Friday, June 12, 2026

June 12, 1970: "Maternal Indications" Abortion Proves Fatal for Philadelphia Mother

Arlene Francis Hull was an unmarried 24-year-old black woman living in Philadelphia. She discovered she was pregnant in the spring or early summer of 1970.

There is no record of whether Arlene sought out an abortion on her own initiative or whether her doctor recommended it because she has multiple sclerosis (MS) and epilepsy causing grand mal seizures. Whatever the reason for the abortion, due to her health issues her doctor was able to admit her to Jefferson Hospital for an abortion at 15 weeks. 

Though Pennsylvania abortion law didn't specify a "life of the mother" exception, Arlene's doctors felt confident about the legality of their decision. 

Grok indicates that MS symptoms can either become more serious or improve during pregnancy. In 1970 it was treated primarily with corticosteroids for flare-ups. At that time doctors recommended that women with MS avoid pregnancy. Common antiepileptic drugs in 1970 could harm the fetus, leaving doctors to have to balance the risk of seizures and the risks of causing fetal injury. 

The technique chosen was hysterotomy (pictured), which is just a C-section with the intention that the baby not survive. Jefferson Hospital was a major academic medical center, appropriate for any kind of surgery for a high-risk patient. Grok could only theorize as to why such an invasive procedure was chosen. However, in 1970, abortion at 15 weeks was unusual because the fetus was too big to be aborted with a dilation and curettage but the uterus was too small for most doctors to attempt an amniocenteses abortion, which usually wasn't attempted prior to 18 weeks. Saline amniocenteses would also have been an extremely risky procedure even for a healthy woman.

Arlene's abortion was performed at 9:15 am on June 12. By 4:30 pm, Arlene was dead from complications of the thiopental, nitrous oxide, succinyl choline and curare administered for anesthesia. According to Grok, this drug combination was standard for general anesthesia, but might have been a risky choice for a patient with neurological conditions. 

Grok offers the following possible mechanisms of complication leading to Arlene's death:
  • Respiratory Depression or Arrest: Thiopental and nitrous oxide can suppress breathing, particularly if dosing is not carefully titrated. Succinylcholine and curare, which paralyze respiratory muscles, require mechanical ventilation; any delay or failure in intubation could lead to hypoxia.
  • Anaphylaxis or Adverse Reaction: Succinylcholine or curare can trigger allergic reactions or malignant hyperthermia, a rare but fatal condition causing muscle rigidity and fever.
  • Neurological Interaction: Arlene’s epilepsy and MS may have altered her response to anesthesia. For example, succinylcholine can cause prolonged paralysis in patients with neurological disorders, and AEDs may interact with anesthetics, increasing sedation or toxicity.
  • Cardiovascular Collapse: Anesthesia-induced hypotension, combined with Arlene’s compromised health, could have led to shock or cardiac arrest.
Grok did not share my confidence that Pennsylvania doctors would have had no fear of prosecution for performing a hospital abortion on a high-risk patient. 

Sources: 

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June 12, 1902: The Free-Love Abortionist

Dr. Frederick Weightnovel

Early on the morning of June 12, 1902, Captain Carter of the Tampa, Florida police got a notice of a body being removed from the Whiting Street apartment of 65-year-old Dr. Frederick Weightnovel (sometimes identified as Dr. Leontieff Theodore Weightnovel).  

According to the June 26, 1902 Tampa Weekly Tribune, "His establishment on Whiting street has always been a subject of suspicion, and he has been generally regarded as a criminal practitioner, who was sharp enough to avoid the courts." 

Cpt. Carter learned that the body was that of a young woman and that it was taken to the undertaking establishment of J. L. Reed, whom Weightnovel had contacted at around 7:00 that morning. Weightnovel provided Mr. Reed with a death certificate listing peritonitis as the cause of death. Reed reported that "he ... found the body badly contorted, the usual offices upon the newly dead having been entirely neglected."

The body was that of 18-year-old Irene Randall of Quincy, Florida, daughter of tobacco businessman A. A. Randall. Irene had been spending the previous seven months in Tampa with her aunt, Mrs. Laura J. Christian, to learn dressmaking. She had gone home to Quincy, then returned to Tampa on Saturday, June 7. She was met by her cousin, J. Carl Christian. 

Christian had arranged for her to stay at the home of the Russian-born Dr. Weightnovel for an abortion. 

Dr. U .S Bird and Dr. J. M Grantham performed an autopsy.

Irene's father received a telegram informing him of his daughter's death and asking what he wanted done with the body. Mr. Randall asked that Irene's body be shipped to Midway, which was near Quincy. In the mean time, as the Tampa Tribune of June 20 said, "The fair dead face ... was viewed at Reed's undertaking parlors yesterday by many who had known her in life, including relatives of the deceased who reside in this city. Despite the rigidity of death, the features bore the traces of the agony, physical and mental, which must have been the lost of the young sufferer in her last hours."

After the viewing, Reed shipped Irene's body to Midway as requested.

What of Weightnovel?

