Teen's Death Highlights CDC'S Lackadaisical Attitude Toward Abortion Mortality

Claims about the safety of legal abortions rest upon the presumption that the Centers for Disease Control keep track of abortion deaths. The case of Latachie Veal should lay that presumption to rest.

Robert Crist

Latachie was 17 years old, and 22 weeks pregnant, when Robert Dale Crist (pictured) 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.) Crist blamed the death not on malpractice, but on disseminated intravascular coagulopathy, a clotting disorder sometimes triggered by injury or infection.

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.

Lisa Koonin does what they pay her to do.

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.

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?

"Illegal" Abortion Deaths 60 Years Apart

There are two deaths from the Cemetery of Choice on this date, 60 years apart, very different but both illegal.

Illegal in 1923

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.

Illegal in 1982

Myrtha 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.  Myrtha, a mother of two, 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.

Because 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. This hides her death from statistics on legal abortion deaths even though Myrtha had no reason at all to suspect that her abortion wasn't legal. The other deaths at that facility -- Ruth Montero, Shirley Payne, and Maura Morales -- were counted as legal abortion deaths.

1978: Friends find woman dead in her bed

On the morning of January 2, 1978, 26-year-old Sherry Emry's friends when to check on her. They had left her the previous day, too sick to get up and sleeping fitfully, with chills and sweating. They found her dead, and called the police.

Sherry had been pain since New Years Eve. She had called Water Tower Reproductive Center in Chicago. She had undergone a safe, legal abortion there on December 28. They had assured her that her pain was normal. By New Years Day, Sherry was so sick that her friends tried to get her to seek medical care, but she had kept to her bed and assured them that she just had the flu.

The autopsy performed on Sherry found that her fetus had been implanted in her fallopian tube, which had ruptured. She had bled to death.

The coroner blamed Sherry's death on the fact that on instructions from clinic owner Arnold Bickham (pictured), Water Tower threw fetal remains away without a pathology analysis. Instead, the doctor would just watch the tissue as it passed through the suction tube and try to estimate if it looked like enough for the woman's estimated pregnancy. 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.

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 like Bickham. Interestingly, the CDC wrote up Sherry's case as an example of a legal abortion death from 1978, then changed their policy and stopped counting deaths caused by abortionists' failure to diagnose an ectopic pregnancy as abortion deaths, instead counting them with other pregnancy and childbirth mortality -- thus turning abortionists' fatal mistakes into statistics the abortion lobby could use to argue in favor of the comparative safety of legal abortions.

When Sherry's survivors filed suit against Bickham, he refused to turn over her medical records, first saying that they were privileged, then by claiming that they were his personal property and that Sherry's family had no right to them. Bickham was held in contempt of court for his refusal to cooperate with the courts in the matter.

Sherry wasn't the only woman to die after abortion in a Bickham facility. Sylvia Moore, age 18, died after Bickham shoved her out the door of his clinic New Years Eve of 1986.

For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice:



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My abortion mortality research to date

For those of you who come in searching for abortion deaths in particular years or decades, I've done the work for you.

Let's start with abortion deaths prior to widespread legalization:

The 19th Century: I have found information on 52 deaths. Of those cases in which I was able to determine who the perpetrator was, 66.67% were performed by doctors.

1900-1909: I was able to find information on 25 deaths. Of those cases in which I was able to determine the profession of the perpetrator, 65.22% were done by doctors.

1910-1919: I was able to find information on 22 deaths. Of those in which I was able to determine the profession of the perpetrator, 93.75% were performed by doctors.

The 1920s: I was able to find 120 deaths. Of those in which I could determine the profession of the perpetrator, 64.95% were done by doctors.

The 1930s: I was able to get information on 38 deaths. Of those where I was able to determine the profession of the perpetrator, 87.50% were performed by doctors. It was in 1936 that sulfa drugs for treating infections were introduced in the United States. The first blood bank in the United States was introduced in Chicago in 1937.

The 1940s: I was able to find information on 17 deaths. Of those where I was able to identify the perpetrator, 73.33% were performed by doctors. It was in the early 1940s that penicillin was first introduced in the United States.

1950s: I was able to find information on 14 deaths. Of those cases in which I was able to determine the profession of the perpetrator, only 27.27% were performed by physicians. I found this breakdown quite surprising, and a departure from the other pre-legalization decades, where physicians were the primary parties responsible for fatal abortions. I am theorizing that there might be some connection between this and the rise in abortion deaths during this decade.

