Myles, an untrasound technician who was assisting Steir during Sharon's abortion, Steir was having trouble locating and extracting the fetal skull. She said that he looked at her strangely and said, "I think I pulled bowel."

Steir was already on probation with the medical board at the time of Sharon's abortion; he had a history of botching abortions, including causing uterine perforations. He'd been found negligent in six abortion cases, including three in which the woman had to undergo a hysterectomy. One woman had to have a fetal skull removed from a tear in her uterus. Steir surrendered his licence in 1997, in the wake of the fallout surrounding Sharon's death.

Pro-choice organizations, including the national leadership of NOW, and the National Abortion Federation and the California Abortion and Reproduction Rights League, rallied around Steir. One supporter stood outside the courthouse with a sign reading, "Abortion doctors are heroes, defend Dr. Bruce Steir." The Feminist Women's Health Center in Chico, with whom he once was affiliated, set up a "defense committee" and raised funds for his legal expenses.

Joseph Durante, who owned the facility, was also on probation with the medical board at the time of Sharon's fatal abortion. He had attempted a late abortion which resulted in the birth of a live but injured infant.

Sharon was a single mother who worked part-time at Burger King while attending community college. Sharon's mother said that she wanted to go off welfare and become a nurse. California taxpayers ffunded the fatal abortion through Medi-Cal.

Steir eventually plea bargained. He was sentenced to a year in prison, with six months of the sentence suspended in leiu of community service. He was also given five years' probation. At the sentencing hearing, four years after Sharon's death, Sharon's father said he still often pulled his car to the side of the road, looked at his daughter's picture, and wept.

Steir was released after serving only four months of his sentence.
Again, from Doris Hamplton's statement:

I don't know how she heard about Dr. Durante's offices. I think he was recommended by the people at San Bernardino County Social Services or by Dr. Krider. Sharon was on Medi-Cal and had Pacific Care as the Medi-Cal managed care agent. I understand that because Dr. Durante and Dr. Steir were on probation they were not entitled to Medi-Cal payment, but they got it anyway. I understand that their office was not accredited as an ambulatory surgical office, and that it was supposed to be accredited to comply with the law. I had no idea that Dr. Durante and Dr. Steir were on probation with the Medical Board for incompetence and negligence against women patients. I am sure that Sharon did not know either. If I had known, I would never have taken Sharon to such a bad place with such bad doctors. I learned about their records in the newspaper articles.

....I cry every day for the terrible loss of my daughter, and I am overwhelmed that 3 year old Curtis had his mother taken away forever. My husband, Ben Hamptlon, (father of Sharon), is sick with grief, has terrible head pain, is under the care of a doctor for this and has been taking strong pain medicine since Sharon's death. My prayer is that these doctors be stopped immediately so that no other girl will be killed and that no other family will have to suffer as we have.

Two Anniversaries, Criminal and Legal

2011-12-12T10:23:00.002-05:00

On December 12, 1930, 22-year-old Jeanette Reder died from complications of a criminal abortion performed at the Chicago office of Dr. Emil Gleitsman. Gleitsman was indicted by a grand jury for homicide, but was acquitted on June 15, 1931. The source does not clarify why there was enough evidence to indict Gleitsman, but not enough to convict him. Gleitsman, a rather dogged abortionist, was also implicated in the deaths of 22-year-old Lucille van Iderstine and 21-year-old Mary Colbert. Click on Jeanette's name to learn more about her and the man who killed her.

Thirty-year-old Sandra Williams was 11 weeks pregnant when whe underwent an abortion on December 12, 1984. She went home following the abortion. Less than twelve hours later, she was dead. Her death certificate noted that she died from a pulmonary embolism.

1914: Unknown Perpetrator Kills Young Teen

2011-12-10T09:45:00.002-05:00

On December 10, 1914, 13-year-old Ida Kaufman died in a Chicago home after an abortion performed by an unknown perpetrator. I've been unable to learn any more details, such as who was responsible for Ida's pregnancy or who arranged the fatal abortion.

Note, please, that with overall public health issues such as doctors not using proper aseptic techniques, lack of access to blood transfusions and antibiotics, and overall poor health to begin with, there was likely little difference between the performance of a legal abortion and illegal practice, and the aftercare for either type of abortion was probably equally unlikely to do the woman much, if any, good.

In fact, due to improvements in addressing these problems, maternal mortality in general (and abortion mortality with it) fell dramatically in the 20th Century, decades before Roe vs. Wade legalized abortion across America.

For more information about early 20th Century abortion mortality, see Abortion Deaths 1910-1919.

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

1956: "The Angel of Ashland" Kills New York Woman

2011-12-09T05:43:00.004-05:00

On Saturday, December 8, 1956, 26-year-old Mary Davies of New York City arrived in the Ashland, Pennsylvania office of abortionist Dr. Robert Douglas Spencer (pictured). She was seeking an abortion.

As a physician, Spencer was typical of criminal abortionists. What was unusual about him was that rather than sneak the woman in through the back alley, Spencer plied his abortion trade openly.

According to Spencer, Mary was alone, and reported that she'd been bleeding for about two weeks. He didn't examine her, but gave her medication for pain and Ergotrate to stop the bleeding. He told her to return the following day for her abortion.

Mary returned at about 10 AM on the 9th. He administered 13 ccs. of Evipal in a 10% solution to induce anesthesia. "I injected that solution into the vein of the left arm and in ten seconds she was asleep." Spencer said that the next thing he noticed was that Mary wasn't breathing. She also appeared blue. He injected five ccc. of "Metrozol"* into her left leg. She didn't respond, so he gave her an additional five ccs. of "Metrozol", this time injecting the drug into a vein. Mary still did not respond, so Spencer attempted to resuscitate her with oxygen. He called his assistant, Mildred Zettlemoyer, into the room to assist him. With Mary in Zettlemoyer's care, Spencer went to another part of the building to retrieve adrenaline. He gave Mary three injections of adrenaline.

Mary still was not responding, so Spencer had Zettlemoyer call the laboratory assistant, Steve Sekunda, and tell him to come to the office. Spencer put a breathing tube into Mary's throat, but had to work blind because the light on his scope wasn't working. He resumed artificial respiration, "and pulled on her tongue, but got no response." By the time Sekunda arrived, at around 11:30, Spencer had concluded that Mary was dead. The puzzled man concluded "that this patient died in my office from some heart disease."

Dr. Milton Helpern, chief medical examiner for New York City, was among the experts that testified in Spencer's trial for Mary's death. Helpern concluded that Mary had been pregnant, that the pregnancy had been terminated right before her death, and that she'd died from administration of a drug used for anesthesia for performing a D&C. Mary had been in good health prior to her death.

Patricia G. Miller, author of The Worst Of Times, asked another doctor, "Dr. Bert," who had practiced before legalization, to review news reports of Mary's death and speculate as to whether Mary would have died had abortion been legal.

"Dr. Bert" faulted Spencer for not having an assistant while he was administering general anesthesia. "In my view, to give a general anesthetic alone is below good medical care, even in those days." He speculated that Spencer had not had an assistant working with him due to the law against abortion -- an odd speculation, since Spencer was doing abortions quite openly, with at least one member of his staff present in the building. It's also an odd speculation considering how many legal abortionists have had patients die from anesthesia complications, either due to inadequate supervision of the anesthesia process or inadequate resuscitation efforts.

Spencer's widow, Eleanor, told Patricia Miller that her husband had been quite stricken by Mary Davies' death. He continued to perform abortions, however, along with his regular medical practice, up until the trial. He was acquitted on all counts, likely because it was impossible to prove that Mary hadn't either miscarried during those two weeks of bleeding prior to her appointment with Spencer, or been aborted by somebody else. No mention is made of any fetal remains being found in Mary's body or in Spencer's office.

Spencer briefly stopped doing abortions after the trial, "for a month or so," his widow said. But he resumed his business and eventually got entangled with a fellow named Harry Mace who set up a business for himself rounding up abortion patients and bringing them to Spencer. Spencer's widow lamented that Mace flooded Spencer with patients, pressuring him to rush through abortions. Spencer's health began to fail. He was arrested again, due to the attention from Mace's activities, but died before the case went to trial.

Mary Davies is the only woman known to have died from abortion related complications under Spencer's care. Spencer is estimated to have performed between 40,000 and 100,000 abortions.

*The drug is spelled "Metrozol" in Spencer's written statement. However, my web searches for "Metrozol" turn up a veterinary medication used to treat skin diseases in fish. Spencer clearly meant Metrazol, a drug used as a respiratory and circulatory stimulant.

During the 1950s, we see an anomaly: Though maternal mortality had been falling during the first half of the 20th Century, and abortion mortality in particular had been plummeting, the downward trend slowed, then reversed itself briefly. I have yet to figure out why. For more, see Abortion Deaths in the 1950's.
For more on pre-legalization abortion, see The Bad Old Days of Abortion

Two Safe, Legal Deaths

2011-12-08T14:07:00.003-05:00

I have few details on the first death we commemorate today. Myria McFadden, age 28, underwent a second-trimester abortion performed by Dr. Hazel Tape on December 7, 1987, in Washington, DC. Myria had trouble breathing after the abortion, and suffered heart and lung failure the next day. She died at Holy Cross Hospital in Silver Springs on December 8.

The second death, a truly horrifying story, was fully documented. On December 8, 1994, 23-year-old Magdalena Rodriguez went to Suresh Gandotra's clinic, El Norte Clinica Medica, for what she thought was a safe, legal second-trimester abortion. Gandotra later said, "I knew I screwed up," when he pulled out bowel instead of fetal parts.

Click on Magdalena's name to learn the full story of how this quack "screwed up," costing this young mother her life.

1925: Unknown Perpetrator's Fatal Work

2011-12-07T01:02:00.000-05:00

On December 7, 1925, 18-year-old Margaret Zito died at Chicago's West End Hospital from a criminal abortion performed that day. The person responsible for Margaret's death was never identified.

Keep in mind that things we take for granted, like antibiotics and blood banks, were still in the future. For more about abortion in this era, see Abortion in the 1920s.

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

1905: One Dead Woman, Two Doctors Arrested

2011-12-05T10:06:00.002-05:00

On December 5, 1905, 19-year-old Mrs. Annie Killhoff died at her home from an abortion performed there that day. Two physicians, Joseph Vassumpaur and Charles Boddiger, were arrested, Vassumpaur as the principle and Boddiger as an accessory. Patrick Dillon was also held as an accessory. The case, however, never went to trial, for reasons not provided by the source. Annie's abortion was typical of pre-legalization abortions in that it was performed by a physician.

Note, please, that with issues such as doctors not using proper aseptic techniques, lack of access to blood transfusions and antibiotics, and overall poor health to begin with, there was likely little difference between the performance of a legal abortion and illegal practice, and the aftercare for either type of abortion was probably equally unlikely to do the woman much, if any, good. For more about abortion and abortion deaths in the first years of the 20th century, see Abortion Deaths 1900-1909.

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

The Cop and the Medical Student

2011-12-04T22:41:00.000-05:00

Queens patrolman Howard Bailey, morgue attendant Victor Genz, and a Texas medical student, Benjamin Lockhart, were arrested in the December 4, 1965 abortion death of Rita Shea, a 33-year-old Long Island woman.

Lockhart confessed to performing the abortion in a motel room near Kennedy airport. After Rita died, her body was put in a car outside her home. Bailey, a married man, had evidently arranged the abortion to keep his affair with Rita a secret. Sources don't indicate why the abortion was perpetrated in Texas, rather than in New York where a plethora of physician-abortionists plied their trade.

Rita's abortion was a bit unusual in that most pre-legalization abortions were done by physicians. But abortions like hers, performed by people with at least some medical training, were still more common than amateur or self-induced abortions. (See The Bad Old Days of Abortion.)

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

Same Song, Five Different Verses

2011-12-03T05:41:00.003-05:00

Grace Wolf, a young married woman, traveled from her home in Lansing to the office of Dr. C. Allen Snyder in Dubuque, Iowa, on November 19, 1917. Shortly after leaving, she took ill, and her condition deteriorated until her death on December 3. The autopsy had found evidence of recent pregnancy and a puncture in Grace's uterus. Snyder was prosecuted, largely based on Grace's dying declaration naming him as the perpetrator. Snyder's defense argued that Grace was already sick from fever and septicemia when she arrived at his office, and that he treated her only briefly. Snyder was convicted of manslaughter, but the conviction was overturned on appeal.

On December 2, 1977, 29-year-old Jacqueline Bailey was injected with saline by Dr. Eboreime for an instillation abortion at Pacific Glen Hospital in Los Angeles County. Five hours after Jackie expelled the dead baby, her condition appeared grave. Shortly after midnight, she was transferred to Memorial Hospital of Glendale. Doctors at Memorial suspected a uterine laceration, so they performed exploratory surgery. The bleeding was so profuse that they then performed a hysterectomy in a last-ditch attempt to save her life. Jackie died just before sunrise on December 3. The autopsy report found that Jackie's uterus had ruptured during the abortion, and that her uterine artery had been lacerated. She had bled to death from her injuries. Two years earlier, Cheryl Tubbs also bled to death from a ruptured uterus caused by a saline abortion at Pacific Glen.

Cora Mae Lewis was 23 years old when she went to Inglewood Women's Hospital (aka Inglewood Women's Clinic) in Los Angeles County for a safe and legal abortion on November 4, 1983. She had gonorrhea at the time of the abortion, which led to inflammation of the cervix and uterus. Cora developed fever and chills after her abortion, and was finally admitted to a hospital on November 11. She was aggressively treated, but died December 3 from pneumonia and lung abscess contributed to by the uterine and cervical inflammation.
Other deaths at Inglewood include Yvonne Tanner, Kathy Murphy, Belinda Byrd,Lynette Wallace, and Elizabeth Tsuji.