According to the June 26, 1902 Tampa Weekly Tribune, "Dr. Weightnovel ... is one of the most conspicuous characters in Tampa. He has been a resident of the city for many years, and claims to be a refugee from Russia, to escape political persecution. He wears the most luxurious head of hair in Florida, and has attracted particular attention during his residence in the city by invariably occupying a front seat at all theatrical performances and taking conspicuous part in every excursion."

The June 20 Tampa Tribune noted that while mourners and the curious were filing past Irene's coffin, Weightnovel "fanned himself industriously in a cell at the county jail, stroked his plenteous beard and hair, and consulted with his attorney...."

The police confiscated records and letters.

The father of Irene's aborted baby was identified as a young cigar-maker named Robert Floyd. Floyd denied the allegation. Weightnovel's attorney, Henry Cohen, turned over letters to the police which were purportedly written by Irene during her dying days. According to the June 20 Tampa Tribune, one of the letters was written to Floyd. "In this letter, she recalls to her betrayer the occasion of her ruin, mentioning Amy Droty's notorious resort on Fifth avenue, as the scene, and indicating that she was taken there by force and drugged into semi-consciousness. .... This letter was sealed, addressed, and stamped but not mailed, and was found among the papers in Dr. Weightnovel's apartments."

Irene's parents evidently knew where she was. She had gotten letters from her mother "full of a mother's tenderness and solicitations of grief at the condition to which she had fallen." Cohen planned to use these letters to assert that Irene had undergone an abortion at her home in Quincy and had only travelled to Tampa, whereupon Weightnovel had taken her in.

Christian visited Irene many times during her stay at Weightnovel‘s home. Two days after her arrival, Irene asked Christian to telegraph to Waycross for her trunk.

Testimony about days and dates is evidently jumbled. The abortion was reportedly performed June 6, which was a Friday. But Irene's cousin reported that he visited her on a Wednesday, about a week before her death, and she‘d told him that Weightnovel had performed the abortion the previous night, and that she‘d be ready to go home the following Tuesday. The only date we can perhaps rely upon is the date of Irene's death: June 12.

Arrived June 7? Weightnovel called in another doctor on Tuesday night. She told the doctor what had happened and died on June 12 at 2 a.m.

Weightnovel was arrested and held in default of $2,000 bail.

Public outrage was high against Weightnovel. One letter to the Tampa Tribune, June 20, 1902, read:

It is a well-known and indisputable fact that Dr. Weightnovel, the long-haired quack who murdered the Randall girl, by performing an operation on her has been illegitimately practicing in this city for years and God in Heaven only knows how many poor girls he has butchered and sent to an early grave by his hellish methods. He should be considered in the category of a murderer and as such tried by a jury in the same manner as a midnight assassin... and be compelled to stand the consequences.

It is a reflection on the intelligence of an American people to permit the release of the old scamp and the good people of Tampa should rise up en masse and see that he is properly punished. He is guilty of one of the most heinous crimes known and he is none too good to stretch hemp and the heart-broken parents of the poor murdered girl will never be sufficiently revenged until he and the girl's betrayer are both dangling side by side on a gallows.

Dr. B. G. Abernathy was called in to attend to Irene after the abortion. Abernathy testified that Irene told him she‘d come to Weightnovel about two weeks earlier, that she did well the first day or two after the abortion, but that she became very sick and rapidly declined.

Abernathy diagnosed Irene suffering from blood poisoning caused by retained placenta. Abernathy asked Weightnovel for a curette so that he could perform a D&C, and Weightnovel provided one. Abernathy also returned to his own house to get some other instruments. At some point Weightnovel asked Abernathy to send a telegram to Irene's parents.

State's witness Frank Middaugh testified that on the night Irene died, he‘d heard the cries of a girl calling, “Doctor, doctor," from Weightnovel's house. Middaugh also testified that he saw Weightnovel sitting in a lighted window, fanning himself.

An undertaker testified that he‘d been summoned to remove Irene‘s body, and was asked to do so quietly and discreetly to keep the news of Irene‘s death secret.

Officer Carter, who had arrested Weightnovel, testified that when he made the arrest, Weightnovel picked up a bundle of women‘s clothing, which he rolled up and tried to toss under a table. Carter saw that the clothing was stained and took the clothing into evidence.

Weightnovel was convicted of manslaughter in Irene‘s death and was sentenced to six years at hard labor. The February 5, 1903 Tampa Weekly Tribune noted, "But for the advanced age of the prisoner, Judge Graham would doubtless have given him at least ten years, the maximum penalty in the case being twenty years. If Dr. Weightnovel should go to a convict camp, the first penalty inflicted upon him would doubtless be the removal of his flowing locks and profuse beard."

He appealed and was granted a new trial. One of the grounds was that Carl Christian's testimony regarding statements Irene had made to him were inadmissible because they were not made in Weightnovel's presence. The testimony of Mr. Middaugh that he had seen Weightnovel fanning himself in an easy chair while Irene was screaming in an adjoining room were found inadmissible because they were prejudicial.

Dr. Abernathy, who had been a key witness for the prosecution, died before a second trial could be held.