The 1960s: I was able to find information on 12 deaths, 83.33% of which were performed by physicians.

Thus endeth the officially recognized era of "back alley abortion".



And now we enter the era of safe and legal abortion. You can look on the chart below for the impact widespread legalization had on abortion deaths. I marked vertical lines at 1970 (when New York and California became the first states to legalize abortion on demand) and 1973 (when Roe vs. Wade legalized abortion on demand nationwide).



If you're having a hard time spotting it, I'll zoom in a bit on abortion deaths since 1960. Note that I marked New York and California's legalization and Roe vs. Wade for you:

The 1970s: The US government entities charged with counting abortion deaths noted 235 that I was unable to find information about; I noted 5 that these government entities, for all their funding and access to confidential records, missed. During this period, the CDC's researchers did not merely count the deaths that fell on their doorstep. They also sent out letters to emergency, family, and OB/GYN physicians asking for information about abortion deaths. This aggressive seeking out of information on abortion deaths evidently proved fruitful.

The 1980s: The CDC switched to a passive reporting system and started missing more abortion deaths.

The 1990s: Here is where my data collection system lost a major source of information: researcher Kevin Sherlock, who did an extensive study of abortion deaths in the 1980s. Since he did no such study for the 1990s, I have been unable to tap indirectly into the resources Kevin had in the '80s.

Since 2000: The CDC counts only through 2003, counting 25 more deaths than I've been able to find. Again, we see the effects of my having lost the contributions of Kevin Sherlock. But I'm ahead of the CDC in that at least I count abortion deaths after 2003, of which I've found 7.

Now, why am I looking at all these abortion deaths?

It's very important that we understand history. Prochoicers need to grasp that abortion being illegal doesn't mean no alternative but the coathanger, and prolifers need to understand that simply criminalizing abortion isn't enough. Only when we study the impact of laws and attitudes on abortion practice can we develop effective strategies for what most of us agree is a common goal: Reducing abortion. For, as with any other human evil, we can never make it entirely go away.

For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice:



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Abortion Deaths in the 1980s

The Centers for Disease Control deigned to count the following abortion deaths in their most recent Abortion Surveillance Summary, for 2004:



Today I'll summarize the 1980s:

1980: The CDC counts 12 -- 8 legal, 1 illegal, and 2 unknown. I know of 7. So the CDC knows of at least four abortion deaths I'm unaware of.

1981: The CDC counts 9 -- 8 legal and 1 illegal. I have 10 deaths. So I found one that they missed.

1982: They count 12 -- 11 legal and 1 illegal. I have 8 deaths, so I missed at least 4.

1983: They count 12 -- 11 legal and 1 illegal. I have 7 deaths. So I've missed at least 5.

1984: They count 12, all legal. I have 10 deaths.

1985: They count 13: 11 legal, 1 illegal, and 1 "unknown". I have 11 deaths, so I missed at least 2.

1986: They count 13: 11 legal and 2 "unknown". I have 16. So they missed at least 3.

1987: They count 9: 7 legal and 2 illegal. I have 11; 10 legal and one likely illegal, which means that I counted at least three that the CDC missed, but I might have missed an illegal death.

1988: The CDC counts 16 legal and 0 illegal. I have 14. So there are at least two that I don't know about.

1989: The CDC counts 12 legal and 1 illegal. I have 14 legal and 1 illegal. But one of my legal deaths was related to an undiagnosed ectopic pregnancy, a death that the CDC refuses to lay on the abortionist's door regardless of how irresponsible his failure to diagnose the ectopic was. This means that there is at least one legal abortion death that the CDC failed to so much as notice.





For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice:



For more abortion deaths broken down by year, see this post.

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Abortion Deaths in the 1970s

In response to a comment about Abortion Deaths in 1971, I'm gathering the entire decade in one place. Here, to place the mortality trends in their accurate context, is a chart showing abortion deaths from 1965-1985. Legal abortions are orange, illegal abortions are purple, and "undetermined" or "unknown" -- a new category developed by the CDC for abortion deaths in which they were unable to determine if the person who performed the fatal abortion was a properly licensed physician -- are grey.