Abortionist Andre Nehorayoff performed a safe and legal abortion on 18-year-old "Ellen" Roe on November 29, 1983. After the abortion, Nehorayoff discharged Ellen even though he had not removed or identified all fetal parts. Two days later, Nehorayoff received a lab report confirming that there was still a lot of fetal tissue in Ellen's body. Nehorayoff noted no attempt to notify Ellen of the incomplete abortion. At 5:10 AM on December 3, Ellen was rushed to an emergency room in a coma. An hour later, she was pronounced dead from hemorrhaging due to the incomplete abortion. Nehorayoff was also disciplined regarding the death of Patient F.

Teresa Causey clutched her mother's hand during her safe and legal abortion, perpetrated by Joe Wesley McDaniel on December 3, 1988. Her mother later said that 17-year-old Teresa's last words were, "Oh, mama, mama, it hurts so much!" Then she lost consciousness on the abortion table. When McDaniel was unable to awaken her, he tried smelling salts, slapped her face, then tried to reach another doctor before finally calling an ambulance. Teresa died of massive hemorrhage the day of her abortion from two uterine perforations and two lacerated veins. She left behind two children.

All Three Equally Dead

2011-12-02T11:45:00.002-05:00

On December 2, 1901, the body of Rose Lefebre was found in the office of Dr. Volbending. It appeared that Rose had died from an abortion. Dr. Volbending was arrested, but she was later exonerated by a Coroner's Jury. I've been unable to determine who actually perpetrated the fatal abortion or why Rose was in Dr. Volbending's office.

On December 5, 1948, Dr. Cyril B. Babb pleaded guilty to performing a fatal abortion on 21-year-old Doris Becker the previous Wednesday in his office. Doris died 20 hours later at the apartment of a friend, Anne Martin. Anne and a bartender, George Kutrones, were held as material witnesses. Babb also admitted to performing 30 other abortions. He was sentenced to 6 1/2 to 12 years in prison for manslaughter and abortion.

During an abortion at Brooklyn Women's Medical Pavilion on December 1, 1998, 22-year-old Tamika Dowdy stopped breathing. Her fiance, sitting in the waiting room, noticed that a doctor kept walking in and out, "sweating real fierce and pacing. He did that several times, and then he finally came up to me and said that her heart had stopped." The fiance rode with Tamika to the hospital, where she was pronounced dead the following day. According to the NAF web site, Brooklyn Women's Medical Pavilion was a member facility.

Another One Bit the Dust

2011-12-01T12:51:00.003-05:00

While looking for a photo to go with today's blog post about the death of Suzanne Logan, I found one -- with the obituary of the ... individual ... who killed her: Gideon M. Kioko, MD.

Kioko went to meet his maker on May 1, 2010, aged 70 years, 5 months, 10 days. Both of his victims, Suzanne Logan and Debra Gray, died at his hands at the age of 34.

Thanks to Kathy and Kitty, I've been able to figure out how to upload the PDF files from the Medical Board about this... character. And heeeeere they are!

1991 -- Documents relating to surrender of license

1995 -- Asks for his license back, is told to go pound sand

May 1997 -- Asks again, seems really sorry, so they say, "Okay, as long as you promise to be a good boy."

October 1997 -- "Stop doing outpatient abortions after 18 weeks, dude!"

1999 -- "Okay, you've been a good boy. You're fully reinstated as a totally okay doctor as far as we're concerned."

2005 -- Reiterating his Maryland badness, then smacking him down and suspending his license for being a quacky dipshit in the District of Columbia as well as in Maryland. I'll do a write up later on his escapades.

2006 -- Reiterating his badness and yanking his license.

Evidently he thought better of trying to get his license back this time and just enjoyed his money until he assumed room temperature. Thank God for that, anyway.

A Criminal Abortion Death, and the Legalization Supposed to Prevent More Deaths

2011-12-01T12:04:00.004-05:00

On December 1, 1928, 23-year-old Esther V. Wahlstrom died in Chicago from complications of a criminal abortion. Dr. Lou E. Davis was held by the coroner for murder by abortion on December 12. She was indicted for felony murder on December 15.

I don't have enough information about Esther's death to make a judgment about the quality of care she received. I don't know if she died because Dr. Davis did something appalling (assuming, of course, that killing Esther's unborn baby wasn't appalling enough on its own), or if Esther was simply a victim of the quality of medical care in the age before antibiotics and blood transfusions.

The same can't be said about the 1992 death of Suzanne Logan. What passed for "care" at the deplorable Maryland abortion mill was so appalling that even 60 Minutes stopped and paid attention.

Suzanne had gone to Hillview for an abortion on September 9, 1989. There was no record of how much intravenous Brevital was administered to Suzanne, or who administered the drug. Suzanne was already unconscious on the table when abortionist Gideon Kioko (pictured, right) and his unlicensed nurse entered the procedure room. During the abortion, the nurse noted that Suzanne's lips were turning blue. She told Kioko, who continued with the abortion. There is no record that anybody monitored her vital signs or administered oxygen.

Eventually somebody summoned emergency medical services (EMS). The EMS personnel reported that the Hillview employees seemed "very confused and did not seem to know what they were doing." EMS staff also noted that Hillview staff had put an oxygen mask on Suzanne upside-down, so that she wasn't getting any oxygen.

Suzanne was blue from lack of oxygen, limp, had no pulse and was not breathing. EMS workers managed to perform CPR and get Suzanne's heart and lungs working again, and transported her to a hospital. Suzanne remained comatose and was transferred to a nursing home. Four months after the abortion, she regained consciousness, but was paralyzed and unable to speak. She had no memory of the abortion, but was able to eventually recall having gone to the clinic.

Local prolifers visited Suzanne, and bought her a device that allowed her to communicate. She was interviewed by 60 Minutes, and asked what she wanted. She replied, "To go home."

Suzanne filed suit against Kioko and the clinic. In November of 1992, she finally won her suit, and was awarded $2.6 million and $10,000 a month for life, to cover her expenses. Sadly, Suzanne died on December 1, before she had a chance to fulfill her wish of seeing her father again.

When 60 Minutes interviewed Barbara Radford, then-president of the National Abortion Federation, she defended the head-in-the-sand attitude the organization took toward safety issues by saying, "We want to make sure that women have choices when it comes to abortion services, and if you regulate it too strictly, you then deny women access to the service." When they asked

asked pro-choice Maryland State Senator Mary Boergers why nothing was being done to address dangerous abortion clinics. Boergers said, "There's only so much of a willingness to try to push a group like the pro-choice movement to do what I think is the responsible thing to do because they then treat you as if you're the enemy."

That attitude toward the deplorable conditions at Hillview cost Suzanne, as well as abortion patient Debra Gray their lives. And that "see no evil" mentality persists to this day, as evidenced by the results we saw when prochoicers decided to turn a blind eye to Kermit Gosnell's Philadelphia "house of horrors" where two abortion patients were fatally injured and uncounted numbers of viable, live-born infants killed with a "snip" to the spinal cord.

Abortion was legalized ostensibly to prevent the deaths of women like Esther Wahlstrom. But legalization proponents did nothing to protect Suzanne Logan, Debra Gray, Karnamaya Mongar, Semika Shaw, and other women who have lost their lives to abortion quackery.

Three Doctors' Fatal Handiwork: 1927, 1926, 1874

2011-11-30T15:27:00.003-05:00

On November 30, 1874, Mrs. Mary Dix died at her Chicago home from complications of a criminal abortion performed there. Dr. W. F. Aiken was arrested and charged with murder.

On October 27, 1926, 34-year-old Sophie Peterson underwent an illegal abortion in the Chicago office of Dr. Frederick Springe. She was taken to Mercy Hospital, where she died on November 30. Springe was indicted for felony murder by a grand jury on December 15.

On November 30, 1927, 22-year-old Lucille van Iderstine died in the Chicago office of Dr. Emil Gleitsman, from an abortion that had been performed on her that day. Gleitsman was indicted for felony murder in Lucille's death on January 15, 1928.

You might notice a pattern here: All of these illegal abortions were performed by physicians. This was typical of pre-legalization abortions.

Chicago, 1930

2011-11-29T12:26:00.002-05:00

Seventeen-year-old Miss Dorothy Jasinski was brought to St. Mary's Hospital in Chicago by two unidentified women on November 17, 1930. Dorothy was treated there until her death on November 29. The coroner determined that Dorothy had died from an abortion performed in Michigan City, Indiana, the day she'd been brought to the hospital. The coroner recommended identification of the person or persons responsible, and his or their arrest on charges of murder. I've been unable to determine if the perpetrator was ever identified.

Keep in mind that things that things we take for granted, like antibiotics and blood banks, were still in the future. For more about abortion in this era, see Abortion in the 1930s. For more on pre-legalization abortion, see The Bad Old Days of Abortion

1888 in the Dakota territories

2011-11-28T05:45:00.002-05:00

Mrs. George Libby, age 18, died November 28, 1888, in Wahpeton in the Dakota territories.
Before her death she admitted that she had bought abortifacient drugs from "a traveling doctor who made a specialty of selling such drugs." (Pet peeve: I hate having to refer to married women as "Mrs. George So-and-so" rather than by their given names. She was Mary or Sarah or Millicent or whatever, not George.)

I have no information on overall maternal mortality, or abortion mortality, in the 19th century. I imagine it can't be too much different from maternal and abortion mortality at the very beginning of the 20th Century.

Note, please, that with overall public health issues such as doctors not using proper aseptic techniques, lack of access to blood transfusions and antibiotics, and overall poor health to begin with, there was likely little difference between the performance of a legal abortion and illegal practice, and the aftercare for either type of abortion was probably equally unlikely to do the woman much, if any, good.

For more on this era, see Abortion Deaths in the 19th Century.

Two Deaths Nearly 50 Years Apart

2011-11-26T10:50:00.003-05:00

On November 26, 1923, 23-year-old Alice S. Johnson died at Chicago's West End Hospital from a criminal abortion performed there that day. The coroner identified Dr. Lorenz Lapsky as being responsible for Alice's death. Lapsky was indicted by a grand jury for felony murder on December 15. Alice's abortion was typical of criminal abortions in that it was performed by a physician.

Fast-forward nearly half a century, to the era of safe and legal abortion.

"Monica" was a 31-year-old mother of five. She requested an abortion when she was 8 weeks pregnant, but the abortion was delayed about a month in order to address "some health, personal and administrative problems." Her doctor decided that it was best to simply remove Monica's uterus with the fetus still in it. The hysterectomy was done under general anesthesia with no apparent complications.

On the second day after surgery, Monica developed fever and nausea, and had no bowel sounds. The next day she felt unwell and had a distended abdomen. The next day, she felt better and resumed eating, but still had not had a bowel movement. Six days after the surgery, November 26, 1971, Monica began to scream and vomit. She reported severe abdominal pain and couldn't see. Within an hour of the onset of these symptoms, Monica died.

The autopsy revealed grim findings. Monica had a severe infection that had interfered with her bowel function. As she continued to eat but not to have bowel movements, her bowels backed up, allowing gastric juices to enter her lungs and begin to digest them. She also had bacteria in her brain, which may have caused her blindness in the final hour of her life.

I fail to see how the legality of her abortion was any benefit to her, or to her family, or to the medical professionals who struggled to save her life. It was, however, clearly beneficial to the abortionist, who was not prosecuted for his patient's agonizing death.

2003: Alabama Woman Sent Home to Bleed to Death

2011-11-25T09:26:00.002-05:00

Leigh Ann Stephens Alford, age 34, underwent a safe and legal abortion at the hands of Dr. Malachy DeHenre (pictured) at Summit Medical Center of Alabama, a National Abortion Federation member clinic, on November 25, 2003.

Leigh Ann was discharged from the clinic only 20 minutes after her abortion, according to a lawsuit filed by her husband. Within six hours, he said, he called the facility to report that Leigh Ann was suffering pain and fever. She died about 18 hours after the clinic had sent her home. Death was attributed to hemorrhagic shock from an unrecognized uterine perforation.

DeHenre's medical license was suspended in Mississippi and Alabama after the death. DeHenre, age 53, also performed abortions at New Woman Medical Center in Jackson, Mississippi, as well as his own Jackson's Women's Health Organization.

Alabama suspended DeHenre's license as of July 28. The Mississippi suspension was expedited, rather than addressed in a board meeting scheduled for September 16. An Associated Press article quotes Dr. W. Joseph Burnett, executive director of the Mississippi Board of Medical Licensure: "We couldn't wait another day to take action. He won't be practicing in Mississippi."

The Alabama medical board concluded that DeHenre's practice was conducted in such a way as to "endanger the health of patients," and found that he had committed "repeated malpractice."
DeHenry was also investigated after an abortion he performed on March 20, 2003. That patient began to hemorrhage and was transported to the University of Mississippi Medical Center, where she underwent a total hysterectomy.

DeHenre was a danger to women other than his abortion patients. In 2008, he was convicted in the 1997 shooting death of his wife, Dr. Nyasha DeHenre.

Three Family Tragedies

2011-11-24T08:40:00.002-05:00

On November 24, 1907, Lizzie Paulseu, age 38, died at County Hospital in Chicago from an abortion performed that day. John and Minnie Nelson were arrested and held without bail. John Nelson was sentenced to Joliet for his role in Lizzie's death. Nelson's profession is given as "outside labor force" and "abortion provider", so it is likely that he was a professional lay abortionist, which was unusual in that most criminal abortions were performed by physicians.

On November 24, 1916, 24-year-old Mrs. M. Marazak died at Chicago's West Side Hospital from an abortion performed by an unknown perpetrator.

Our last anniversary today is a heartrending case in which the abortion and its results came as a devastating surprise. When 18-year-old Michelle Madden's parents arrived at her college to take her home for Thanksgiving in 1986, the house mother told them that Michelle had collapsed three days after an abortion she'd sought on November 18 because a doctor had told her that her epilepsy medication would cause birth defects in her unborn baby. Dr. O.B. Evans at Family Planning Medical Center of Mobile, Alabama, had left a leg bone, two pieces of skull, and some placenta in Michelle's uterus, causing the massive infection and bleeding that killed her on November 24.