Sources: 

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June 12, 1874: Abortion Exposes Affair with Wife's Sister

Rosetta Jackson, around 18 years of age, lived as a servant with a married sister, Lizzie Flagg. Lizzie's husband, William H. Flagg, was a barber with a shop on West Lake Street. 

The family were originally from New York. Lizzie had moved to Chicago around 1868. Rosetta had first lived with another sister, Mrs. Otis, where she worked and was paid as a servant before moving in with Lizzie and William about a year before the fatal abortion. At that time Rosetta began attending Western Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church, and became known to the pastor and a couple named Watson. 

Rosetta was considered to be "a modest, retiring woman." Mr. Watson testified that once, while getting his hair cut, he heard Flagg tell Rosetta that if she want to live with her other sister she could never come into his house again. 

Grok AI illustration
Evidently a liaison took place between Rosetta and her brother-in-law, resulting in a pregnancy that the two wanted to keep secret from Rosetta's sister, who later testified that she had never noticed any untoward behavior of the two towards each other.

An abortion was perpetrated by Dr. Charles Earll, resulting in Rosetta's death on June 12, 1874. Flagg and Earll arranged for a private burial at Graceland Cemetery, but somebody tipped off the authorities, leading to an exhumation and autopsy. The cause of death was detected - injuries to the uterus caused during an abortion. Those injuries had become infected, leading to peritonitis. 

In addition to Earll and Flagg, a woman named Kate Holland was implicated as an accessory because the Rosetta had died in her house. 

Police raided Earll's practice and confiscated abortion instruments, along with a bottle of oil of tansy, a popular herbal abortifacient.  The bottle of tansy was shown to Mrs. Holland, who identified it as a medicine that Rosetta had been taking. 

A fetus was discovered buried in the back yard of Mrs. Holland's house. 

Dr. Defendants in Court

The Chicago Tribune notes that Earll "was dressed in a scrupulously neat manner, and was exceeding calm and collected in his behavior, Betraying little or no anxiety for the fate that may befall him."

The Chicago Tribune noted that the Flaggs "appear[ed] to be reputable people" who tried to avoid public attention as much as possible. 

Mrs. Holland was described as "a shrewd-looing person of uncertain age." Her daughter, Francelia Bullard, was described as having "an innocent-looking appearance."

Lizzie's Testimony

Lizzie said that the last she saw her sister alive was at Mrs. Holland's house on the first Sunday in June. She hadn't know that Rosetta was ailing until after her death. She saw her sister's body at Holland's home.

Francelia's Testimony

Francelia Bullard, Mrs. Holland's daughter, testified that Rosetta had come to stay at her mother's house, giving her name as Alice Hayes. About three days after Rosetta moved in, she and Francelia went for a walk to Dr. Earll's office. Francelia waited while Rosetta went into a private room with Earll for about five minutes. It was about two days after that visit that Rosetta took ill and never recovered. During Rosetta's illness of about nine days, Earll came to the Holland home about 5 or 6 times to attend to her.

Flagg's Testimony

William Flagg denied being the father of Rosetta's baby but did indicate that he had known about the pregnancy and had given Earll $10 to "continue his treatment" of Rosetta. 

The Appeal

Earll was convicted of manslaughter in an abortion death in August of 1874. His attorney appealed for a new trial on the following grounds:

  1. The court admitted improper testimony.
  2. The court refused to admit proper evidence.
  3. The court refused proper instructions asked in behalf of the defendant.
  4. The court gave improper instructions for the people
  5. The verdict is unsupported by the evidence.
  6. On account of misconduct of jurors during the trial, reading of newspapers, ad inattention to the evidence given for the defense. 
The attorney contended that William Flagg should have been corroborated by other witnesses, and that aside from Flagg's testimony there was no evidence that Earll intended to cause Rosetta's death.

The judge noted that if Earll's attorney had noticed misconduct by the jury, it had been his duty to bring it to the court's attention at that time, not hold back for appeal. 

Sources: 
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June 12, 1913: A Lingering Death Leaves the Abortionist Free to Kill Again

On March 10, 1913, 35-year-old homemaker  Annie M. Brassler of Whitestone, New York was admitted to Flushing Hospital in New York. After doctors concluded that she was suffering from the effects of an abortion they notified the coroner's office. 

Annie gave the coroner a deathbed statement in which she said that 60-year-old allopath Dr. F. Waldo Whitney had performed the abortion on February 22, presumably at his office on West 64th Street in Manhattan.

Whitney was arrested based on Annie's statement and held for three weeks before he was finally released on $3,000 bail.

Annie lingered for three months before finally dying on June 12, leaving her husband, George, to raise their four young children alone. An autopsy confirmed that she had died of "exhaustion incident to general septicaemic & suppurative pyelonephritis canadyan induced abortion."

Whitney's attorney was able to get the deathbed statement ruled inadmissible because of the three months that lapsed between the date of the statement and the day Annie died. This left him free to perform a fatal abortion on Margaret Buetelman in 1914. 

Whitney was convicted of first-degree manslaughter for Margaret's death on December 10, 1915 and was sentenced that day to a sentence of two years to 19 years six months at hard labor in Sing Sing. He was pardoned on August 6, 1918 after serving only 2 years, 7 months, and 27 days. He went on to perform a fatal abortion on a woman whose name I've been unable to determine in 1923.