The CDC doesn't publish abortion mortality data prior to 1972, but I did find data that Physicians for Life got from the National Center for Health Statistics. I've assessed elsewhere how accurate the data are, looking at an intensive study in Minnesota and another in California, and though they're not 100% complete, they're not radically off, and the trends (falling except for the 1950s) are accurate. From 1971 onward, my numbers are from the Centers for Disease Control.

Remember that "illegal" deaths as counted by the CDC (1972 and later) can actually be cases like Myrta Baptiste -- cases in which the woman thought the abortion was legal and safe, but after she died the CDC discovered that her doctor's license wasn't currently valid and so counted it as illegal.

1970 - The NCHS noted 119 induced abortion deaths for 1970 -- 10 legal, 109 illegal. (Spontaneous abortions are miscarriages.) I have been able to document 13 deaths -- all from legal abortions in 1970. This means the NCIS missed at least three deaths.

1971 - The NCHS noted 90 induced abortion deaths for 1971 -- 15 legal, 75 illegal. (Spontaneous abortions are miscarriages.) I have been able to document 23 deaths from abortions in 1971. That means the NCHS found 63 more deaths than I know about.

1972 - The CDC counts 65 -- 24 legal, 29 illegal, and 2 unknown. I know of 16 abortion deaths in 1972, which means the CDC has at least 49 other deaths I don't know about.

1973 (Roe legalizes nationwide) - The CDC counts 47 -- 25 legal, 19 illegal, and 3 unknown. I know of 8 abortion deaths in 1973, which means the CDC has at least 29 other deaths I don't know about.

1974 - The CDC counts 33 -- 26 legal, 6 illegal, and 1 unknown. I know of 13 abortion deaths in 1974, which means the CDC has at least 20 other deaths I don't know about.

1975 - The CDC counts 34 -- 29 legal, 4 illegal, and 1 unknown. I know of 10 abortion deaths in 1975, one of which the CDC won't count, which means the CDC has at least 25 other deaths I don't know about. On the other hand, I have at least one that the CDC didn't count, because they refuse to lay responsibility on abortion doctors for their inexcusable failure to diagnose ectopic pregnancies.

1976 - The CDC counts 14 -- 11 legal, 2 illegal, and 1 unknown. I know of 5 abortion deaths in 1976, which means the CDC has at least 9 other deaths I don't know about.

1977 - The CDC counts 21 -- 17 legal and 4 illegal. (One of these was Myrta Baptiste, who had her abortion at the same clinic as three other women who died in the 1970s, but is counted as illegal even though she thought it was legal because her doctor's license was suspended at the time.) I know of 6 abortion deaths in 1977, which means that the CDC knows of 15 other deaths.

1978 - The CDC counts 16 -- 9 legal and 7 illegal. I know of 6 abortion deaths in 1978, one of which was related to an abortionist's failure to diagnose an ectopic pregnancy and thus not counted by the CDC. That means that there are 11 other abortion deaths for 1978 that I don't know about.

1979 - The CDC counts 22 -- all legal. I know of 8, which means that the CDC knows of 14 that I don't know about.

Some of you may be saying, "Why should the CDC count ectopic pregnancy deaths as abortion deaths?" The answer is simple: Ectopic pregnancy deaths after abortion attempts simply should not happen.

I hope this puts abortion deaths in the 1970s in context. If you go to the individual years and read the women's individual stories, the combination of statistical and anecdotal data should help you come to an understanding of how and why women die from induced abortions in the United States.

How a safe, legal abortion can be illegal - or - How to hide a body by counting it

Myrta Baptiste, age 26, went for a safe and legal abortion of her 10 week pregnancy, performed by Orlando Zaldivar at Woman's Care Clinic December 18, 1982. But something went wrong, and eventually it occurred to somebody to send Myrta to a hospital.

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 7 hours while hospital staff were struggling to save his patient's life.

Upon investigating Myrta's death, the CDC discovered that Zaldivar's license was inactive at the time he performed Myrta's abortion, so they classified her death as being due to illegal abortion rather than legal abortion. This effectively lowered the US death toll from legal abortions by one that year, while still noting the death of a woman who sought a safe, legal abortion. The other deaths at that facility -- Ruth Montero, Shirley Payne, and Maura Morales -- were counted as legal abortion deaths.