1909, Anna Pozatevich and the "Abortion Provider"

2011-11-23T08:32:00.000-05:00

On November 23, 1909, Anna Pozajevich, age 24, died in Chicago home from an abortion performed on November 7. Julia Adamovitch was indicted by a grand jury. Her profession is given only as "abortion provider". She was tried, and acquitted for reasons not given in the source document.

Note, please, that with general public health issues such as doctors not using proper aseptic techniques, lack of access to blood transfusions and antibiotics, and overall poor health to begin with, there was likely little difference between the performance of a legal abortion and illegal practice, and the aftercare for either type of abortion was probably equally unlikely to do the woman much, if any, good. For more about abortion and abortion deaths in the first years of the 20th century, see Abortion Deaths 1900-1909.

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

Two Chicago Deaths from the Early 20th Century

2011-11-22T13:31:00.001-05:00

On November 22, 1913, 33-year-old Hulda Tubbin died in Chicago, at the scene of an abortion perpetrated that day by Dr. Olaf Olson. Though Olson was indicted for felony murder, the case never went to trial.

On November 22, 1917, 20-year-old Helen Devora died at Chicago's West End Hospital from an abortion performed by an unknown perpetrator. I've been unable to determine if the mystery of her death was ever solved.

Note, please, that with overall public health issues such as doctors not using proper aseptic techniques, lack of access to blood transfusions and antibiotics, and overall poor health to begin with, there was likely little difference between the performance of a legal abortion and illegal practice, and the aftercare for either type of abortion was probably equally unlikely to do the woman much, if any, good.

In fact, due to improvements in addressing these problems, maternal mortality in general (and abortion mortality with it) fell dramatically in the 20th Century, decades before Roe vs. Wade legalized abortion across America.

For more information about early 20th Century abortion mortality, see Abortion Deaths 1910-1919.

1924: Unknown Perp in Chicago

2011-11-21T10:42:00.000-05:00

On November 21, 1924, 24-year-old Mildred Bleschke died at Chicago's Grant Hospital from complications of an abortion performed earlier that day. The perpetrator was never identified.

Keep in mind that things that things we take for granted, like antibiotics and blood banks, were still in the future. For more about abortion in this era, see Abortion in the 1920s.

During the first two thirds of the 20th Century, while abortion was still illegal, there was a massive drop in maternal mortality, including mortality from abortion. Most researches attribute this plunge to improvements in public health and hygiene, 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

Three Deaths and the Dubious "Benefits" of Legalization

2011-11-20T05:48:00.002-05:00

On November 20, 1925, 29-year-old Anna Kick died in Chicago's Washington Park Hospital from an abortion performed that day at an undisclosed location. That same day, 23-year-old Mrs. Helen Bain died in Chicago from complications of a criminal abortion performed that day. The coroner determined that a midwife was responsible for Anna's death, but did not determine the midwife's name. Dr. George Slater was arrested on November 21 for Helen's death, and was indicted by a grand jury for homicide on May 1, 1928.

I have been unable to locate any further information about these deaths.

Those tempted to wax eloquent about how it was abortion's illegality that led to Anna and Helen's deaths, consider the times. Things that things we take for granted, like antibiotics and blood banks, were still in the future -- though medicine was improving all the time. In fact, during the first two thirds of the 20th Century, while abortion was still illegal, there was a massive drop in maternal mortality, including mortality from abortion.

It's also very difficult to credit legalization with any improvement in abortion practice when you consider our third anniversary for today: the 2009 death of Karnamaya Mongar, the 41-year-old Nepalese refugee who sought an abortion from the Women's Medical Society, Kermit Gosnell's filthy Philadelphia "house of horrors." Read her story and try to claim that she was in any way a beneficiary of legalization. And tsk-tsking that after all, what Gosnell did was illegal doesn't carry any weight. It was a deliberate decision by supporters of legalized abortion to look the other way and allow Gosnell to ply his murderous trade. Had abortion been illegal, Gosnell's deplorable activities would have been much harder to sweep under the rug, and Philadelphia law enforcement would have been empowered to stop him after the first signs of trouble.

Three Pre-Roe Tragedies

2011-11-19T05:52:00.002-05:00

Today's first sad story, which transpired in the autumn of 1862, is one about which I found bountiful sources and poignant information. Clementina Anderson placed her disappointed faith in her duplicitous cad of a lover. This man's choice killed Clementina, and left her father devastated. Click on her name to learn about those tragic events.

I know far less about 27-year-old Catherine Seabrooke, who died on November 19, 1913, at St. Anthony's Hospital in Chicago from an abortion performed that day by an unknown perpetrator.

Another Chicago death with scanty source documentation is that of 38-year-old Elizabeth Strazdas. She died on November 19, 1924, at Chicago's Mother Cabrini Hospital from complications of a criminal abortion performed that day.The person responsible for Elizabeth's death was never identified.

Note, please, that with overall public health issues such as doctors not using proper aseptic techniques, lack of access to blood transfusions and antibiotics, and overall poor health to begin with, there was likely little difference between the performance of a legal abortion and illegal during the era in which these women lost their lives.

Two coasts and in between

2011-11-18T23:21:00.003-05:00

Since abortion was illegal for far longer than it was legal, of course I have more illegal than legal abortion deaths in the Cemetery of Choice. Today, we look at four unfortunate pre-legalization victims of the idea that mothers and their children are natural enemies.

I came to know about the death of Ellen Matson in a roundabout way, in studying the case in which Lillian Hobbs was convicted of murder in the 1916 abortion death of 21-year-old Alda Christopherson. During the trial, the prosecution brought up, as evidence of guilty intent, the fact that Hobbs had been indicted already for the abortion death of 29-year-old Ellen. The abortion had been performed on November 1, 1917. Ellen was taken to West End Hospital in Chicago, where she died on November 18. Hobbs was convicted and sentenced to 14 years at Joliet. Hobbs was also implicated, but never tried, for the 1917 abortion death of Ruth Lemaire. I'm still trying to determine if practitioners like Hobbs were so often able to kill their patients was because of lax prosecution, difficulty achieving a conviction, or a "look the other way" attitude toward abortion deaths in Chicago -- were mots of the repeat offenders I've learned about seemed to ply their trade.

Fast forward and move to California. Virginia Hopkins Watson had been on a record-setting relay swimming team with Esther Williams in 1939, and had herself set the world's fifty-meter record in 1938. Virginia was 32 years old and pursuing a Hollywood career when she became pregnant in 1954. Deciding that a baby would hurt her career, Virginia arranged to have an abortion on November 18. Her husband learned of the pregnancy and the abortion a few hours before Virginia's death from peritonitis at General Hospital in Los Angeles, California.

Now we move to the other coast. On November 18, 1942, 26-year-old Madeline McGeehan died at Prospect Hospital in New York after an illegal abortion. Arrested were Dr. Joseph Nisonoff; his nurse, Camille Ewald; his receptionist, Pearl Tense; and Dr. Max J. Weinstein, who was thought to have referred Madeline to Nisonoff. Nisonoff was out on bail after being charged with performing another abortion, which the woman survived. A man identified as Madeline's friend, Henry Elters, was held as a material witness. Nisonoff was sentenced to 5 years in state prison, and Weinstein was sentenced to the city penitentiary. Madeline's abortion was typical of pre-legalization abortions in that it was performed by a physician.

Still in New York, we move forward a little more than a decade. Joyce Chorney, age 25, died Wednesday, November 18, 1953. An autopsy was performed at Bellevue Hospital. It showed that she had died of an induced abortion. Fifty-four-year-old Dr. Alfred Joseph was charged with criminal abortion in her death.

It might be tempting to blame these deaths on the criminal status of abortion, but during the first two thirds of the 20th Century, while abortion was still illegal, there was a massive drop in maternal mortality, including mortality from abortion. Most researches attribute this plunge to improvements in public health and hygiene, the development of blood transfusion techniques, and the introduction of antibiotics. Learn more here.

1935: Known Abortionist Gets Away With Killing Patient

2011-11-17T08:45:00.001-05:00

On November 17, 1935, Georgia Marie McGill, 21-year-old daughter of oil company superintendent George McGill, died from an apparent criminal abortion in Pawhuska, Oklahoma.
Marie's father identified Dr. W. R. Mitchell as the perpetrator. Mitchell was already a reputed abortionist, and police had already gotten many complaints about him prior to Marie's death.
Mitchell was arrested and tried but the case ended with a hung jury. After the trial, Mitchell resumed his abortion business and was arrested again for his practice.

Marie's abortion was typical of illegal abortions in that it was performed by a physician.

Keep in mind that things that things we take for granted, like antibiotics and blood banks, were still in the future. For more about abortion in this era, see Abortion in the 1930s.

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

Two Very Different Responses to Docs Killing Patients

2011-11-16T13:40:00.003-05:00

I have found a lot of information on both women whose deaths we commemorate today. Click on each woman's name to learn more about her story.

On March 1, 1928 Dr. Amante (or Amenti) Rongetti was sentenced to die after being convicted of murder in the November 16, 1927 abortion death of 19-year-old Loretta Enders. Many factors disclosed in court helped to seal the jury's verdict, including that Rongetti refused to provide Loretta with follow-up care because she had no money to pay him, and that the baby had been born alive and left to die unattended before being thrown in a furnace.

Rongetti's lawyer successfully got a new trial for his client who, while free, was implicated in the criminal abortion death of Elizabeth Palumbo, who died May 23 after an abortion performed May 10. Rongetti was tried again for Loretta's death in December of 1929. Rongetti found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to Joliet.

In more recent times, we see that abortionists are not slapped down quite so hard for recklessness that kills their patients.

On November 16, 2002, Dr. Mi Yong Kim, who had already lost her privileges at Fairfax Hospital in 1999, and voluntarily surrendered her license in the state of New York in 2000, massively overdosed 26-year-old "Adelle," and failed to notice glaring signs that her patient had gone into cardiac arrest for lack of oxygen. She called an ambulance, but did nothing to resuscitate her patient, who was declared dead on arrival at the hospital. not only was Kim not subject to any criminal charges for her reckless, fatal carelessness, but the medical board also did not suspend or yank Kim's license, instead noting that she was making improvements in her quality of care. She was instead placed under stipulations regarding her use of anesthesia in her office and her record-keeping.

Three Deaths from Early 20th Century Chicago

2011-11-15T09:23:00.002-05:00

On November 15, 1901, 22-year-old Irma Brown of Garden City, Kansas, died at Chicago's County Hospital from complications of an abortion performed there that day. Dr. Robert E. Gray was arrested November 19 and held without bail by Coroner's Jury. On March 26, 1902, Gray was acquitted by a jury for reasons not given in the source. Irma's abortion was typical of criminal abortions in that it was evidently performed by a physician.

On November 15, 1912, 38-year-old Ida Kloie died in her Chicago home from an abortion perpetrated by midwife Minnie Neermann. On that same day, 33-year-old Fannie Scheiner died at County Hospital in Chicago after an abortion perpetrated that day by midwife Annie Balnoka. Neerman was held by the Coroner on November 25, and indicted by a Grand Jury on December 1. Balnoka was arrested and held by the Coroner on November 24, and indicted by a Grand Jury on December 15. For reasons not given in the sources, neither case ever went to trial.

Note, please, that with overall public health issues such as doctors not using proper aseptic techniques, lack of access to blood transfusions and antibiotics, and overall poor health to begin with, there was likely little difference between the performance of a legal abortion and illegal practice, and the aftercare for either type of abortion was probably equally unlikely to do the woman much, if any, good.

In fact, due to improvements in addressing these problems, maternal mortality in general (and abortion mortality with it) fell dramatically in the 20th Century, decades before Roe vs. Wade legalized abortion across America.

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

One Illegal, One Legal, Both Dead

2011-11-14T05:34:00.002-05:00

On November 14, 1928, 21-year-old Eunice McElroy died in Chicago from complications of a criminal abortion. On July 24, 1931, Dr. Thomas J. Ney was indicted by a grand jury for felony murder in Eunice's death. Since blood transfusions and antibiotics were still in the future, Eunice died at a time when all surgery was much riskier than it is today. Eunice's abortion was typical of illegal abortions in that it was performed by a physician.

On November 13, 1972, 21-year-old Twila Coulter traveled from her home in Colorado to California for a safe and legal saline abortion. (Japan and the USSR had already abandoned the saline abortion method because it was too risky for mothers.) Twila was injected with the saline on November 13, then expelled the dead fetus and the placenta the following day. Twila had no blood pressure and was bleeding from IV sites. She was given oxygen and three units of blood and transferred to a fully-equipped hospital. Upon arrival, Twila was comatose and bleeding heavily. Doctors removed some retained pregnancy tissue and sutured numerous uterine injuries, but were unable to address her clotting problems. Twila died of cerebral hemorrhage.

Two Criminal Deaths

2011-11-13T06:04:00.002-05:00

On November 12, 1917, 22-year-old Mrs. M. Linstrom died at Chicago's American Hospital from an abortion perpetrated by Dr. Anna Sorenson, who was indicted and released. Sorenson had performed the fatal abortion on Emelia Gorman earlier that year, and went on to kill Margaret Crowe in January of the following year. Her chain of death ended with her own death in prison while awaiting trial after her January 15, 1918 arrest.

On November 3, 1952, Isabell Cuda went to the home of Mary Murawsky in Rockford, Illinois, for an illegal abortion. Mary was neither licensed nor qualified to practice medicine. Murawsky used some sort of instrument on Isabell. Isabell became ill, and died on November 12, leaving behind a husband and a minor child. (Those who are prone to get on the "back alley butcher" bandwagon are reminded of what went on at Kermit Gosnell's purportedly safe, legal abortion clinic. Isabell knew she was going to a layperson. The patients at Gosnell's clinic thought they were getting doctors. You'll never convince me that the second scenario is in any way superior.)