Watch "Would A Second Statement Have Saved the Next Woman?" on YouTube.

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Thursday, June 11, 2026

June 11, 1999: The Utmost in Safe, Lethal Abortion Care

Maria Lynne Leho, age 26, was in the first trimester of pregnancy when she entrusted herself to the staff at Albany Medical Surgical Center of Chicago -- a member of the Family Planning Associates Medical Group chain of abortion facilities and thus a member of the prestigious National Abortion Federation (NAF). NAF purports to ensure that all of its member facilities adhere to the very highest standards of care. 

On June 9, 1999, John Weitzner, MD performed a suction abortion on Maria, while Lawrence Hill, CRNA, administered Brevitol for anesthesia. This drug is inappropriate for a patient who had seizure disorder, as Maria had indicated on her medical history. Maria was under anesthesia for a total of four minutes, from 12:40 to 12:44 p.m. Hill then transferred Maria to the recovery room without first verifying that her condition was stable. When she was transferred, the pulse oximeter, which monitors pulse and blood oxygen levels, was removed.

Albany Medical Surgical Center

Once in the recovery room, the still-sedated and unconscious Maria was attended by Tanya Hall, RN, while Hill went to administer anesthesia to another patient. Hall put a blood pressure cuff on Maria's arm, and another pulse oximeter on her finger, but this one hadn't been tested. She then left the recovery room. 

Maria was now in the care of Yvette Johnson, RN. A nurse reviewing Maria's records noted that the nurses did not perform a proper assessment of Maria when she was turned over to their care. They did not take a pulse or check to see if she was even breathing.

Shortly thereafter, Johnson noticed that Maria wasn't breathing and had no pulse. She, Hill, and Hall attempted to resuscitate her with CPR, and ambu-bag, and a defibrillator. Nobody summoned Weitzner, who was performing an abortion on another patient. He came into the recovery room at about 12:50. Staff continued to try to revive Maria for another ten minutes before they finally got around to calling 911, rather than summoning EMS as soon as they realized that their patient was in a life-threatening emergency.

Maria was taken to Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's hospital, where she died on June 11. She left behind two sons, a 7-year-old and a toddler.

Edward Allred
Albany had already had one patient, Deanna Bell, die from anesthesia complications. Then-owner Edward Campbell Allred admitted that he failed to perform any preventability study to keep any other patients from suffering Deanna's fate.

Other women known to have died after abortions at Allred's facilities include: 

  • Patricia Chacon, age 16, March 3, 1984
  • Mary Pena, age 43, December 16, 1984
  • Josefina Garcia, age 37, May 23, 1985
  • Laniece Dorsey, age 17, February 6, 1986
  • Joyce Ortenzio, age 32, June 8, 1988
  • Tami Suematsu, age 19, August 19, 1988
  • Susan Levy, age 30, April 9, 1992
  • Deanna Bell, age 13, September 5, 1992
  • Christine Mora, age 18, November 8, 1994
  • Ta Tanisha Wesson, age 24, January 24, 1995
  • Nakia Jorden, age 16, December 10, 1998
  • Maria Rodriguez, age 22, March 25, 2000
  • Kimberly Neil, age 38, May 22, 2000
  • "Imelda Laurence," age 19, November 20, 2003
  • Chanelle Bryant, age 22, January 14, 2004
  • "Kyla Ellis," age 23, May 16, 2014

    • Steve Lichtenberg, who oversees and performs abortions at the Chicago FPA facilities, continues to make presentations at their Risk Management Seminars although the Medical Director of Planned Parenthood Federation of America had scolded him at one NAF session for "playing Russian roulette with patients' lives" by treating life-threatening complications at his outpatient clinic rather than promptly transferring them to properly equipped hospitals. Yet they profess a loathing of risky abortion practices.

    CRNA Lawrence Hill was also faulted for his fatal oversights in the abortion deaths of Antonesha Ross in 2009 and Nakia Jorden (as noted above) in 1998.

    Watch "Deadly Delay" on YouTube.

    Source:
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    June 11, 1917: Another Death from the Homicide in Chicago Database

    On June 11, 1917, 23-year-old homemaker Esther May Stark, nee McMullen, died at Chicago's German Hospital from a criminal abortion perpetrated by midwife Mary Groh, who was never prosecuted because she died several days later from causes not indicated in the source. Groh had arranged for Esther to board at the home of Mrs. Scholtes for her abortion.


    Watch More Scanty Chicago Information on YouTube.

    Sources: 

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    June 11, 1843: Death in a Stranger's House

    Caroline Amelia Clark, age 18, lived in Detroit with her mother and stepfather, Mr. and Mrs. Myers. From time to time she resided with the family of her stepfather’s son-in-law, Alonzo Plumstead, in Northville.