For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice:



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Abortion deaths in 1970

The CDC doesn't publish abortion mortality data prior to 1972, but I did find this excellent chart from Physicians for Life. They got their data from the National Center for Health Statistics. I've assessed elsewhere how accurate the data are, looking at an intensive study in Minnesota and another in California, and though they're not 100% complete, they're not radically off, and the trends (falling except for the 1950s) are accurate.

With that said, here's the chart:



The NCHS noted 119 induced abortion deaths for 1970 -- 10 legal, 109 illegal. (Spontaneous abortions are miscarriages.)

I have been able to document 13 deaths -- all from legal abortions in 1970. This means the NCIS missed at least three deaths.

Denise Holmes died when bits of fetal bone marrow got into her bloodstream and were carried into her lungs. She was the first of at least a dozen deaths at one of Edward Allred's chain of for-profit abortion mills.

Sara Lint was the first death I know of at San Vincente abortion hospital.

Sharon Margrove died from a safe, legal abortion in California.

Katherine Morse, a Texas woman, bought an abortion tourism package to go to California for the abortion that killed her.

Maria Ortega underwent an outpatient abortion in New York; her doctor pushed the fetus through the back of her uterus into her abdomen without realizing that she'd done so, then sent Maria home thinking she hadn't actually been pregnant.

Barbara Riley submitted to a "therapeutic" abortion because of her history of sickle cell disease; the abortion triggered a fatal sickle cell crisis.

Carmen Rodriguez was subjected to a dangerous saline abortion even though it was counter-indicated due to her history of heart problems.

"Amanda" Roe travelled from Indiana to New York for a safe, legal abortion. She was sent home with the fetus rotting in her uterus, and died of sepsis.

"Judy" Roe went into cardiac arrest during her abortion, lapsed into a coma, and died days later without regaining consciousness.

"Kimberly" Roe went into cardiac arrest and died during her abortion, leaving two children motherless.

"Lori" Roe, age 16, was admitted to a Maryland hospital for a legal abortion that caused a fatal infection.

"Faye" S., age 16, was admitted to a hospital for a safe, legal abortion in 1969; she developed lingering complications and died seven months later, in March of 1970.

Pearl Schwier reacted to the anesthesia during an abortion at a New York hospital.

For more abortion deaths broken down by year, see this post. Or you can place them in the context of other abortion deaths in the 1970s, and the years surrounding the 1970s:



For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice:



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Abortion deaths in 1971

The CDC doesn't publish abortion mortality data prior to 1972, but I did find this excellent chart from Physicians for Life. They got their data from the National Center for Health Statistics. I've assessed elsewhere how accurate the data are, looking at an intensive study in Minnesota and another in California, and though they're not 100% complete, they're not radically off, and the trends (falling except for the 1950s) are accurate.

With that said, here's the chart:



The NCHS noted 90 induced abortion deaths for 1971 -- 15 legal, 75 illegal. (Spontaneous abortions are miscarriages.)

I have been able to document 23 deaths from abortions in 1971:

Cassandra Bleavins suffered numerous uterine lacerations and cervical lacerations; she bled to death.

Margaret Davis died of sickle-cell crisis triggered by her abortion.

Janet Forster was sent home with a mangled fetus rotting in her uterus; she died of sepsis.

Doris Grant bled to death despite an emergency hysterectomy.

Betty Hines died from abortion-triggered sickle cell crisis.

"Amy" Roe suffered a massive fatal embolism, leaving two children motherless.

"Annie" Roe went into cardiac arrest and died, leaving three children without a mother.

"Andrea" Roe died of a septic abortion, leaving six children motherless.

"Anita" Roe was injected with saline to kill the fetus, then sent home with the expectation that she'd deliver the dead baby unattended; she was found unresponsive, and bled to death.

"April" Roe went into shock during her saline abortion.

"Audrey" Roe went into cardiac arrest during her abortion, leaving four children without a mother.

"Barbara" Roe went into convulsions and died during a saline abortion, leaving five children motherless.

"Becky" Roe was sent home to Arkansas after her safe, legal abortion in New York -- even though she had a fever. She went septic and died.

"Beth" Roe traveled from Massachusetts to New York for her safe, legal abortion. But the saline meant to kill only the baby was injected into her bloodstream somehow and killed her as well.

"Mary" Roe bled to death slowly from an undiagnosed nick in her uterine artery after a safe, legal hospital abortion in California.