Note, please, that with overall public health issues such as doctors not using proper aseptic techniques, lack of access to blood transfusions and antibiotics, and overall poor health to begin with, there was likely little difference between the performance of a legal abortion and illegal practice, and the aftercare for either type of abortion was probably equally unlikely to do the woman much, if any, good. In fact, due to improvements in addressing these problems, maternal mortality in general (and abortion mortality with it) fell dramatically in the 20th Century, decades before Roe vs. Wade legalized abortion across America.

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

Four criminal anniversaries

2011-11-11T08:55:00.002-05:00

The first tragic anniversary today actually began on November 8, 1875, when 19-year-old Mary Alice Foorman suddenly disappeared from her home. "No traces could be found of her, and grave suspicions were entertained." It was suspected at the time that Mary was pregnant. It wasn't until May 7 of the following year that her brother finally broke down and confessed that he knew what had become of her.

A man named Nathan Smith had gotten Mary pregnant. Mary's brother agreed to help her to arrange an abortion to be performed by Dr. H. B. Mansuer and Dr. J.P. McIvaine. Unfortunately, Mary died during the abortion. She was buried in a swamp about two miles south of Eaton, Indiana. After the brother made his confession, authorities found the grave, "and all that remained of the unfortunate girl was found there, as indicated by the brother." (Click on Mary's name for more information about this case.)

I know very little about the other three deaths that took place on this date.

On November 11, 1909, Marian Lang, age 29, died in Chicago home from an abortion. Dr. Pope was indicted by a grand jury. The source document does not indicate that the case went to trial.

On November 11, 1916, 28-year-old Mrs. Elizabeth M. B. Winter died at her Chicago home from an abortion perpetrated by Cecelia Stejskal, whose profession is given only as "abortion provider." Though Stejskal was held by the coroner, the case never went to trial.

On November 11, 1929, 23-year-old Mary L. Kelly died in Chicago from an abortion performed by an unidentified perpetrator.

Two Safe and Legal Deaths

2011-11-09T05:58:00.001-05:00

Demetrice Andrews, age 22, underwent an abortion on October 17, 1988. She became progressively ill, and was finally admitted to Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta
Demetrice suffered multiple organ failure. She died on November 9, 1988. It is ironic that Demetrice was admitted to Grady to be treated for abortion complications. Another woman, Jacqueline Reynolds, died just two years earlier, from complications of anesthesia administered for an abortion performed at Grady.

"Yvonne" Roe is one of the women Life Dynamics notes on their "Blackmun Wall" of women killed by legalized abortion. Yvonne was a 19-year-old student who died from sepsis on November 9, 1999 in Marrero, Louisiana, after undergoing a safe and legal abortion. She had been an All-American cheerleader and a member of the National Honor Society. Life Dynamics cites the Clarion Ledger, November 11, 1999, and indicates that though they have information giving Yvonne's real name, they can not release it due to a confidentiality agreement.

"High Standards" and Death

2011-11-08T05:47:00.004-05:00

Eighteen-year-old Christine Mora underwent a safe, legal abortion at Doctors' Surgical Center in Cypress, California -- an FPA (Family Planning Associates Medical Group) facility. She was about 17 weeks pregnant and a high school senior. The date was November 2, 1994. A nurse practitioner inserted laminaria to dilate Christine's cervix. Christine went home and returned the following day for the abortion. Dr. Thomas Grubbs performed the D&E and sent Christine to recovery.

Preparing to leave the clinic, Christine fell while unattended. Grubbs was called to check her, and noticed slurred speech and inappropriate responses. Somebody called an ambulance, and Christine was taken to La Palma Hospital, where she spent several hours in the emergency room, attended by her friend Robert. When Christine's father was finally located, Robert had to tell him about the abortion as well as about the hospitalization.

Christine was admitted to the intensive care unit, where her condition deteriorated until she was finally taken off life support at noon on November 8, and pronounced dead. Christine left an 18-month old child motherless.

The autopsy showed acute septicemia and hemorrhage in the brain, along with some small cervical lacerations. It also revealed that Christine had a congenital heart defect called "foramen ovale," in which a connection between the two sides of her heart had not closed at birth as it was supposed to do. Her family filed a wrongful death suit.

The attorneys for Grubbs, Allred, and FPA claimed that Christine's heart defect, not the abortion, caused her death. But an expert reviewing the case for Christine's family said that the care provided to Christine at the FPA facility "fell below applicable standard" and that the "breach of standard care was the direct cause of Miss Mora's death." In particular, he faulted FPB because:

Grubbs had never examined Christine prior to the surgery. In fact, he'd had no contact with her at all prior to beginning her abortion.
"The anesthesia record says that Dr. Bruggs did the entire extraction procedure in three minutes (emphasis in original)," and that this haste caused the cervical lacerations.

The expert concluded that the amniotic fluid entered Christine's bloodstream through the cervical lacerations, causing her death. Oddly, Dr. David Grimes, the expert defending FPA, agreed that Christine's death was due to an amniotic fluid embolism and not to her heart defect. Grimes, however, claimed that the amniotic fluis had entered Christine's bloodstream when the placenta had detached, and not through the cervical lacerations. Grimes considered three minutes to be adequate time for a 17-week abortion. (Grimes had also spoken on behalf of notorious California abortionist Leo Keneally.)

The lawsuit had gone to trial, with Allred himself taking the stand, when prolifers discovered that Allred was being sued and complained that the medical board and news media were ignoring the death. As soon as the prolifers began agitating, FPA quickly settled with the family, stipulating confidentiality as part of the settlement.

Christine wasn't the only young woman to die from abortion at a facility owned by FPA head honcho Edward Campbell Allred. Others include:

Denise Holmes, age 24, 1970
Patricia Chacon, age 16, 1984
Mary Pena, age 43, 1984
Josefina Garcia, age 37, 1985
Laniece Dorsey, age 17, 1986
Joyce Ortenzio, age 32, 1988
Tami Suematsu, age 19, 1988
Susan Levy, age 30, 1992
Deanna Bell, age 13, 1992
Kimberly Neil, 2000
Chanelle Bryant, age 22, 2004

Allred's facilities remain members of the National Abortion Federation (NAF) despite these deaths.

The NAF web site says this about themselves:

What is a NAF Clinic? NAF is the professional association of abortion providers in North America. .... In order to become a member, a clinic must complete a rigorous application process. Member clinics have agreed to comply with our standards for quality and care.... NAF periodically conducts site visits to confirm that our clinics are in compliance with our guidelines.

Either they don't really inspect their clinics, or their standards aren't as high as they like to imply, since one of their facilities not only had Philadelphia abortionist Kermit Gosnell working there, they allowed him to begin illegal third-trimester abortions on their premises, then complete the abortions at his "House of Horrors."

Two deaths from pre-Roe Chicago

2011-11-06T07:11:00.001-05:00

On November 6, 1914, 25-year-old Genevive Tatar died at Cook County Hospital in Chicago from complications of an abortion performed by an unknown perpetrator.

On November 6, 1923, Mrs. Agnes Wendt died at Chicago's St. Anne's Hospital from complications from an abortion performed there that day. Dr. Irene Wagoner was exonerated by the coroner, but nevertheless indicted for murder in Agnes' death. Agnes' abortion was typical of criminal abortions in that it was performed by a physician.

Keep in mind that things that things we take for granted, like antibiotics and blood banks, were still in the future. In fact, due to improvements in medical care and in addressing overall public health problems, maternal mortality in general (and abortion mortality with it) fell dramatically in the 20th Century, decades before Roe vs. Wade legalized abortion across America.

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

Few details on 1928 death, clear culpability in 1977 death

2011-11-04T10:10:00.003-04:00

On November 4, 1928, 22-year-old Anna Borndal died at the office of Dr. Lou E. Davis of Chicago, from complications of an abortion performed there that day. Davis was held by the coroner for unintentional manslaughter. She was indicted by a grand jury for homicide. The sources don't indicate if Anna was a victim of malpractice, or if her death was just an unfortunate complication of surgery. However, Anna's abortion was typical of illegal abortions in that it was performed by a physician. Keep in mind that things that things we take for granted, like antibiotics and blood banks, were still in the future. For more about abortion in this era, see Abortion in the 1920s.

Things are a lot clearer regarding the 1977 abortion death of Louchrisser Jackson, a 23-year-old mother of five. She was 12 weeks pregnant when she went to Dr. Robert L. Gardner for a safe and legal abortion at Reproductive Services in Dallas on November 4, 1977.

Louchrisser began hemorrhaging. Gardner said that he ordered blood for a transfusion, but it didn't arrive so about an hour before her death he attempted to give her a transfusion with his own blood -- which turned out to be an incompatable type. He does not indicate why he didn't transfer her promptly to a hospital, since he did not have blood on hand to treat this foreseeable complication.

Gardner finally did call an ambulance, but for some reason called a private ambulance and did not, at the time of the call, inform them of the nature of the transport. In that jurisdiction, private ambulances are only permitted to transport stable patients; they are prohibited from responding to emergency calls. Because the ambulance service had no reason to expect an emergency, they did not respond promptly, nor did they refer the transport to the fire department's ambulance service.

When the ambulance crew arrived, Louchrisser had already gone into cardiac arrest. The crew, upon discovering that they'd been called for an emergency transport, rushed Louchrisser to the hospital immediately rather than waiting for a fire department ambulance.

Louchrisser died that day. Gardner requested that the body be released without an inquiry. Another physician at the hospital learned of the case and requested an inquiry. The autopsy found massive hemorrhage of at least two liters of blood, and a "1.8 x 2 cm. ragged perforation in the right lateral wall just above the internal os of the cervical canal. This perforation communicates freely with the retroperitoneal space on the right side. The endometrial surface of the uterus is ragged and hemorrhagic." Death was attributed to "massive retroperitoneal hemorrhage due to perforation of the uterus during a therapeutic abortion."

So unlike the situation with Anna, we do know that Louchrisser was the victim of gross malpractice, and Gardner didn't even have the excuse of fear of prosecution to explain why he failed to provide appropriate life-saving emergency care to his injured patient. So much for the theory that legalization got rid of the quacks.

1983: Trying to treat a perforated bowel with a laxative

2011-11-03T10:13:00.001-04:00

Twenty-six-year-old Moris Helen Herron went to Bakersfield, California abortionist William D. Stanley for a tubal ligation in October of 1983. When Stanley examined Helen, he informed her that she was pregnant and asked if she wanted him to perform a safe, legal abortion when he did the tubal ligation. Helen consented, and on October 23, Stanley operated on her. After Helen went home, she suffered weakness, vomiting, and severe pain. She called Stanley, who instructed her to take a laxative.

Helen developed a high fever, and died on November 3. An autopsy found feces and feculent fluid in Helen's abdominal cavity from a hole in her intestines. Helen's mother, Inez Herron, sued Stanley on behalf of her two surviving children, and Stanley settled out of court for $200,000.

When a local pro-life group wrote to Stanley to chastise him for his treatment of Helen, he wrote back, saying, "Elective abortion refers to termination of a live viable pregnancy upon the request of the mother. I have never performed this service or even offered it." He claimed that he was merely performing a D&C on Helen after a miscarriage.

The Invisible Death

2011-11-02T05:57:00.002-04:00

Legend has it that the Centers for Disease Control keep track of abortion deaths. The case of Latachie Veal should lay that legend to rest.

Latachie was 17 years old, and 22 weeks pregnant, when Robert Dale Crist performed an abortion on her at Houston's West Loop Clinic November 2, 1991. According to Latachie's family, she bled heavily at the clinic, and cried out to the staff for help. They told her that her symptoms were normal, and sent her home. Several hours later, Latachie stopped breathing. Her brother-in-law called 911 while her sister did CPR, to no avail. Latachie was dead on arrival at Ben Taub Hospital.

If Latachie's death certificate had been filled out properly, with the notation of the abortion in the proper box, using the proper ICD-9 code, then theoretically the National Center for Health Statistics would spot the abortion code and report it. But most states send only a statistical sample of their death certificate data to the NCHS. So the CDC would be notified of Latachie's death through the NCHS only if the death certificate was properly filled out, and Latachie's death certificate was among those abstracted and sent to the NCHS.

But still, according to abortion defenders, Latachie's death would nevertheless be automatically reported to the Centers for Disease Control. They're not clear on who is supposed to report the death. Was West Loop Clinic supposed to report it? Was Crist supposed to report it? Was Ben Taub Hospital supposed to report it? Was the medical examiner supposed to report it? Was the Texas Department of Health supposed to report it? The CDC says it gets abortion death information from abortionists, abortion facilities, hospitals, and state health departments, but it does not mention that the reporting is not mandatory.

This does not mean that Latachie's death went utterly unnoticed.

Latachie's family filed suit, retaining the flamboyant "Racehorse" Haynes as their attorney. The case was highly publicized, both in Texas and in Missouri, where Crist had performed a fatal abortion on Diane Boyd, a 19-year-old developmentally disabled woman who had been raped in the institution where she'd lived.

The mainstream publicity went beyond the usual newspaper articles, with Crist giving television interviews calling the publicity "media hype" and "a political event." Haynes retorted, "I wish he would have a copy of the 911 tape.... If he would talk to the parents, if he would talk to the sister as she gave her CPR or talk to the brother-in-law as she was breathing her last breath and see then if he thinks it's a media event."

With all this mainstream publicity in two states, prolife organizations picked up the story, and it was reported in prolife newsletters around the nation.

A lot of people very quickly found out about the abortion death of 17-year-old Latachie Veal. But did the CDC?

At the 1992 National Abortion Federation Risk Management Seminar in Dallas, Crist spoke openly of Latachie's death. (He did not, of course, mention her name; I've concluded that he's discussing Latachie's death, since there's been no evidence of any another 17-year-old abortion patient of his who died in 1991.)