    Dumped at a Stranger’s Home

    On Sunday, June 4, 1843, Caroline told her mother that she was leaving aboard a steamboat for Toledo, accompanied by Mr. Plumstead. Instead of boarding the boat, however, Caroline and Plumstead went to the Farmington home of Mrs. Sophia Sperry, arriving as night was falling. Plumstead gave his name as Marlow, and, referring to Caroline as his wife, Sarah, Plumstead asked if she could stay there for a few days while he went to Livingston County. She was feeling too ill, he said, to continue the trip with him. Mrs. Sperry agreed, and Plumstead left.

    Caroline only sat by the fire a short time before saying that she felt unwell and wanted to go to bed. Mrs. Sperry settled her visitor in bed and sat up with her through the night.

    Summoning a Doctor

    The next day, which was Monday, Mrs. Sperry saw Dr. Wixom passing by, so she called him in to attend to the sick woman. Wixom examined Caroline, who was pregnant and appeared to be in premature labor.

    Caroline gave birth to a stillborn child on Wednesday. Wixom checked on her and she seemed to be adequately recovering. However, she took violently ill on Friday.

    Caroline Dies

    On Saturday Plumstead came to the house, stayed with Caroline for several hours, and then left, instructing Mrs. Sperry to send for him in Northville if “Sarah” died.

    She died the very next day, June 11.

    The Abortion Revealed

    A post-mortem examination was performed at Mrs. Sperry's home. A coroner’s jury concluded that “Caroline Amelia Clark came to her death by inflammation subsequent to abortion, which was produced by extraordinary means used or administered to or upon said Caroline Amelia Clark, by some person or persons, for that purpose, to this jury unknown.”

    The News Breaks

    News coverage indicated that there was no love lost for Plumstead:

    Considered in all its circumstances and revolting details, many of which are unfit for publication, it is indisputably the most diabolical and fiendish outrage, so far as Plumstead is concerned, which has ever disgraced this or any other civilized community. The deceased we understand, was beautiful and accomplished — enjoying an education superior to that of most young ladies by whom she was surrounded, and up to the time of the fatal denouement of their illicit intercourse, both she and her heartless seducer and murderer, (for he can scarcely be looked upon in any other light,) moved in the best society, and enjoyed the respect and esteem of a numerous circle of friends and acquaintances. The scene represented on the arrival of the afflicted mother and sister from Detroit, is said to have been heart-rending to the last degree.

    Caroline’s Mother and Plumstead’s Wife React

    “When the sad intelligence was communicated to that too fond and unsuspecting parent, that her daughter lay in the cold arms of death at Farmington, … it required the utmost powers of persuasion on the part of the messenger … to convince her of the fact. She could not and would not believe it. She was sure that her child was then safe with her friends in Toledo, and she remained partially incredulous until she arrived and saw with her own eyes!”

    “The wife of the vile seducer was also present, and, with all the eloquence and earnestness of a woman’s confidence and tired affection, protested her husband’s innocence, and the impossibility of his having any thing to do in the perpetration of so foul a crime, until her mouth was closed by his confession, to her face, that he was indeed the wretch.”

    Plumstead, however, made himself scarce before he could be arrested.

    Sources: 

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    Wednesday, June 10, 2026

    1973: Woman Drowns In Her Own Blood

    It was 1973, the year that Roe v. Wade legalized abortion in all 50 states. “Hazel” was a woman who underwent a “safe and legal” abortion and suffered a horrific death.

    After the abortion, Hazel became extremely sick and suffered organ inflammation. She developed gastritis so severe that it caused internal hemorrhage. She bled so much that she aspirated blood into her lungs and suffocated to death— essentially drowning in her own blood.

    Hazel was one of at least 104 women and girls killed by legal abortion from 1972 to 1975. The study that recorded their deaths also admitted that an author’s previous claims on the safety of abortion were founded on unadjusted death-to-case rates and noted that abortion at or after 16 weeks was significantly more dangerous than a full-term birth.

    (Study on maternal deaths)

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    Tuesday, June 09, 2026

    June 9, 1979: First of Two Deaths From Near-Simultaneous Injuries

     Summary: Angela Scott was the first of two teens to die of nearly simultaneous injuries at a National Abortion Federation member clinic.

    In the era of safe, legal abortion, we find a case of striking ineptitude. 

    On June 2 of 1979. National Abortion Federation member Atlanta Women's Pavillion rose to new levels of incompetence when staff there managed to fatally injure two teenage abortion patients in less than an hour.

    Recovery Room at Atlanta Women's Pavilion

    Dr. Jacob Adams was a co-owner of the clinic, along with Dr. Otis Hammonds and Dr. Olly C. Duckett. Adams performed an abortion under general anesthesia on 19-year-old Angela Belinda Scott. He sent her to the recovery room then began performing an abortion on 15-year-old Delores Jean Smith.

    Angela, an unmarried Black woman, was a Private First Class in the National Guard Medical Corps.

    Angela went into cardio-respiratory arrest in the recovery room due to what was reported as an "idiosyncratic reaction" to anesthesia. 

    Nurse Teresa Stearns, who was not certified as an anesthetist, was administering anesthesia to Delores while Adams was performing her abortion. Stearns ran to assist in efforts to revive Angela, leaving Delores with her intravenous anesthesia drip still running while Adams continued with the abortion.