"Monica" Roe, a mother of five, died a horrifying death: Her abortion had caused a bowel obstruction that went undiagnosed, allowing stomach fluids to back up into her lungs and begin digesting them as she lay dying of sepsis.

"Roseanne" Roe had seizures and vomiting during her saline abortion, causing her to inhale vomit. This caused fatal pneumonia.

"Sandra" Roe wasn't told after her abortion that a pathology report showed that she had not actually been pregnant. Crushed by grief and remorse over her belief that she had killed a child, she took her own life.

"Tammy" Roe travelled from Ohio to New York for the safe, legal abortion that killed her.

"Vickie" Roe went septic and died after her abortion.

LaSandra Russ went into cardiac arrest and died almost immediately after her abortion in a California hospital.

Carole Schaner was allowed to bleed to death from multiple internal lacerations by erstwhile criminal abortionist Jesse Ketchum while he was out on bail pending trial for having done the same thing to Margaret Smith.

Margaret Smith travelled from Michigan to New York to have Ketchum do her abortion, because she'd been exposed to rubella and feared that her baby might have birth defects.

UPDATE: Anon asked what happened after 1971. The answer is: Nothing, really. The numbers continued in the same downward trend, with the only visible impact from legalization being a replacement of illegal deaths by legal deaths:



For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice:



For more abortion deaths broken down by year, see this post.

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Abortion deaths in 1972

The Centers for Disease Control deigned to count the following abortion deaths in their most recent Abortion Surveillance Summary, for 2004:



Today I'll look at deaths in 1972. The CDC counts 65 -- 24 legal, 29 illegal, and 2 unknown.

Some of you may be thinking, "Wait a minute! Roe vs. Wade didn't legalize abortion until 1973! How can all those women be dying from legal abortions? The answer is that some states legalized abortions prior to Roe, particularly New York and California. California allowed abortion virtually on-demand, but only in hospitals. New York allowed abortion totally on-demand and not only in hospitals but in freestanding clinics and in doctors' offices.

As for the illegal abortions, they were probably performed by doctors as well, just in states that continued to frown on that sort of thing. Also, "illegal" deaths can be like Myrta Baptiste -- cases in which the woman thought the abortion was legal and safe, but after she died the CDC discovered that her doctor's license wasn't currently valid and so counted it as illegal. So any criminal abortionists who had lost their licenses in other states could have gone to New York and blended right in with the carpet-bagging criminal abortionists who hadn't lost their licenses.

I know of 16 abortion deaths in 1972, which means the CDC has at least 49 other deaths I don't know about:

Twila Coulter travelled from Colorado to California for the safe, legal abortion that took her life. Her saline abortion triggered clotting problems that caused a fatal brain bleed.

Gwendolyn Drummer was admitted to a California hospital for her abortion; saline got into her blood stream and killed her.

Natalie Meyers was brought to San Vicente Hospital in Los Angeles by her mother; she developed infection and went into shock.

"Christi Roe" underwent a saline abortion that allowed amniotic fluid to get into her bloodstream, causing fatal clotting problems.

"Cindy" Roe was undergoing a vacuum abortion when air got into her bloodstream, blocking the blood flow in her lungs and killing her.

"Colleen" Roe travelled from Michigan to New York for the safe, legal abortion that took her life. She went into respiratory arrest during the abortion.

"Connie" Roe went into cardiac arrest during her abortion. She left a young child motherless.

"Danielle" Roe travelled from Massachusetts to New York for her safe, legal abortion. Minutes after the abortion was killed she died from air and foreign matter in her bloodstream.

"Dawn" Roe suffered a fatal reaction to her abortion anesthesia.

"Julie" Roe was only 14 when she underwent her fatal abortion; her doctor had punched holes in her uterus and bowels.

"Nancy" Roe developed fatal clotting problems from a saline abortion.

"Robin" Roe travelled to New York from Massachusetts for the safe, legal abortion that killed her.

"Roxanne" Roe travelled to New York from Michigan for a safe, legal abortion. Her doctor overdosed her on anesthetic and she died before the abortion could even be performed.

"Sara" Roe died of an infection from retained tissue from her legal abortion.

"Wendy" Roe was injected with too much saline for her abortion. She went into convulsions and started bleeding uncontrollably due to an inability to get her blood to clot. She left two children motherless.