Present at that Risk Management Seminar, where Crist chattered about Latachie's death, were two -- count 'em -- two-- staffers from the Centers for Disease Control's abortion surveillance activities area: Stanley Henshaw and Lisa Koonin.

Henshaw's presence isn't quite as remarkable as Koonin's. It was Lisa Koonin, specifically, whose job it was to "verify" abortion deaths, and obtain copies of death certificates. These she was to pass on to a research fellow, Clarice Green, who would then gather the full information about the case.

In spite of all the publicity, in spite of the lawsuit, in spite of the prolifers shouting from the rooftops, in spite of the abortionist discussing the death at an event attended by the very woman whose job it was to notice abortion deaths, the Centers for Disease Control did not notice Latachie's death. Their 1991 Abortion Surveillance Report, published in May of 1995, did not even make any mention of abortion mortality. And when we at Life Dynamics filed a request for information about abortion deaths, we found that the CDC counted zero -- count 'em -- zero -- abortion deaths among women of Latachie's race in the 15 - 19 age range. In other words, they didn't even notice. The only way Latachie's death could have been any more obvious would have been if she had crawled to Atlanta and died on the floor of Lisa Koonin's office, with a copy of her aftercare instructions still clutched in her hand.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but if the CDC failed to notice this highly-publicized death, discussed openly at an event attended by two of their abortion surveillance staffers, exactly what does it take to get them to notice an abortion death? And how can we even pretend to believe that any serious attempt to accurately count abortion deaths was being made?

Safe and Legal Hemorrhage Death

2011-11-02T05:55:00.000-04:00

Life Dynamics lists 24-year-old Karretu Jabbie on their "Blackmun Wall" of women killed by legal abortions. According to LDI, Karretu was from West Africa. She underwent an incomplete abortion and bled to death on November 2, 1989.

"Health of the Mother" and a Mystery Death

2011-11-02T05:50:00.002-04:00

On November 1, 1991, 21-year-old Anjelica Duarte underwent an abortion by Dr. Larry Thompson at Women's Place Clinic in Las Vegas, Nevada. According to one of Anjelica's friends, Anjelica had sought an abortion because a doctor had recommended that she delay having another baby for five years due to health problems. Anjelica already had a three-year-old daughter and a one-year-old daughter.

After the abortion, Anjelica was kept under observation for several hours, but was not given any care. She was rushed to the hospital by paramedics at 7:30 that evening, but she was dead on arrival. A hospital spokesman said that she had lost 90 percent of her blood; her uterus had been perforated.

In reviewing the case, the medical board noted that Thompson did not have adequate equipment for post-operative care, and revoked his license.

Anjelica's was not the only tragic death caused by doctors who recommended (or excused) abortion as a life-saving or health-preserving option for the mother:

Allegra Roseberry was pushed into an abortion in order to obtain experimental cancer treatment.
Barbara Hoppert died after an abortion recommended due to a congenital heart problem.
Christin Gilbert died after an abortion George Tiller holds was justified on grounds of maternal health.
Erika Peterson died in 1961 when her doctors obtained her husband's permission to perform a "therapeutic" abortion.
"Molly" Roe died in 1975 when her doctors made the dubious decision to perform a saline abortion to improve her chances of surviving a lupus crisis.

The second of the November 1 anniversaries is a woman I've been unable to learn much about. "Susan" Roe is one of the women Life Dynamics notes on their "Blackmun Wall" of women killed by legalized abortion. According to Life Dynamics, they obtained confidential information from the CDC and state health officials about this 21-year-old Caucasian woman who died November 1, 1992, after a safe and legal abortion performed in Maine.

A 1923 death. The proper response?

2011-10-31T10:31:00.002-04:00

On October 30, 1923, 19-year-old Mrs. Lydia Nelson died at Chicago's Englewood Hospital from an abortion performed there that day, evidently by Dr. Charles Klinetop. Lydia's abortion was typical of criminal abortions in that it was performed by a physician.

On January 15, 1924, Klinetop was indicted by a grand jury for felony murder in Lydia's death. For some reason, the abortion lobby insists that prosecuting this man for what he did to Lydia shows a callous disregard for Lydia's life, and that the best way to show concern for the lives of women like Lydia would be to shrug her death off as a simple case of all surgery having risks. I'll grant that at the time of Lydia's death, things that things we take for granted, like antibiotics and blood banks, were still in the future. (For more about abortion in this era, see Abortion in the 1920s.) But I still don't understand how you can look at a woman dead from a botched abortion and conclude that you demonstrate that you care about women by leaping to the defense of the person who killed her.

All Equally Dead

2011-10-28T10:27:00.002-04:00

Fifteen-year-old Sarah Jane Beaver disappeared from her Indiana home in April of 1876, and remained at large until late July, though there were sightings of her with Shepherd Cox, the landlord, in Texas. About four weeks after her return, her mother "discovered that the daughter was in an interesting condition". Sarah Jane named Cox, who was there during the conversation, as the responsible party. Shortly after this conversation, Mrs. Spencer said, she discovered a bottle with a few drops of oil of tansey -- a popular abortifacient -- in it. When confronted, Cox reportedly admitted that he had bought it for Sarah Jane. After more suspicious goings-on, Sarah Jane took sick, and the next night expelled her dead baby. Mrs. Spencer said she sent for Dr. Duncan, who could not come until the next Wednesday, October 25. Duncan said that Sarah Jane had not miscarried but had undergone an abortion caused by instruments of some sort, used with force. Mrs. Spencer was able to show the fetus to Duncan. It was about three and a half months old.

Dr. Duncan continued to provide care to Sarah Jane, at first expecting her to recover, but her condition deteriorated. Sarah made a deathbed statement to her doctor, but after repeatedly refusing to name her abortionist, told Dr. Duncan, "I did it." With more questions, Dr. Duncan finally got, "He did it, with instruments." Sarah Jane died the following morning.

Cox was indicted for murder in December, 1876. He fled to avoid prosecution. Eventually his attorney negotiated a deal for him to return for the trial but remain free on bail of $3,000. He was also able to negotiate a change of venue, so that the trial took place in Hancock County.
After a trial with many conflicting witness testimonies, it took the jury a full day of sparring to come back with a verdict of not guilty.

Fast forward. At 11 AM on October 17, 1947, Dr. Paul Singer, a gynecologist, called police and reported that a woman had come to his office suffering from an incomplete abortion.
He said that he had taken 22-year-old Jane Ward, heir to the Drake Bakeries fortune, to Park East Hospital, where Dr. Oswald Glasberg, a plastic surgeon, had helped him to complete the abortion. Jane died on October 28, and the autopsy confirmed the cause of death as criminal abortion.

After the death, Singer and Glasberg were arrested and released on bail. The baby's father, Eduardo Schneidewind, a trade promotion executive for a South American government, was questioned as a material witness but was never indicted. Dr. Alejandro Ovalle, an X-ray technician, was sentenced to one year after pleading guilty as an accessory, having profited from abortion referrals. Singer was convicted of manslaughter in Jane's death, and sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison. The judge, Francis L. Valente, said that Jane had been subjected to "surgical mayhem," and that Singer and Glassberg were "completely devoid of human feeling and decency."

Glassberg was also convicted and sentenced to prison, but was never sentenced because six hours after the verdict on June 14, 1948, Glassberg committed suicide in his cell, having poisoned himself.

Now fast-forward to the halcyon days of safe, legal abortion. On October 9, 1993, 25-year-old Giselene Lafontant underwent an abortion by a Dr. Scher at Gynecare in Monsey, New York. She was 9 or 10 weeks pregnant. Within 20 minutes, Giselene had no pulse. She was taken to Good Samaritan Hospital and placed on a respirator. Efforts to save her life failed; Giselene died on October 28.

One of many to die at Fast Eddie's mills

2011-10-27T13:24:00.001-04:00

Sixteen-year-old Natalie was brought to San Vicente Hospital in Los Angeles by her mother for a safe and legal abortion on October 21, 1972. Milton Gotlib injected saline into Natalie's uterus on the 21st.

On October 22, Natalie expelled the dead baby but retained the placenta. She had trouble breathing and suffered abdominal pain, so San Vicente staff transferred Natalie to County-USC Medical Center just before midnight.
Natalie was in shock when she arrived at County-USC. She underwent a D&C there, but remained in shock from infection in her uterus. On October 26, a hysterectomy was performed to try to control the infection, to no avail. Natalie was pronouced dead at 9:35AM on October 27.

The autopsy found most of Natalie's internal organs swollen and hemorrhagic. Death was attributed to hyaline membrane disease brought on by the abortion.

Natalie is one of over a dozen women to die at one of Edward Allred's facilities. Others known to have died after abortion at Allred's facilities include:

Denise Holmes, age 24, 1970
Patricia Chacon, age 16, 1984
Mary Pena, age 43, 1984
Josefina Garcia, age 37, 1985
Lanice Dorsey, age 17, 1986
Joyce Ortenzio, age 32, 1988
Tami Suematsu, age 19, 1988
Susan Levy, age 30, 1992
Deanna Bell, age 13, 1992
Christina Mora, age 18, 1994
Kimberly Neil, 2000
Chanelle Bryant, age 22, 2004

Did laws kill Stella or save Deloris?

2011-10-24T14:05:00.003-04:00

On October 24, 1917, 24-year-old Stella Ahern died at her Chicago home from an abortion performed by an unknown perpetrator. Lest we move too swiftly to blame Stella's death on laws, we should consider that there's over a 90% chance that her abortionist was a doctor or a midwife, and a less than about 2% chance that the person had no medical training at all. However, with overall public health issues such as doctors not using proper aseptic techniques, lack of access to blood transfusions and antibiotics, and overall poor health to begin with, there was likely little difference between the performance of a legal abortion and illegal practice, and the aftercare for either type of abortion was probably equally unlikely to do the woman much, if any, good.

In fact, due to improvements in addressing these problems, maternal mortality in general (and abortion mortality with it) fell dramatically in the 20th Century, decades before Roe vs. Wade legalized abortion across America.

The "What do you expect in the days before modern medicine?" excuse could have easily held water for Stella's abortionist. The same can't be said for the people responsible for the death of Deloris Smith. She was one of two teenage abortion patients who suffered fatal injuries at National Abortion Federation (NAF) member Atlanta Women's Pavillion on June 2, 1979.

NAF tells prospective patients:

What is a NAF Clinic? NAF is the professional association of
abortion providers in North America. .... In order to become a member,
a clinic must complete a rigorous application process. Member clinics
have agreed to comply with our standards for quality and care....
NAF periodically conducts site visits to confirm that our clinics
are in compliance with our guidelines.

The staff of Atlanta Women's Pavillion showed what a safe, legal NAF clinic is made of when 19-year-old Angela Scott stopped breathing in the recovery room. A nurse-anesthetist was administering anesthesia to 14-year-old Deloris Smith while Dr. Jacob Adams was performing her abortion. The nurse-anesthetist ran to assist in efforts to revive Angela, leaving Delores unattended with her anesthesia drip still running. This suggests that either AWP had no protocol for emergencies, or that nobody had been adequately trained to make sure that all patients, not just the most obviously distressed patient, was being provided with vital care.

After staff had resuscitated Angela and loaded her into an ambulance, they returned their attention to Delores, who had gone into cardio-respiratory arrest. Adams had accompanied Angela to the Grady Memorial Hospital, and staff refused to release Dolores to an ambulance until the physician had returned to discharge her. This resulted in a 30-minute delay, during which the ambulance crew was unable to attend to Delores or begin transporting her.

Angela lingered for a week in a coma before dying on June 11. Delores never regained consciousness and eventually was admitted to a nursing home, where she died of adult respiratory distress syndrome on October 24, 1979, some time after her fifteenth birthday.

The presumed safety of legality, and the presumed superior care of a NAF member clinic, did nothing to protect Angela and Deloris. Those who truly care about abortion safety, not just abortion legality, might to well to do their own independent oversight of local abortion facilities, and not trust high-profile lobbying groups to put the safety of the patients ahead of the political interests of their members.

Doc goes to Sing Sing for killing abortion patient

2011-10-22T21:06:00.000-04:00

Dr. F. Waldo Whitney, age 61, was convicted of manslaughter in the October 22, 1914 abortion death of Mrs. Margaret Buetelman. He was sentenced to 2 - 19 1/2 years at Sing Sing.

Note, please, that with general public health issues such as doctors not using proper aseptic techniques, lack of access to blood transfusions and antibiotics, and overall poor health to begin with, there was likely little difference between the performance of a legal abortion and illegal practice, and the aftercare for either type of abortion was probably equally unlikely to do the woman much, if any, good. For more information about early 20th Century abortion mortality, seeAbortion Deaths 1910-1919.

Legal and illegal deaths, and lessons learned or left unlearned

2011-10-20T16:27:00.003-04:00

On October 20, 1877, Nellie Ryan, an unmarried 21-year-old white woman from Turner Junction, Illinois, died in Chicago during a criminal abortion. Midwife Amelia Spork was arrested for Nellie's death. Since midwives were an ordinary source of pregnancy care at the time, it's difficult to assert that Nellie was somehow "forced" to go to a midwife rather than a physician for an abortion due to abortion laws. It's also hard to assert that legalization would have improved the overall state of Nellie's health going into the abortion, the state of medical practice at the time, or any other factor that typically contributed to all manner of maternal mortality of the time.

On October 20, 1921, 30-year-old Annie Sczepkowski died at Jefferson Park Hospital in Chicago from complications of an abortion perpetrated by an unknown suspect. Tillie Pawlowski was arrested, but exonerated by the Coroner. Just as in Nellie's case, it's difficult to assert that laws caused Annie's death. No law would have given either woman access to things that things we take for granted, like antibiotics and blood banks.