    There was a 25-minute delay in getting an ambulance to the clinic because staff didn't tell the ambulance service that the call was for an emergency. 

    After the staff had resuscitated Angela and loaded her into an ambulance, they returned their attention to Delores , who had gone into cardio-respiratory arrest. 

    Dr. Jacob Adams

    Adams had accompanied Angela to the Grady Memorial Hospital, and even though the ambulance could have transported both patients, staff refused to release Delores 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 at 2:35 a.m. on June 9. Her mother, Sarah Kellorn, sued the clinic, the three owners, and the nurse for $12.3 million, calling Atlanta's 10 or so outpatient abortion clinics "unregulated assembly-line abortion mills." At the time, abortion clinics in Georgia were not regulated beyond a requirement that they be overseen by a licensed physician.

    Delores remained comatose in an intensive-care unit at Grady.

    Fulton County District Attorney Lewis Slaton launched an investigation. Atlanta homicide chief Lieutenant W. K. Perry said, "We've had everybody, including the CDC, calling to see what happened and why." 

    State legislators held hearings about regulating abortion clinics. The medical board held formal hearings. The Food and Drug Administration examined the anesthesia drugs used on the patients.

    Delores never regained consciousness. She was admitted to a nursing home in August, where she died of adult respiratory distress syndrome on October 24, 1979. Delores's mother, Nancy Smith, filed a $12.3 million suit against the clinic after learning that her daughter's pregnancy test performed at the clinic had come up negative.

    Both young women were Black -- a fact that made them at higher risk of abortion death for reasons that, to my knowledge, have never been investigated.

    Watch "The First of Two Deaths" on YouTube.

    Sources:

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    June 9, 1971: Mystery Abortion in North Carolina

    Rhonda Gale Ingram, nee Little
    Rhonda Gale Little was very active and promising young woman that summer of 1971. Of mixed Black and Native American descent, Rhonda had been born in Pensacola, Florida on March 1, 1952 to Perry Philemon and Mildred Harris Little. The family had moved to High Point, North Carolina when Rhonda was very young. She had two sisters, Judith and Melanie, and a brother, Perry Jr. 

    Rhonda graduated in June of 1970 from High Point, NC High School. She had been a very active and involved student. She was a member of the Beta Club for students with high GPAs her junior and senior years, reporter for the Future Homemakers of America (FHA) her junior year and FHA secretary her senior year, active in the French Club her junior and senior years, and on the Social Committee and office staff her senior year..
     
    After high school, Rhonda enrolled at North Carolina Central University at Durham, an historic black university. With her smoothly-coiffed hair, she stood out from among the more currently fashionable Afro styles. She was still going by her maiden name when the university yearbook was published.

    She was a member of High Point First Baptist Church, where she served as Sunday school pianist and sang in the Junior Choir. 

    A Proud and Reputable Family

    Rhonda's father was frequently mentioned in local news for his civic activities, particularly on the High Point School Board. His dental practice was profitable, having brought in $37,283 (over $300,000 in 2026 dollars) in Medicaid payments alone in the first 16 months of the program. That would mean in Medicaid patients alone his practice was bringing in nearly $28,000 a year (around $229,000 in 2026 dollars). He reported that Medicaid patients made up about half of his practice. Medicaid payment was about 75% of the normal charge for a patient, meaning that the other half of his practice was bringing in about $36,400 from his other patients, for a total of roughly $64,400 annually (over $526,000 in 2026). Overhead costs were just a bit under 50%, so Dr. Little was taking home the equivalent of over a quarter of a million dollars every year to support his family of 5.

    I can't find any public records to indicate when Rhonda married Linwood Ingram, but she must have still been a newlywed when she discovered that she was pregnant in the spring of 1971. Given her parents' prosperity and community prominence, the lack of a wedding announcement hints that the young couple might have married quietly when they learned that Rhonda was pregnant.

    Dr. and Mrs. Little apparently didn't approve. According to a lawsuit later filed by her widowed husband, Perry Little and his wife coerced Rhonda into an abortion, which was perpetrated by Dr. Albert Perry on April 24.

    A Lingering Death

    During the abortion, Perry mangled the fetus and put a hole though Rhonda's uterus and into her small intestines. I have found no record of how long it took for anybody to notice that something was wrong.  For weeks, Rhonda fought for her life. She was pronounced dead at 8:30 pm on Wednesday, June 6, 1971 at North Carolina Memorial Hospital in Chapel Hill from septic shock.

    No Visible Fallout

    Dr. Perry, around 50 years of age, was an official with the local NAACP as well as a known abortionist with several arrests for this practice. He had been convicted in an abortion case in 1958 and spent 11 months in prison. His license was restored in 1961 on the condition that he practice only in Mecklenburg County. Two months later he reopened his practice in Charlotte. He was charged for abortion in May of 1964, August of 1970, and November of 1971, but all of those charges were dismissed.