Kathryn Strong died a year to the day before Roe vs. Wade, the Supreme Court decision to allow all women to have access to similar abortions. Her uterus was punctured and she bled to death, leaving a young child without a mother.

For more abortion deaths broken down by year, see this post. Or you can place them in the context of other abortion deaths in the 1970s, and the years surrounding the 1970s:



For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice:



For more abortion deaths broken down by year, see this post.

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Abortion deaths in 1973

The Centers for Disease Control deigned to count the following abortion deaths in their most recent Abortion Surveillance Summary, for 2004:



Today I'll look at deaths in 1973. The CDC counts 47 -- 25 legal, 19 illegal, and 3 unknown. Remember that "illegal" deaths can be like Myrta Baptiste -- cases in which the woman thought the abortion was legal and safe, but after she died the CDC discovered that her doctor's license wasn't currently valid and so counted it as illegal.

I know of 8 abortion deaths in 1973, which means the CDC has at least 29 other deaths I don't know about:

Evelyn Dudley collapsed outside her home due to hemorrhage from an abortion performed at Friendship Medical Center -- the same facility that performed fatal abortion on at least 2 other women.

Kathy Murphy died from a septic abortion performed at the same abortion facility where at least four other women died.

Linda Padfield was sent home with most of her fetus still rotting inside her. She was one of two safe and legal abortion patients to die under the care of former criminal abortionist Benjamin Munson.

"Donna" Roe suffered a fatal embolism (foreign matter or air in the bloodstream) during a prostaglandin abortion.

"Dorothy" Roe likewise suffered a fatal embolism, leaving four children motherless.

"Eleanor" Roe suffered an embolism that caused a fatal clotting disorder.

"Vanessa" Roe also suffered a fatal embolism.

Julia Rogers, like Evelyn Dudley, died after an abortion at Friendship Medical Center.

For more abortion deaths broken down by year, see this post. Or you can place them in the context of other abortion deaths in the 1970s, and the years surrounding the 1970s:



For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice:



For more abortion deaths broken down by year, see this post.

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Abortion deaths in 1974

The Centers for Disease Control deigned to count the following abortion deaths in their most recent Abortion Surveillance Summary, for 2004:



Today I'll look at deaths in 1974. The CDC counts 33 -- 26 legal, 6 illegal, and 1 unknown. Remember that "illegal" deaths can be like Myrta Baptiste -- cases in which the woman thought the abortion was legal and safe, but after she died the CDC discovered that her doctor's license wasn't currently valid and so counted it as illegal.

I know of 13 abortion deaths in 1974, which means the CDC has at least 20 other deaths I don't know about:

Janet Blaum died after an abortion by a man whose criminal abortion charges had been dropped due to Roe vs. Wade, which his lawyer successfully argued had made his previous abortions retroactively legal.

Dorothy Brown was one of three women I know of who died after abortions at Friendship Medical Center in Chicago.

Bonnie Fix left four children motherless after an abortion performed for medical reasons.

Linda Fondern died after her abortionist failed to provide vital follow-up care and the hospital botched a corrective surgery.

Wilma Harris was one of two abortion patients to die under the dubious care of erstwhile criminal abortionist -- and prochoice hero -- Milan Vuitch.

Maria Lira died after her doctors left a decomposing fetus in her uterus.

Evangeline McKenna had a seizure and stopped breathing after her abortion.

Dorothy Muworewa hadn't told her husband about her pregnancy or the abortion; he found out after he came home to find his apartment covered with blood and his wife near death.

"Ellen" Roe died of an amniotic fluid embolism (amniotic fluid in her blood stream) after a saline abortion.

"Erica" Roe also died from an amniotic fluid embolism caused by a saline abortion.

"Faith" Roe bled to death from a punctured uterus.

"Malorie" Roe suffered a fatal pulmonary embolism after a saline abortion.

Carole Wingo died of a Demerol overdose during her abortion.

For more abortion deaths broken down by year, see this post. Or you can place them in the context of other abortion deaths in the 1970s, and the years surrounding the 1970s:



For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice:



For more abortion deaths broken down by year, see this post.

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Abortion deaths in 1975

The Centers for Disease Control deigned to count the following abortion deaths in their most recent Abortion Surveillance Summary, for 2004:



Today I'll look at deaths in 1975. The CDC counts 34 -- 29 legal, 4 illegal, and 1 unknown. Remember that "illegal" deaths can be like Myrta Baptiste -- cases in which the woman thought the abortion was legal and safe, but after she died the CDC discovered that her doctor's license wasn't currently valid and so counted it as illegal.