In fact, during the first two thirds of the 20th Century, while abortion was still illegal, there was a massive drop in maternal mortality, including mortality from abortion. Most researches attribute this plunge to improvements in public health and hygiene, the development of blood transfusion techniques, and the introduction of antibiotics. Learn more here.

So let's fast forward to 1971, after the enlightened members of the New York legislature legalized abortion on demand. Carole Schaner, age 37, traveled from Ohio to Buffalo to take advantage of this purportedly woman-protective move. Dr. Jesse Ketchum performed a vaginal hysterotomy abortion, which is like a c-section done through the vagina, in order to remove Carole's 14-week fetus and allow it to die. Ketchum preformed this surgery, as the law permitted, in his private office. After the abortion, Carole went into shock, and was taken to a hospital. She was in shock when she arrived. Despite all efforts, Carole died before doctors could even fully assess the extent of her injuries. She left behind four children.

The autopsy found that Carole's cervix and uterus had been cut open, and an artery outside her uterus had been cut. It also noted sutures that had evidently been put in by Ketchum in an attempt to repair the damage. The sutures, however, completely closed Carole's cervix, allowing her to continue bleeding from the injured uterus and artery.

Carole was the second woman to bleed to death after an outpatient hystertomy abortion performed by Ketchum; Margaret Smith had died four months earlier. Interestingly enough, Ketchum had been a criminal abortionist in Michigan, and while he'd been in trouble with the law, none of his patients had died. New York allowed him to set up shop in spite of his Michigan arrests and the unsanitary conditions police had found. So while Michigan police had been able to limit Ketchum's practice by periodically arresting him, New York turned a blind eye to his character, supposedly in the interests of making abortion safer.

Another former criminal abortionist, Milan Vuitch, also had kept his nose clean as a criminal abortionist, then went on to kill two legal abortion patients. Wilma Harris and Georgianna English both died under Vuitch's care. Benjamin Munson, likewise, had a clean record in his criminal abortionist then went on to kill two women in his supposedly safer legal practice -- Linda Padfield and Yvonne Mesteth.

Free Abortions!

2011-10-19T13:01:00.009-04:00

Mighty generous, that Dr. Brandeis. He's giving away free abortions!

Just in case the fact that it's FREE! is lost on the prospective patient, the bullet points include:

Free services for low income eligible ca residents
Free abortion clinic
Free services for low income eligible ca residents

The site also features what look like coupons for free gyn services and free sterilization.

A bit redundant, I know. But Dr. Emmanuel Brandeis wants to make absolutely sure you know that it's FREE!

I found out about this generous fellow when his spambot posted a link on my blog -- as a comment to an article about an RU-486 death.

How does Dr. B do it? His FEES page explains:

We offer the presumptive eligibility program also known as PE. This is a Medi-Cal program that among its services provides temporary abortion care to eligible low-income women and teens. With PE you can receive services for miscarriage or abortion immediately and for free. Any California resident who believes that they are pregnant and whose family income is at or below 200% of the federal poverty level is eligible for this program. Call now to see if you qualify.

Ah! Dr. B isn't generous with his own money, or even his own time. He just has his staff trained to stick a straw into the public trough and slurp up taxpayers' money expeditiously.

This resourceful fellow's name was familiar to me, so I searched my site and found out why: he'd screwed up when injecting drugs into an abortion patient, causing tissue damage that resulted in the amputation of several fingers.

The first question on the FAQ page is:

Is the office confidential and private?
Our Medical Center is a private office and there are no protestors.

Now that they've spambotted my blog, that might change.

As you can see, the Vermont Avenue location has plenty of room for a prayer vigil outside. It's in a Korean neighborhood, too, so there's probably really good kimbap, bibimbap, galbi, bulgogi, porridge, and shabu-shabu available nearby. Yum! Plus there's another office available for lease in the building. What a great place for a prolife pregnancy center!

The Beverly Hills location seems to be in more of a medical office building, though the only sign I see on the outside is for a chiropractic clinic. There is also a "For Lease" sign with the number 310-652-7006.

Though there's no real room on the sidewalk directly outside, the situation across the street is another matter entirely.

It's the La Ciegna Community Center -- a city park, public property. There's plenty of room for a prayer vigil and some sidewalk counselors, right there on a busy street corner.

Dr. B wouldn't have hired a spambot if he didn't want his practice to be advertised, right? So, LA prolifers, have at it!

A brief summary, a confession, and a medical board investigation

2011-10-19T11:17:00.003-04:00

I know very little about the first woman featured today. On October 19, 1910, Pelagia Usorowski, age 32, died in a Chicago residence from an abortion that had been performed on October 13. Rosalie Tomajoski, whose occupation is given only as "abortion provider", was indicted by a grand jury for felony murder in Pelagia's death.

I have far more information about the 1954 death of Betty Ladel. A naturopath named Sylvia Redman made, then recanted, a confession that went into a lot of detail and was consistent with the autopsy findings. Click on Betty's name to learn more.

Finally, we have the 1990 death of 19-year-old Christina Goesswein from complications of a rather shady abortion performed by Dr. Moshe Hachamovitch in Bronx, New York. Click on Christina's name to learn about the appalling findings of the medical board investigation into Christina's death. Click on Hachamovitch's name to learn about the other women who died at his hands or under his supervision.

Four pre-legalization anniversaries

2011-10-18T10:49:00.002-04:00

All four of today's anniversaries date back to pre-legalization days.

In early October of 1883, Mrs. O'Connor, a widow, died from a criminal abortion in Halifax. "Dr. Archibald Lawson, a prominent physician, has fled to avoid arrest."

On October 18, 1920, 30-year-old Alice Jolly died at Chicago's Englewood Hospital from a criminal abortion perpetrated by somebody who was never identified.

On October 18, 1939, Miss Alice Corbett, age 28, of Brooklyn, New York, died from complications of an illegal abortion. Dr. Allen F. Murphy was sentenced to 2-10 years in Sing-Sing for Alice's death.

On October 18, 1942, 23-year-old Harriet Lichtenberg of Brooklyn died in Royal Hospital, the Bronx, from suspected criminal abortion complications. Dr. Henry Katz was indicted for first degree manslaughter in Harriet's death.

You'll notice that in all three cases in which the abortionist was identified, he was a physician. This was typical in pre-legalization abortions. Women, by and large, are neither mentally incompetent nor mentally deranged, and don't merely reach reflexively for the rustiest coathanger in the closet when they decide upon abortion. Read Nancy Howell Lee's excellent The Search for An Abortionist for a contemporary account.

Two abortions, half a century apart

2011-10-16T11:44:00.003-04:00

On October 2, 1923, 16-year-old Lauretta Schranz underwent a criminal abortion somewhere in Chicago. On October 16, Lauretta died at Chicago Hospital from complications of that abortion. Ethel Davis and Lena Rumenstein were held by the coroner in Lauretta's death. Their professions were not listed on my source document. Davis was indicted by a grand jury for felony murder on November 15.

Keep in mind that things that things we take for granted, like antibiotics and blood banks, were still in the future. For more about abortion in this era, see Abortion in the 1920s.

Fast forward to 1974, when abortion is safe and legal and women need fear quackery no more.

Maria Lira, a 19-year-old college student, went to Riveria Hospital on October 14, 1974, to undergo an abortion. After she'd been discharged, Maria had problems and returned. Staff performed a D&C, then discharged her again. That night, she went to the emergency room due to excessive bleeding, and was sent to Torrance Memorial Hospital for treatment, where she died on October 16. The autopsy found a decomposing fetus in her uterus, which had caused infection and DIC (disseminated intravacsular coagulopathy), a clotting disorder which allowed Maria to bleed to death.

Four anniversaries

2011-10-15T12:18:00.003-04:00

Mary L. Stone, a 26-year-old native of England, was living in New York City with her husband, George, in 1854. Some time in late August, she left her husband and went to live with William Mills in New Haven, Connecticut. White at Mills' home, Mary took oil of tansy as an abortifacient. She stated that she had done this at the recommendation of Mrs. Britton, who denied the charge. After taking the oil of tansy, Mary became very ill. About five weeks later, she returned to New York, going to stay with a friend. She sent for her husband. After seeing his wife's condition, Mr. Stone had her taken to New York Hospital. There, she died the night of Sunday, October 15. Her death was attributed to "exhaustion produced by abortion."

On October 15, 1915, Anna Anderson, a 25-year-old unmarried woman, died at the office of Dr. A. A. Ausplund, who had brought two additional doctors in to assist him in caring for her. Ausplund insisted that Anna's pregnancy had been tampered with before she'd come to his office. The autopsy, however, indicated that the injury had likely taken place while Anna was on the premises. Click on her name to learn more.

October 15, 1926, 23-year-old Ethel Horner died at Chicago's Jackson park Hospital from an abortion performed earlier that day. Dr. Albert Peacock was arrested the following day.
On November 15, 1926, he was indicted for felony murder. Ethel's abortion was typical of criminal abortions in that it was performed by a doctor.

On October 15, 1990, 23-year-old Angela Satterfield underwent a legal abortion. The abortionist did not diagnose Angela's ectopic pregnancy. He simply performed an abortion procedure and sent her home. That evening, the undiagnosed ectopic pregnancy ruptured. Angela was found dead in her home. She had hemorrhaged. Her death certificate only mentions the ectopic pregnancy and the hemorrhage, but her autopsy notes the failure of the abortionist to diagnose the ectopic pregnancy. Even though, in theory, women who choose abortion should be less likely to die of ectopic pregnancy complications, experiences shows that they're actually //more// likely to die, due to sloppy practices by abortion practitioners.

1908: Mystery death in Chicago

2011-10-14T12:02:00.001-04:00

On October 14, 1908, Olga Anderson, age 23, died in Chicago from complications of an abortion.
There is no record of who was the guilty party, though he or she was most likely a physician.

Note, please, that with overall public health issues such as doctors not using proper aseptic techniques, lack of access to blood transfusions and antibiotics, and overall poor health to begin with, there was likely little difference between the performance of a legal abortion and illegal practice, and the aftercare for either type of abortion was probably equally unlikely to do the woman much, if any, good. For more about abortion and abortion deaths in the first years of the 20th century, see Abortion Deaths 1900-1909.

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

Two women "endangered," two "protected," all four dead.

2011-10-11T10:43:00.003-04:00

On October 11, 1913, 28-year-old Frances Odochowski, a married woman, died in Chicago at the scene of an abortion perpetrated that day by Dr. Arthur L. Blunt. Bunt was arrested and held by the Coroner on November 7, and brought before a Grand Jury, but the case never went to trial.

On October 11, 1926, Jeanette Jarrett, a 28-year-old Black woman, died from complications of a criminal abortion performed on her that day. A Black doctor, Roy Shell, was held by the coroner on October 29. On November 1, he was indicted for felony murder.

If you're tempted to blame the deaths of Frances and Jeanette on abortion law, remember that with overall public health issues such as doctors not using proper aseptic techniques, lack of access to blood transfusions and antibiotics, and overall poor health to begin with, there was likely little difference between the performance of a legal abortion and illegal practice, and the aftercare for either type of abortion was probably equally unlikely to do the woman much, if any, good.

In fact, due to improvements in addressing these problems, maternal mortality in general (and abortion mortality with it) fell dramatically in the 20th Century, decades before Roe vs. Wade legalized abortion across America.

For more information about early 20th Century abortion mortality, see Abortion Deaths 1910-1919.

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

Let's fast-forward to the blessed days of safe, legal abortion, shall we?

Life Dynamics lists 17-year-old Sharonda Rowe on their "Blackmun Wall safe and legal abortions.
According to LDI, Sharonda had an abortion done in a doctor's office in Washington, DC on October 11, 1981. She suffered lacerations in her vagina and uterus, causing a massive, fatal air embolism. So, in spite of "safe and legal," Sharonda's competent and compassionate provider of vital reproductive health care services managed to slice her open internally to the point of letting air into her circulatory system and killing her.

L'Echelle Head, age 21, died October 11, 2000, after an abortion at Dayton Women's Health Services. Dayton Right to Life said that L'Echelle was pronounced dead at Samaritan Hospital after she'd been sent home from the clinic. Police had been called to a private residence to investigate the report of an unresponisve 21-year-old woman shortly after 6 p.m. L'Echelle's obituary indicates that she left behind a daughter, her parents, and three sisters. Peggy Lehner of Dayton Right to Life said, "The final results of the autopsy are still pending. From early indications it appears she suffered some sort of blood clot or embolism."

The safe and legal Dayton Women's Health Services had been caught operating without a license in 1999. It was inspected on October 27, 1999, to see if a license should be granted. Inspectors found rusty instruments, improperly-marked medications, and a failure to follow sterile technique. The clinic administrators were told they'd have to correct the problems to get a license. The clinic got the license after getting a waiver regarding follow-up care for patients. In other words, the state knew a year before L'Echelle's death that the facility was sub-par, and allowed the abortionist to ply his trade anyway. Thank you, legalization, for keeping abortion safe.

1916: Victim of laws, or of lack of antibiotics and blood transfusions?

2011-10-09T10:32:00.000-04:00

On October 9, 1916, Emily Projahn died at the Chicago office of Dr. Clarence W. Merceraue from complications of an abortion he had perpetrated there that day. Though Mercerau was held by the coroner and indicted, the case was stricken off on December 16.

Note, please, that with overall public health issues such as doctors not using proper aseptic techniques, lack of access to blood transfusions and antibiotics, and overall poor health to begin with, there was likely little difference between the performance of a legal abortion and illegal practice, and the aftercare for either type of abortion was probably equally unlikely to do the woman much, if any, good.

In fact, due to improvements in addressing these problems, maternal mortality in general (and abortion mortality with it) fell dramatically in the 20th Century, decades before Roe vs. Wade legalized abortion across America.

For more information about early 20th Century abortion mortality, see Abortion Deaths 1910-1919.