    I've been unable to find any evidence that he was charged in Rhonda's death. The worst consequence he seemed to suffer was being named in the lawsuit by Rhonda's bereaved husband. Linwood sued Perry and his former in-laws for $500,000 in damages and $250,000 in punitive damages over Rhonda's death. I've been unable to determine the outcome of the suit. Any criminal and civil cases might have fallen by the wayside since Perry died in May of 1972. It's possible that Perry had been able to get two other doctors to sign off on the abortion as medically necessary, per the 1967 North Carolina law, and do the abortion in a hospital, which would explain why he had been prosecuted for so many other abortions but not for this fatal one.

    Sources:
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    June 9, 1917: Two Deaths in Chicago

    The two illegal abortion deaths on this date both took place on exactly the same day in Illinois. 

    Matilda "Dollie" Tidrick, a 38-year-old waitress, was taken to a hospital in Danville, Illinois, in June of 1917. There, she was operated on by Dr. George Lotz. He called in other doctors "who assisted until they learned the nature of the case."

    Dollie died on June 9, in spite of the surgery, along with her unborn child. The autopsy found that both had died from the results of an attempted abortion.

    Dollie left behind her husband, Clarence, along with seven children and at least one grandchild.

    Lotz, who was held without bail, "admitted ... that he was guilty, and had been arrested for the same offense at Chicago and 'paid the price.'" This Chicago case was most likely the June 25, 1911 abortion death of 20-year-old Anna Mueller.

    Oddly, though Lotz admitted guilt, he was acquitted.

    The same day as Dollie Tidrick's death, June 9, 1917, 26-year-old homemaker Emma Melvin died at Chicago's St. Mary's Hospital from infection caused by a criminal abortion. A person or persons unidentified in the source document indicates that the abortion was perpetrated by Dr. M. Meinhardt, who was never tried in Emma's death.

    Watch "Why Was Dr. Lotz Acquitted?" on YouTube.

    Sources:

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    Monday, June 08, 2026

    June 8, 1964: Geri the Poster Child and Why "Never Again" Rings Hollow

    Geraldine "Gerri" Santoro is the woman in the infamous photo used by abortion advocates to illustrate the horror of illegal abortion. The photo showed Gerri, nude, face-down with her knees under her, on the floor of the motel room where she died in June of 1964. 

    Ms. Magazine first published the photo in 1973, and abortion advocates continue to use the picture in posters. In 1995, Boston filmmaker Jane Gillooly produced a film, "Leona's Sister Gerri," to rally people behind the cause of readily available abortion, on PBS, at taxpayer expense. An icon in death, who was Geraldine Santoro in life?

    Gerri's Marriage

    Born August 16, 1935, Geri was part of a large family of 10 boys and three girls. Gerri's best friend from high school described her as fun-loving, given to playing hooky and getting sent to the principal's office for mischief. Gerri wanted to beat an engaged friend to the altar, so she got married at age 18 to Sebastian "Sam" Santoro, three or four weeks after she had met him at a bus stop. 

    But Santoro was abusive. Gerri's sister reported often seeing her covered with bruises, and seeing the children beaten with a belt. Santoro reportedly blamed the abuse on sinus problems that gave him headaches that made him irritable, so he moved his little family to California. But the abuse continued. One of Gerri's daughters later recounted hearing her mother screaming, going into the bedroom, and seeing her father atop Gerri, his hands around her throat. So in 1963, Gerri left Sam Santoro and took their two daughters, ages 8 and 9, to live on her family's farm in Coventry, Connecticut.

    The Pregnancy 
     
    Clyde Dixon in court
    Gerri first worked as a waitress at Hillside Restaurant in Coventry, which was owned by her brother-in-law, John Russak. She later g    ot a job at Mansfield State Training School. There she met Clyde Dixon, a 43-year-old married man who worked with her. 

    Dixon was a veteran who had flown 54 missions as a fighter pilot in World War II and had served in the Korean conflict. He was a lieutenant colonel in the Air Force Reserve. He had worked at the school, an institution for the intellectually disabled, for 17 years. He had recently been promoted to supervisor over the care of 140 boys. Clyde Dixon must have seemed like an irresistible combination of a dashing hero and a stable caregiver. The two had an affair, and Gerri got pregnant. 

    Gerri spoke to her sister of one day marrying Dixon, fantasizing about how her children could play in his yard and have their own room. 

    This was in 1964. Sam Santoro announced he was coming from California to visit his daughters. Gerri, 28 years old and six and a half months pregnant to another man, reportedly feared for either for her life, or that she would lose custody of her children.

    Seeking Abortifacients
     
    Gerri asked a friend for some ergot, ostensibly for a another friend. But evidently nothing came of this. Her sister realized Gerri was pregnant, and Gerri asked her, too, for some ergot. But Leona didn't think this was safe and dissuaded her sister from pursuing this avenue. Leona said she managed to pull together about $700 or $750 (over $4,000 in 2025 dollars) for Gerri, thinking Gerri could go someplace far way, to an organization like Catholic Charities, to get help. Sadly, though there were resources available to help her, Geri rejected those resources for reasons we do not know.