I know of 10 abortion deaths in 1975, one of which the CDC won't count, which means the CDC has at least 25 other deaths I don't know about:

Sandra Chmiel left four children motherless when she bled to death from a punctured uterus.

Sharon Floyd died of sepsis.

Rita McDowel was deliberately sent home with a retained fetus after her abortion.

Mitsue Mohar went into cardiac arrest during her abortion.

Beverly Moore died at a clinic cited for numerous deficiencies.

"Gail" Roe bled to death after her uterus ruptured during a saline abortion.

"Molly" Roe died after doctors chose a dangerous and antiquated technique to try to protect her life during a high-risk pregnancy.

"Sherri" Roe died after developing an amniotic fluid embolism.

Cheryl Tubbs bled to death after her uterus ruptured during an abortion.

Lynette Wallace certainly wasn't counted by the Centers of Disease control, since she died when her abortionist failed to diagnose her ectopic pregnancy.

For more abortion deaths broken down by year, see this post. Or you can place them in the context of other abortion deaths in the 1970s, and the years surrounding the 1970s:



For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice:



For more abortion deaths broken down by year, see this post.

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Abortion deaths in 1976

The Centers for Disease Control deigned to count the following abortion deaths in their most recent Abortion Surveillance Summary, for 2004:



Today I'll look at deaths in 1976. The CDC counts 14 -- 11 legal, 2 illegal, and 1 unknown. Remember that "illegal" deaths can be like Myrta Baptiste -- cases in which the woman thought the abortion was legal and safe, but after she died the CDC discovered that her doctor's license wasn't currently valid and so counted it as illegal.

I know of 5 abortion deaths in 1976, which means the CDC has at least 9 other deaths I don't know about:

Maria Gomez bled to death from gashes in her uterus big enough to allow her baby's head to be pushed through and left in her abdomen.

"Gloria" Roe suffered abortion injuries that left her paralyzed for the five months between her abortion and her death. She left six children without a mother.

"Rosa" Roe went to Mexico for three criminal abortions, the last of which left her fatally injured. Her family indicated that she chose this abortionist because she was somebody Rosa knew and was comfortable with.

Diane Smith developed fatal sepsis from a perforated uterus.

Cycloria Vangates died after her cervix was lacerated during an abortion.

For more abortion deaths broken down by year, see this post. Or you can place them in the context of other abortion deaths in the 1970s, and the years surrounding the 1970s:



For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice:



For more abortion deaths broken down by year, see this post.

To email this post to a friend, use the icon below.

Abortion deaths in 1977

The Centers for Disease Control deigned to count the following abortion deaths in their most recent Abortion Surveillance Summary, for 2004:



Today I'll look at deaths in 1977. The CDC counts 21 -- 17 legal and 4 illegal. I have the sneaking suspicion that the vast majority of the "illegal" deaths are Myrta Baptiste cases in which the woman thought the abortion was legal and safe, but after she died the CDC discovered that her doctor's license wasn't currently valid and so counted it as illegal.

I know of 6 abortion deaths in 1977:

Jackie Bailey suffered a fatal uterine rupture during her safe, legal saline abortion.

Barbaralee Davis wasn't taking any chances. She sought a referral for a safe abortion from a local women's group. They sent her to a member of the newly founded National Abortion Federation. They sent her home with the face and spine of her fetus jammed into a hole in her uterus. She bled to death.



Hey, prochoicers! You can't just send women into that National Abortion Federation clinic assuming that they mean what they say about standards and safety. Prochoicers? Prochoicers!

Louchrisser Jackson bled to death after her abortionist mangled her uterus.

Rosie Jimenez died from complications of an illegal abortion performed by a midwife. Seems everybody thought to tell Rosie that she couldn't get any more free taxpayer-funded abortions, but nobody thought to tell her that Planned Parenthood charged just $10 more for an abortion than the midwife did. And, of course, nobody thought to refer her to a CPC.

Mary Ann Page went in to cardiac arrest on the abortion table.

Mary Paredez was sent home to bleed to death.

The CDC has information on at least three times as many abortion deaths as I do for 1977.