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

Why not ask the people who REALLY know abortion from experience?

2011-10-07T09:50:00.008-04:00

My FaceBook friend Kathy Peterson points out that abortion supporters often insist that unless you've been the one on the abortion table, you have no right to have an opinion on abortion. (They totally discount dissatisfied customers, but that's another topic for another day.)

Well, actually, since the person who is impacted the most by an abortion is the baby targeted, shouldn't their voices be the ones given the most credence?

I'm not being facetious. There are people who are only alive because an attempt to abort them failed to do the job. I've described one such person, Gianna Gessen (pictured), as a Fetus With Attitude. Congresswoman Patricia Schroeder (D-CO) objected to the idea of Ms. Jessen testifying before Congress about abortion on the grounds that hearing from the actual slated-for-death fetus would "undermine the public’s consistent and overwhelming support for Roe v. Wade." As I asked in my original article, what do you expect from somebody who had actually been aborted? Could you expect "consistent and overwhelming" fetal support for Roe v. Wade?

Ms. Jessen said what anybody left with cerebral palsy from the toxic effects of abortion chemicals might be expected to say: that being aborted isn't very pleasant. That abortion wreaks havoc on fetuses. That fetuses, given their druthers, would rather be left unmolested. This should come as a surprise to nobody. When an aborted fetus limps up to the podium and reads her prepared comments, that's good news for fetuses, but bad news for somebody who gets campaign support from the abortion establishment.

Based on the only report we ever got out of the Centers for Disease Control on the subject, abortionists reported about 500 babies surviving later abortion attempts every year. Times 38 years of abortion on demand, that's 19,000 folks like Gianna, like Ana Rosa Rodriguez (pictured, right), whose right arm was wrenched off at the shoulder during the abortion attempt, or like Ximenia Renearts (pictured, left), who was left brain damaged and physically incapacitated by extreme prematurity and being left unattended to die until rescued by a nurse.

Then we can add in those who survived what are called "failed abortions" -- early abortion attempts that somehow leave the fetus unscathed. Research indicates that between about 850 and 1,800 unborn children survive first-trimester abortion attempts in the US every year. We don't have numbers on what percent of women change their minds about wanting their babies to die and continue their pregnancies. It's neither uncommon nor universal, so I'll just aim for the middle and say that half of those children get to be born alive. That's about 1,325 survivors of early abortions every year, about 662 of whom are permitted to live to be born. That's 25,000 (rounded down) since Roe. Add that to the 19,000 late abortion survivors, and we have about 44,000 fetuses we can ask.

What would their opinions about abortion be? Maybe we should ask.

A midwife's work, and a beneficiary of New York's abortion law

2011-10-05T10:26:00.003-04:00

On October 5, 1911, 38-year-old Mrs. Mary Bambrick died from an abortion perpetrated that day by midwife Emma Schultz. Schultz was held by the Coroner's Jury and indicted on October 12, but the case never went to trial. Schultz went on to kill Martha Kohnke on September 24, 1927.

"Becky" Roe was 18 years old when she traveled from Arkansas to New York for a safe and legal abortion. She was 14 weeks pregnant. The abortion was performed on September 26, 1971. Though she was running a fever the day after the abortion, staff discharged her to return home.
By the time Becky got back to Arkansas and saw a doctor, her condition was critical. She died from infection on October 5.

A 19th century abortion death

2011-10-02T08:54:00.000-04:00

Mary Jacquay Doyle, wife of P.M. Doyle, died in Buffalo, NY, on October 2, 1867, from "convulsions produced by an abortion within the last two weeks." She had only been married the previous February. Her husband was held in her death by order of the coroner.

Five young women's deaths remembered today

2011-10-01T00:07:00.002-04:00

On October 1, 1908, 21-year-old Mary Rahur died in Chicago from complications of an abortion performed that day. Mrs. Frida Trappe was arrested and held by the coroner's jury on October 14. The case went to trial, but Trappe was acquitted on July 12 0f 1909. Trappe's employment status is recorded as "Outside labor force (incl. criminals)", which may be an indication that she was a professional lay abortionist.

On October 1, 1914, eighteen-year-old Lillie Giovenco died at Wesley Hospital in Chicago from complications of a criminal abortion. Dr. Eva Shaver, Dr. Leopold Pijan, and Dr. John Fernow were held by the coroner in Lillie's death. The coroner concluded that the fatal abortion had been preformed on September 5 in a medical facility that my source describes as "Abortion place." Eva Shaver was also prosecuted for the 1915 abortion death of Anna Johnson.

On October 1, 1922, 21-year-old Margaret Sullivan died in her Chicago home from complications of an abortion performed that day. The person or persons responsible were never caught. Keep in mind that things that things we take for granted, like antibiotics and blood banks, were still in the future.

Brenda Banks was 35 years old and 13 weeks pregnant when she went to Hillcrest Women's Surgi-Center in Washington, DC, for a safe, legal abortion, performed by Llewelyn Crooks on September 30, 1989. Brenda went into shock, and was transported to the hospital by ambulance. Doctors performed an emergency hysterectomy and transfused Brenda with 20 units of red blood cells, to no avail. She died the following day, October 1, 1989. Brenda's uterus had been perforated and several major blood vessels had been cut or severed entirely.

Stacy Zallie underwent a safe, legal abortion at the age of 19, in 1999. She didn't tell her family about the abortion, but did mention that she was troubled. She sought psychiatric care, but still kept the abortion a secret. In October of 2000, about a year after her abortion and mere days before she was to serve as a bridesmaid in her brother's wedding, Stacy took her own life. After learning of the abortion and Stacy's unbearable anguish afterward, her parents started the **Stacy Zallie Foundation** to provide post-abortion care so that nobody else's daughter suffers the fate their daughter did. The Zallie family takes no stand on abortion, seeking to keep their focus on providing desperately-needed aftercare to suffering women, regardless of politics, creed, or religion.

Legalization = Professionalism?

2011-09-30T09:05:00.003-04:00

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.

Even if Mrs. Wojanowski wasn't a doctor, she was probably far more professional than the killer of 21-year-old Gaylene Golden.

Gaylene's abortionist, Dr. Joe Bills Reynolds (pictured), was a jack of all trades, doing a variety of elective surgeries, including safe and legal abortions, in his filthy clinic.

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. 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. He voluntarily surrendered his Oklahoma license.

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. Gaylene left one child, a son, orphaned.

Two deaths, and looking at the data

2011-09-28T09:37:00.005-04:00

On September 28, 1929, 29-year-old Barbara Auer died in Chicago from complications of an illegal abortion performed at an unknown place. The person or persons responsible were never identified or prosecuted.

Fast forward to 1982, when 20-year-old Rhonda Hess underwent a safe, legal abortion. After the procedure, she developed an infection. The infection led to problems with clotting of the blood. Rhonda was taken to Moss Regional Hospital in Lake Charles, Louisiana, where she died on September 28, 1982.

Yes, such deaths were rarer in 1982 than they were in 1929. Before concluding that it was abortion's legal status that caused Barbara's death and killed many other women like her, consider that things that things we take for granted, like antibiotics and blood banks, were still in the future. In fact, during the first two thirds of the 20th Century, while abortion was still illegal, there was a massive drop in maternal mortality, including mortality from abortion. Most researches attribute this plunge to improvements in public health and hygiene, the development of blood transfusion techniques, and the introduction of antibiotics. Learn more here.

Look at that graph. Consider that abortion-on-demand wasn't legalized until 1970 in some states, and 1973 nationwide. Does it REALLY look like legalization was the big lifesaver?

1989: Who can the prochoicers blame?

2011-09-26T13:41:00.002-04:00

Debra Walton was 35 years old when she underwent an abortion in the fall of 1989. On September 24, 1989, about three weeks after the abortion, she was admitted to University Hospital in Birmingham, Alabama. She was in septic shock. Despite efforts to save her, she died the next day, September 25, 1989. Her death certificate does not say where the abortion took place or who performed it.

Had Debra died fifty years earlier, in 1939 instead of 1989, abortion advocates would have blamed her death on laws against abortion -- laws against doing the thing that killed her. Who can they blame now?

Two doctors, two deaths. What do we know?

2011-09-26T13:03:00.004-04:00

Mrs. Annie Heaney, age 50, died at Post Graduate Hospital in Chicago on September 26, 1906, from complications of a criminal abortion performed there that day. Physician Jonathan L. Miller was arrested in the death.

Let's for the sake of argument assume that abortion is a legitimate medical procedure. We have no way of knowing if Dr. Miller committed malpractice, if he did anything stupid or irresponsible or inexcusable to cause Annie's death, or if it was just a flukey thing, an infection in the days before antibiotics, an accidental nick to a vital artery in the days before blood transfusions. We can't know if Annie had any way of judging Miller's skill before entrusting her life to him. But let's flash forward to different cases where we have more information.

On September 17, 1990, 17-year-old Sophie McCoy went to the office of National Abortion Federation member Abu Hayat (pictured). The National Abortion Federation is an organization that puts out standards that its members are supposed to adhere to. We don't know if Sophie and her mother chose Hayat because of his NAF membership. We do know, though, that if Sophie and her mother had called a hotline asking for a referral to a safe facility with the highest standards of care, Hayat's facility would be on the list.

You can contrast what NAF promised in members with the care Sophie actually received by clicking her name and reading her story. You can also read contemporary New York Times coverage here.

Hayat's name might seem vaguely familiar. That's because he made headlines about a year after he killed Sophie, after he started an illegal third-trimester abortion on a woman named Rosa Rodriguez. Hayat told Rosa that he would have to finish the abortion the next day and sent her home with very specific instructions not to go to a hospital or to any other doctor if she suffered any complications. Unable to get Hayat to help here with the severe pain she was experiencing, Rosa went to a hospital, where she delivered her baby girl, 32 weeks of gestational age and missing her right arm, which Hayat had pulled off during the abortion attempt.

Keep in mind that both Sophie's death and the maiming of Rosa's baby happened while Hayat was a member in good standing of the National Abortion Federation.

Unlike in Annie Heaney's case, where we have no information on the reputation of her doctor, or of whether he behaved in such a way as to callously endanger her, we do have information about Sophie's situation. It seems a stretch to try to blame Annie's death on laws telling doctors not to do to patients what Miller did to her. It seems a bit less of a stretch to blame the death of Sophie McCoy, and the maiming of little Ana Rosa Rodriguez (pictured), on a reputable and respected prochoice organization that promised safety and high standards, but delivers the likes of Abu Hayat.

One needless tragedy and two total flukes. Right?

2011-09-25T05:43:00.002-04:00

On September 25, 1925, Faye McGinnis, age 23, died at her home in Chicago from complications of an abortion performed that day. The coroner identified two physicians, Walter Penningdorf and Walter Voight, as being responsible. They were arrested on September 25. Faye's husband, Roy McGinnis, was also arrested as an accomplice in his wife's death. The doctors were indicted for felony murder on October 15. For more about abortion in this era, see Abortion in the 1920s.

Moving on from the death we're to presume was caused entirely by abortion laws and not because there were no antibiotics or blood banks, we come to the deaths that happened because, after all, "all surgery has risks."

Minnie Lathan was 41 when she had a safe and legal abortion and tubal ligation performed some time in September of 1978. Her uterus was perforated and her colon damaged during the procedure. She developed an infection and was hospitalized at Cleveland Clinic Hospital. She died there on September 25.

Twenty-two-year-old Liliana Cortez underwent a safe and legal abortion by Leo Kenneally at his Her Medical Clinic in Los Angeles on September 20, 1986. Other than having asthma, Liliana was in good health when she went for her abortion. After the procedure, she went into cardiac arrest. There was a 40-minute delay until the paramedics arrived to transport Liliana to a hospital. She died five days later. Liliana's death was ruled a "therapeutic misadventure," which a coroner's spokesman called, "a nice medical term for a mistake." An attorney for Her Medical Clinic said, "If something like this happened at a hospital ... people would just say it was bad luck, one of those flukey things. But ... all of a sudden they make it seem like these (abortion clinics) are terrible places where terrible things happen." When you consider that Donna Heim and Michelle Thames also died "one of those flukey" deaths at Her Medical Clinic, maybe Her, at least,was a terrible place where terrible things happen.

Unless, of course, it can't be, because abortion is safe and legal.

1927: The fatal work of a Chicago nurse

2011-09-24T05:43:00.000-04:00

On September 24, 1927, 35-year-old Martha Kohnke died in Chicago from a criminal abortion performed that day. Nurse Emma Schultz was held by the coroner on October 5.

Schultz had also killed Mary Bambrick on October 5, 1911, but that case never went to trial.

Keep in mind that things that things we take for granted, like antibiotics and blood banks, were still in the future. For more about abortion in this era, see Abortion in the 1920s.

"Amy" attack on CPCs is indictment of prochoice thought

2011-09-23T11:28:00.006-04:00

The Time I Tried To Get An Abortion From A Crisis Pregnancy Center

I'm going to deconstruct this as I encounter comment-worthy bits. I recommend reading the entire thing. It's the story of "Amy," and how the mean old right to lifers made her feel so bad about exercising her right to have her three-month fetus pureed at an abortion facility.

I was sure all the men in suits in the lobby knew what I was doing. .... Still, I took a deep breath and pushed the button that would take me to the floor where I would have an abortion. Or so I thought.

Note the guilt and shame here long before she steps through the pregnancy center door. She already knew she was doing something she should feel guilty for, should be ashamed of. But instead of listening to her conscience, she went ahead.

I'd always been pro-choice, but I'd also always said I'd never get an abortion myself.

I'll have to credit Ashli McCall for describing this attitude -- one that used to be her own -- so vividly:

Abortion was good enough for all the uncaring faceless women of the world, but not for me, and not for anyone I cared about. ..... Abortion was just a solution for people who, outside of my own little world of acquaintances, existed to me as much as individuals that pass by in cars on the interstate.