    The Abortion 
     
    At around 8:30 pm on June 8, Gerri checked into Norwich Motel in Norwich, Connecticut under the name Margaret Reynolds. After looking at the second-story motel room, Geri told the desk clerk that she would return later with her husband and drove off in a 1957 car. She went to Willimantic to meet Dixon, where he was attending Air Force Reserve drills, and take him to the motel.

    The plan was for 43-year-old Dixon, using surgical instruments and a medical textbook he'd gotten from a co-worker at Mansfield State Training School, to perform an abortion. The co-worker, 39-year-old Milton Morgan, had access to the instruments and book because his wife was a physician. 

    Dixon started the abortion by inserting a catheter into Gerri's uterus. However, Gerri began to hemorrhage. Dixon abandoned her, leaving her to bleed to death. 

    The Discovery

    At around 10:45 the following morning, a maid at the motel found Geri's nude body on the floor beside the bed. Salem Medical Examiner H. Peter Schwarz declared her dead at the scene. An autopsy performed at W. W. Backus Hospital estimated her time of death at around 4 a.m. on Tuesday -- which was June 9 rather than June 8, the date typically cited for her death. 

    At first police thought that the unidentified woman's death might be connected to a blood smear on the door jamb of an adjacent room, but that turned out to be an unrelated incident in which a man had hut himself when he punched through a window. The man as quickly cleared of any involvement in the woman's death.

    The car Geri had drive to the motel was later found abandoned in Willimantic. 

    It's unclear how the police connected with Geri's family. Had they reported her missing? Did she have ID in her purse? Lorena had to go to the hospital to identify her sister's body. The family told the children that their mother had been hit by a car. 

    The Men are Sentenced
     
    Dixon had fled the state. Three days later, out of gas and out of money, he turned himself into police in Morgantown, West Virginia. Both he and Morgan were fired from their jobs.

    Dixon pleaded nolo contender to manslaughter and conspiracy to commit abortion, and was sentenced to a year and a day to three years. 

    Morgan asserted that he had only acted as Clyde Dixon's friend and had no idea that his friend planned to perpetrate an abortion with the instruments. Morgan was given a one year prison sentence, suspended after two months, and two years of probation, on a charge of conspiracy to commit abortion.

    The Exploitation 

    It wasn't until after Ms. published the photo that Gerri's daughter, Joannie Griffith, then 17, was shown the picture by her aunt and told the truth of her mother's death. She was outraged at how Ms. was using the photo, saying, "How dare they flaunt this? How dare they take my beautiful mom, my beautiful, beautiful mom, and put this in front of the public eye. And who gave them permission. I was pissed."
     
    The headline in Ms. was "Never Again." Never again, they said, would women die from dangerous abortions as Gerri had died, because the Supreme Court had handed down Roe vs. Wade.

    And with that, mainstream feminist interest in women's needless abortion deaths was laid to rest. Only if a woman's death can be used to agitate for the abortion-rights agenda do those who proclaim themselves to be champions of women's live deign to even notice. 

    Post-Legalization Reality

    Women continue to die horrible deaths. They were already dying horrible deaths from legal abortions even before Roe.

    Black and white headshot of a middle-aged white man with brushed-back dark hair
    Dr. Jesse Ketchum
    Jesse Ketchum    , a criminal abortionist from Michigan, carpetbagged to New York when that state legalized abortion-on-demand in 1970. Though he had no deaths attributed to him in his criminal practice in Michigan, he managed to let two women, Margaret Smith and Carole Schaner, bleed to death within four months of each other in 1971. Carole, like Geri, bled to death in a motel room. 

    When Roe was handed down in 1973, striking down every anti-abortion law in the United states, it did nothing to put the back alley butchers out of business.

    Benjamin Munson
    In 1973, Linda Padfield was sent home with more than half of her five-month fetus still in her body; she died of infection. Rather than express outrage, prochoicers rallied around the abortionist, Benjamin Munson. Munson had been a "back alley butcher" -- a criminal abortionist -- prior to Roe. He had no dead women to his discredit. But after a stroke of the pen converted him to a provider of safe and legal abortions, he killed not only Linda, but also Yvonne Mesteth.

    Milan Vuitch
    Former District of Columbia criminal abortionist Milan Vuitch killed Wilma Harris in 1974, and Georgianna English in 1980. Like Ketchum and Munson, Vuitch never had a criminal abortion death linked to him. And, like Benjamin Munson, Milan Vuitch remained a hero to the abortion-rights cause despite the appalling quackery and the dead women.

    Legalization was a failure


    It was improvements in medical care, not a more abortion-friendly legislature, that reduced women's deaths from abortion. Women continue to die wretched deaths, abandoned by the abortionists who injured them. What has changed is that instead of being outraged and demanding corrective action, abortion-rights activists demand even laxer oversight of abortion and sometimes even start legal defense funds for the butchers who kill women. Though individual prochoicers no doubt would be outraged to learn about how much butchery continues, the leaders -- who know about these deaths -- sweep them under the rug. They work to serve the needs of the abortion practitioners, not abortion patients. It is the abortionists who have the money to purchase political power.

    Until women's lives become more important than political power, women will continue to die. Does it matter what the credentials are of the person who kills them?

    Independent sources:
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