For more abortion deaths broken down by year, see this post. Or you can place them in the context of other abortion deaths in the 1970s, and the years surrounding the 1970s:



For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice:



For more abortion deaths broken down by year, see this post.

To email this post to a friend, use the icon below.

Abortion deaths in 1978

The Centers for Disease Control deigned to count the following abortion deaths in their most recent Abortion Surveillance Summary, for 2004:



Today I'll look at deaths in 1978. The CDC counts 16 -- 9 legal and 7 illegal. I have the sneaking suspicion that the vast majority of the "illegal" deaths are Myrta Baptiste cases in which the woman thought the abortion was legal and safe, but after she died the CDC discovered that her doctor's license wasn't currently valid and so counted it as illegal.

I know of 6 abortion deaths in 1978:

Marina DeChapell simply stopped breathing during her abortion in an ill-equipped Miami clinic run by a former criminal abortionist.

Sherry Emry was found dead in her bed by her friends; the CDC initially counted her as an abortion death, then changed their minds the following year and reclassified her, and all other similar deaths, in a separate category of ectopic pregnancy deaths -- even though it was clearly because of the abortion that her condition was not detected and treated in time to save her life.

Minnie Lathan died after her abortionist poked holes in her uterus.

"Penny" Roe is possibly one of the deaths the CDC counted as an illegal abortion death, since she did herself in attempting a "natural" abortion with pennyroyal.

Gloria Small was a high-risk patient who bled to death after an outpatient abortion, leaving six children motherless.

Elizabeth Tsuji packed a nightgown and bid her family goodbye, never telling them she was checking into a hospital for the abortion that took her life.

The Centers for Disease Control have at least ten other abortion deaths for 1978 that I don't know about.

For more abortion deaths broken down by year, see this post. Or you can place them in the context of other abortion deaths in the 1970s, and the years surrounding the 1970s:



For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice:



For more abortion deaths broken down by year, see this post.

To email this post to a friend, use the icon below.

Abortion deaths in 1979

The Centers for Disease Control deigned to count the following abortion deaths in their most recent Abortion Surveillance Summary, for 2004:



Today I'll look at deaths in 1979. The CDC counts 22 -- all legal.

I know of 8:

Geneva Calton bled to death from a perforated uterus.

Gail Mazo was allowed to aspirate on vomit while under general anesthesia for her abortion.

Lynn McNair died when amniotic fluid got into her bloodstream during a saline abortion.

Ruth Montero bled to death at a seedy Miami abortion mill where three other women died.

"Faye" Roe was left unattended after her abortion; she was discovered, cold and blue, too late to save ehr.

Angela Scott and Deloris Smith were fatally injured nearly simultaneously in a National Abortion Federation member facility.

Gail Vroman died of gas gangrene after her safe and legal abortion.

There are at least 14 safe, legal abortion deaths in 1979 that I don't know about.

For more abortion deaths broken down by year, see this post. Or you can place them in the context of other abortion deaths in the 1970s, and the years surrounding the 1970s:



For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice:



For more abortion deaths broken down by year, see this post.

To email this post to a friend, use the icon below.

Abortion deaths in 1980

The Centers for Disease Control deigned to count the following abortion deaths in their most recent Abortion Surveillance Summary, for 2004:



Today I'll look at deaths in 1989. The CDC counts 12 -- 8 legal, 1 illegal, and 2 unknown.

I know of 7:

Gwendolyn Cliett reacted to the anesthesia and died on the table before the abortion could even be performed.

Betty Damato was deliberately subjected to an incomplete abortion, and given a trash bag to put the rest of the fetus in as it was expelled.

Georgianna "Jeannie" English was one of two patients to die from safe, legal abortions at the hands of erstwhile criminal abortionist Milan Vuitch.

Marie Gibson died from getting amniotic fluid in her bloodstream during the abortion.

Linda Lovelace developed sepsis from a perforated uterus.

Vanessa Preston had the dubious distinction of being the first identified death from disseminated intravascular coagulopathy (a clotting disorder) brought on by a second-trimester dismemberment abortion.

Shirley Williams died of infection and hemorrhage.

So the CDC knows of at least four abortion deaths I'm unaware of -- possibly more if I have noted the deaths of women who, like Latachie Veal, they simply failed to count.



For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice:



For more abortion deaths broken down by year, see this post.

To email this post to a friend, use the icon below.