Let's get back to Amy, shall we:

Still, once I was actually pregnant, I was pretty sure from the beginning what I would do.

Note that she doesn't "explore her options." She doesn't bring any information into the mix. Is this how rational adults make important life decisions?

And I felt better knowing that I could take a couple of pills and stop being pregnant that way....

Note the naive perception of chemical abortion as just taking a couple of pills and not being pregnant any more. Didn't she even follow AntithiestAngie's Twitter abortion?

We'll move on to something vital:

First she handed me some pamphlets. I opened one and it was a graphic illustration of an abortion, a cutaway of a fetus being pulled apart. I snapped it closed, saying to myself, that's not what I'm doing. A medication abortion, what I wanted to have, wouldn't look like that.

Interesting. She doesn't want her fetus to look like a gory mess when the abortionist is done with it. It's very important to remember this for later: Amy herself did not want what the pamphlet depicted.

Amy has a very uneasy relationship with reality. No, let me rephrase that. Amy finds reality, as seen on ultrasound, far too painful to contemplate:

"It looks like you're about three and a half months pregnant," the older woman announced cheerfully.
Then she turned the monitor to me. I have so many little brothers and sisters. I was with my mother the first time she heard my younger siblings heartbeat. There was a heartbeat now, too.

By that point, I was crying hysterically.

Where is the strong, confident woman of prochoice mythology? The reality becomes even clearer as the ultrasound proceeds:

I clutched my hand to my stomach and in the sonogram screen, an arm lifted. I took my arm away and the arm went back down. "Put your hand back up!" the older woman said. I did, and the tiny hand went up again. That's the moment that I can't get out of my head, to this day.

The pregnancy center also offers reassurance:

After a few minutes, she left the room and a girl about my age returned, an intern from Utah. For what felt like about an hour, she told me why I should have the baby, and how her sister had had an unplanned pregnancy and had the baby, and how much they all loved it. She was so young and so honest. I told her everything. I was still crying.

And the final insult:

The older woman returned and printed out the sonogram. "I want you to keep this and take it with you everywhere," she instructed. She told me to make a follow up appointment with my boyfriend, but I just ran out.

Amy was totally freaked out by being treated like a human being, like somebody important, with relationships and a capacity to be a good mother. She ran in terror from genuine concern. That's sad. And it reminds me of the line from an Alan Parsons Project song: "People that I've never seen are kind to me. Is it any wonder I'm confused?"

Moving right along:

Back at my boyfriend's apartment, I was crying too much to explain what happened, so I just showed him the sonogram. It didn't take long for him to realize that I'd been at a crisis pregnancy center and not Planned Parenthood at all. ....

He was furious.... He took the sonogram from me, and said he'd take care of it. I never saw it again, though a few months later I remember looking in one of his drawers and seeing something that looked like it could be it, upside down. But I didn't turn it over.

There's so much interesting here. Why is the boyfriend furious? Because they made her cry (by being kind, gentle, and informative with her), or because they were mucking up his plans to just flush the baby out of their lives? It's also interesting that he evidently didn't throw the ultrasound away, and that when she found it, she didn't throw it away either. Why did they find it easier to throw away the real baby than to trash a mere photograph?

For me, the real anger didn't come until later when I actually went through with the abortion. I'm not saying it's ever easy for anyone, but all I could think about that day was the sonogram and that hand. There were tears streaming down my face when I was going under. I remember the anesthesiologist telling me, "Don't worry, it won't hurt," and I remember thinking, That's not what I'm crying about.

Why the anger? Why was she angry with the people who were kind, honest, forthright, and trying to treat her like a complete human being with real needs and capabilities? Why was she not angry with the people never even cared enough to find out why she was crying?

For me, there was a difference between being sure what I wanted and being sure how I felt about it. I knew that I did not want to have a child right then.

This strikes me as very simplistic thinking.

First of all, was she really that sure what she wanted? You can think that you want something, right up until you get a vital piece of information that changes your mind. You want to marry Joe, right up until you find out he's been cheating on you. You want to buy that beautiful house, until you find out that it has severe dry rot. You want an abortion, right up until you find out _____. Fill in the blank. Eighty percent of abortion-minded women who go to pregnancy centers change their minds. For 80% of women who walk into places like Amy went to, the blank gets filled in. They get the one piece of information that makes them realize that they don't want abortions after all. Amy didn't go back for her follow-up, so we (and she) will never know what might have filled that blank in.

Second, isn't how you feel afterward relevant to the choice? After all, it's not pregnancy per se that sends women to abortion clinics. Lots of them go to a lot of trouble and expense to achieve pregnancy. It's how you feel about the pregnancy, not the pregnancy itself, that you're seeking to treat with an abortion. If you feel worse afterward, then the treatment was a miserable failure. It's winning a battle but losing the war. Yeah, you're not pregnant any more, but you're more distraught over the dead baby than you ever would have been over the live one.

Third, and most importantly, not wanting to have a child right now is not the same as wanting the child you just saw on the ultrasound to die a violent death that you bought and paid for. I think a lot of what Amy hates the CPC for is that they showed her the difference. She wanted to believe that she could avoid giving birth to a child without the child in question being killed. But once she was pregnant, that was the only way to avoid birth. By killing the existing child, a very specific child, the child waving its little hand on the ultrasound screen.

Amy engages in some more ill-considered thought:

If you think you want an abortion, you probably shouldn't be having a kid anyway.

Actually, no. It might be comforting for her to tell herself this, but it's demonstrably not the case. This is one of the abortion lobby's most dirty little secrets -- that if you reassure the woman and give her some time to get over the shock, she'll totally reject abortion and welcome her new baby. (This one piece of information alone is enough to virtually collapse the entire house of prochoice cards.)

Amy speaks again:

And if you know you want an abortion, someone misrepresenting themselves shouldn't make it harder on you.

Who, Amy, misrepresents themselves? The prolifers, who provide exactly what they say they do, or the abortion facilities that feed you comfortable lies until they have your money, and then lose all interest in you?

As for the accusation that reality will "make it harder on you" -- I find that interesting. Amy's visit to the CPC started with her looking away from a brochure that showed an "after" picture of an abortion. It ended with her learning that she could not get what she wanted -- to just take a pill and not be pregnant any more. To reach the goal of not having a baby right now without killing the waving baby on the ultrasound screen.

It's taken me the two years since then not to break down every time I think about it. Now, I read about states trying to force women to look at the sonogram and I want to talk about it. But first I want to go back to that building and put a sign that says, "Here's the right floor. Here's the wrong one."

Amy, your abortion doesn't hurt because some prolifers showed you an ultrasound. It hurts because you signed on the dotted line and turned the waving baby into a bloody mess. What the CPC did was try to offer you a way to avoid doing that. You chose to run like hell and try to run back into comfortable ignorance. And you're trying to choose ignorance on behalf of other women, simply because you think that ignorance would have made it less painful for you to kill your baby.

Amy, the fact that it hurts shows that you're not the monster you seem to somehow wish you were -- the kind of woman who could kill her own child and feel nothing but relief.

The clincher is tacked on at the end by the editors:
Amy's ordeal was in New York City
The "ordeal" was being treated with respect, kindness, and honesty by a CPC, when what Amy actually wanted was to be patronized, processed, and lied to by Planned Parenthood. Well, Amy, be careful what you wish for. In your case, you got it. And then you blame somebody else for the fact that it hurt.

1899, 1907, and 1971.

2011-09-23T09:39:00.002-04:00

On September 23, 1899, Mary Kakacek died in her Chicago home from complications of an abortion performed that day by midwife Annie Stonek. Stonek was held without bail by the Coroner's Jury.

On September 23, 1907, Mrs. Mabel Brock of Lake Station, Indiana, died in Chicago's John Streeter Hospital. The coroner's jury determined that she had died from an abortion performed by midwife Mrs. Lobbie from Hobart, Indiana. I've been unable to learn if the abortion was performed in Chicago or somewhere in Indiana.

"Barbara" was 35 years old when she traveled from Michigan to New York for a safe and legal abortion in 1971. She was 20 weeks pregnant. Within 24 hours of being injected with saline for the abortion, she went into convulsions, then her heart stopped. Efforts to save her failed. She died on September 23, 1971, leaving behind five children. The autopsy could find no anatomical cause of death.

Of course, abortion supporters claim that though Barbara's death was tragic, it was simply a matter of all surgery having risks rather than a matter of an abortionist irresponsibly killing a patient. If you believe that, click on the word "saline" and read about how inexcusable it was for American abortionists to adopt a method that was handy for them but known to be excessively dangerous for women.

Abortion supporters will also claim that again, though Barbara's death was tragic, it was a total fluke because legalization made abortion so much less risky, and deaths so much less common. This claim isn't supported by reality.

During the first two thirds of the 20th Century, while abortion was still illegal, there was a massive drop in maternal mortality, including mortality from abortion. Most researches attribute this plunge to improvements in public health and hygiene, the development of blood transfusion techniques, and the introduction of antibiotics. For the abortion lobby to claim credit for other people's success is deceitful and inexcusable. Learn more here.

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

1970: One of the first victims of New York abortion law

2011-09-22T05:46:00.002-04:00

"Amanda" is one of the women Life Dynamics identifies on their "Blackmun Wall" as having been killed by a safe and legal abortion. Amanda was 19 years old when she traveled from Indiana to New York for a legal abortion in 1970. She was 12 weeks pregnant.

The doctor performed the abortion on September 3. He was unable to remove any of the fetus or placenta. For some reason, he did not suspect a problem. He discharged Amanda and she returned home. Upon her return home, she suffered from pain, nausea, and vomiting, so she sought care from a physician in her community. She was admitted to the hospital with a perforated uterus.
Her doctor performed a lapartotomy, and found that the fetus was still inside Amanda's perforated uterus. The abortion was completed and the hole in her uterus was repaired.

After the surgery, she had a series of complications beginning with difficulty breathing. On September 10, doctors performed a hysterectomy. She continued to be treated in the hospital, but despite all their efforts she died on September 22.
I believe that Dr. Paul Jarrett was one of the doctors who tried to save her life. His story is here.

Advocates of legalized abortion will argue that deaths like Amanda's, while still tragic, were significantly reduced by the legalization of abortion. But as you can see from the graph below, abortion deaths had already been falling dramatically before legalization. This steep fall had been in place for decades. To argue that legalization lowered abortion mortality simply isn't supported by the data. Less abortion-enamored minds credit the drop to improved medical care.

1930: Death at the doctor's office

2011-09-21T05:41:00.002-04:00

On September 9, 1930, 20-year-old Matilda Kleinschmidt underwent a criminal abortion, believed to have been performed in the office of Dr. J. Murney Nicholson. Matilda died on September 21.

On September 22, Nicholson was held by the coroner for murder. John C. Ross was held as an accessory. Nicholson was indicted for felony murder in Matilda's death.

Matilda's abortion was typical of illegal abortions in that it was performed by a physician.

Keep in mind that things that things we take for granted, like antibiotics and blood banks, were still in the future. For more about abortion in this era, see Abortion in the 1930s.

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

1922: The tragic intersection of two Marys

2011-09-20T05:34:00.003-04:00

Mary Gresky took ill, dying of blood poisoning on September 20, 1922, from a criminal abortion performed with some sort of instrument on September 16.

On her deathbed, she named Mary Vargo as the perpetrator who used some sort of instrument on her.

Mary Vargo was found guilty of criminal malpractice, but won an appeal on the grounds of of improper instructions to the jury, irregularities of the admission of the deathbed statement, and failure to prove that the abortion had been part of a prior pattern of criminal activity by Mary Vargo.

I have been unable to determine Mary Vargo's profession. However, given the charge of criminal malpractice, she was likely some sort of medical professional, perhaps a nurse or a midwife..

Keep in mind that things that things we take for granted, like antibiotics and blood banks, were still in the future. For more about abortion in this era, see Abortion in the 1920s.

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

1994: Fetal indications abortion turns deadly for mother

2011-09-16T15:40:00.003-04:00

Alerte Desanges had been informed that her fetus was deformed, so she went for a safe, legal abortion at Choices Women's Medical Center in Queens on September 16, 1994. She was 36 years old and 19 weeks pregnant.

The abortion was performed by David Gluck. Staff said that after her abortion, Alerte was "feisty, telling nurses she wanted to go home. Then all of a sudden, she coded, she went into cardiac arrest." This "feisty" condition, wanting to go home, is a sign of shock. The next sign of shock was when Alerte's blood pressure fell. Staff attempted to revive her, then transported her to a hospital. Her death was tentatively attributed to amniotic fluid embolism by staff -- the abortionists' equivalent of "The dog ate my homework."

Desanges' 66-year-old mother, who speaks only French, was described as throwing her hands in the air and sobbing, "What are we going to do? What are we going to do? We can't go back to Haiti." Desanges supported her mother and three daughters working as a caretaker for an elderly woman, and had just bought a small house in Brooklyn.

Gluck's license had been revoked for three years after selling controlled substances to finance his gambling addiction. Gluck had also been Medical Director at C.R.A.S.H. when abortion patient "K.B." died. The Choices clinic director said "We are firmly committed to helping people who are skilled medical professionals who have had a fall from grace."

Evidently they are not equally committed to helping women to survive their abortions.

I have been unable to learn if the baby Alerte died aborting really did have a disabling condition. Other women how have died during "fetal indications" abortions include:

Linda Boom, unborn baby diagnosed with Down syndrome, who died on this day in 1995
Marla Anne Cardamone, falsely told that her medications had seriously harmed her unborn baby
Michelle Madden, told that her epilepsy medications had harmed her baby
"Beverly" Roe, told that her baby had anencephaly
"Gloria"" Roe, told that her baby had been harmed by x-rays
Allegra Roseberry, falsely told that her unborn baby was "doomed"
Margaret Louise Smith, told that her unborn baby had been harmed by rubella