May 19, 1924: Second Known Victim Attributed to Dr. Lou E. Davis

On April 2, 1924, 26-year-old homemaker Mary Whitney underwent an abortion at the Chicago office of Dr. Lou E. Davis. On May 17, Mary died at St. Mary's Hospital of complications of that abortion. Dr. Davis was held by the coroner on May 19. 

Dr. Lou E. Davis

Davis had already been implicated in the September 9, 1913 abortion death of 27-year-old Anna Adler. She went on to be implicated in another four Chicago abortion deaths:

• November 4, 1928, 22-year-old Anna Borndal
• December 1, 1928, 23-year-old Esther V. Wahlstrom
• May 19, 1932, 24-year-old Irene Kirschner
• February 7, 1937, 27-year-old Gertrude Gaesswitz

In spite of these six dead young woman, David was never jailed. She was convicted of murder by abortion in 1934, likely for Irene's death, but her conviction was reversed by the Illinois Supreme Court.

She was implicated in an abortion perpetrated on 33-year-old Marie Cooper, a married mother of three in January of 1947 but I have found no evidence of a successful prosecution in that case. 

In September of 1947 Davis was charged with an abortion she has reportedly perpetrated on 22-year-old Mary Kaye in late August.

In August of 1947 Davis was performing an abortion on a 22-year-old woman who played accordion in a night club. The patient's hysterical screaming led the neighbors to call the police, who promptly took the woman to the hospital and Davis to jail.

In November of 1947 she was arrested on two charges of abortion and another of attempted abortion based on accusations from three young women, who of whom made their statements from their hospital beds.

Davis was finally stopped on December 14, 1948, when she was convicted of perpetrating an abortion. At that time she had six other abortion charges pending against her. 

A week after this conviction a criminal court adjudged Davis insane and sent her to Kankakee State Hospital, where she died Monday, May 3, 1954 at the age of 77.

Sources: 

• Homicide in Chicago Interactive Database
• Homicide in Chicago Interactive Database
• "Seize Husband and Pair Change Abortion Story," Chicago Daily Tribune, January 18, 1947
• "Woman Doctor Faces Charge of Abortion," Chicago Sunday Tribune, August 31, 1947
• "Nab Ex-Doctor and 2 in Loop Abortion Raid," Chicago Daily Tribune, September 4, 1947
• "Woman Physician Faces Three Abortion Charges," Chicago Sunday Tribune, November 9, 1947
• "Judge Urges Voiding of Woman Doctor's License in Abortion," Chicago Daily Tribune, March 6, 1948
• Death notice, Chicago Daily Tribune, May 8, 1954

May 18, 2001: Two Kids Left Motherless

Dr. Ronald Blatt

Cynthia Quintana-Morales, a healthy 30-year-old mother of two, entrusted herself to the care of Dr. Ronald D. Blatt at Eastside Gynecology in New York City. She reported for her abortion appointment on May 7, 2001.

The facility administered Brevital to sedate Cynthia, and she went into cardiac arrest. She was transported to Lennox Hill Hospital, where she died of anoxic encephalopathy on May 18. 

She left a 16-year-old son and a 10-year-old daughter motherless.

Cynthia's husband of ten years, Andrew, sued Blatt and the practice, citing failing to use reasonable care, neglecting to heed Cynthia's condition, departing from accepted practices, performing contraindicated procedures, and lack of informed consent. Andrew asserted that his wife never would have consented to the abortion had she been adequately informed of the specific risks to her.

Blatt promptly closed the practice and reopened it as East Side Gynecology Services, effectively protecting his practice from financial liability.

Cynthia's husband settled with Blatt on March 30, 2008 for $1.25 million. Blatt's insurance covered the settlement.

Other women who died from Brevital mishaps include Susanne Logan, Kia Jorden, Melissa Heim, Donna Heim, Delores Smith, Gabriella Alonso, Venus Ortiz, Deanna Bell, Tanya Williamson, Suzanne Logan, and Debra Gray.

Watch Two Children Left Motherless on YouTube.

Thanks to Operation Rescue for these sources:

• Andrew Moraless v. Ronald Blatt, Index #13093/03
• Order of Compromise, Index #13093/03
• Order to Show Case, Index #13093/03

May 18: Happy Birthday Yamile Munoz

Yamile in the lap of her mother, Maggie Munoz,
with Mrs. Magaly Llaguno, Latin America Coordinator
for Human Life International

When Maggie Munoz learned that she was pregnant, she thought her only option was abortion. She was already an unmarried mother of four, and her friends and relatives told her that she already had "too many children" and that abortion was the "suitable solution." 

Ultrasound prior to the abortion revealed a normal 11-week pregnancy. 

Maggie underwent an abortion by D&C. After returning home, she was ill and depressed. 

Two weeks later, staff at the abortion facility called Maggie to tell her that the pathology report showed that the abortion was incomplete. Maggie returned to the clinic, where an ultrasound revealed a healthy fetus, still very much alive. But the employee told Maggie that there was "retained tissue" and gave her an appointment to return in a week for a second abortion procedure. 

Maggie didn't trust the clinic staff, and decided to go to her own doctor, who ordered an ultrasound showing a healthy 15-week fetus. 

Yamile was born May 18, 1992, perfectly healthy. Every day Maggie thanks God for her perfect daughter. 

Watch Happy Birthday, Yamile on YouTube.

(Source: Abortion Survivors [translation by Babelfish], from Right to Life League of Southern California, Fall 1992)

May 18, 2022: Suicide After Abortion Drugs

"Talia" was 26 years old when she went to an American facility for the abortion drugs mifepristone and misoprostol on an undetermined date.

On May 18, 2022, Talia committed suicide by shooting herself in the head. 

Killed-by-choice cites FAERS Case 21177969 as the source for information about Talia's death.

May 17, 1876: Midwife Confesses to Fatal Abortion

Matilda Beringer, age 34 arranged for an abortion, which was perpetrated by midwife Johanna White at her New York practice in mid-March of 1876. 

Immediately Matilda began to experience severe pain so she went straight home and took to her bed. 

On Saturday, May 14, Dr. William Fayner was called on to care for her and found her suffering from peritonitis. When his efforts to treat her did not have the desired effect he brought in a second physician, Dr. Samuel Gluck, to consult. The two continued to treat her until her death on May 17.

Matilda's husband, Edward, told authorities the he'd heard gossip about his wife but that she had never said anything to him about the abortion. The police evidently had no reason to doubt him, since he was not charged as an accessory in his wife's death. When arrested, White admitted to having perpetrated the abortion and was held on $2,000 bond.

While looking for additional information about Matilda's death, I learned that While was implicated in the death of another woman, Mary Heinemann, less than six months later.

Watch Midwife Confesses to Fatal Abortion on YouTube.
Watch Midwife Confesses to Fatal Abortion on Rumble.

Source:

• "Death from Malpractice," New York Times, May 23, 1876

May 17, 1919: Unidentified Chicago Midwife

On May 17, 1919, 27-year-old nurse Gertrude Schaefer, a widow, died at Chicago's Wesley Hospital from septicemia caused by an abortion.

According to public records, Gertrude married her husband, John, in September of 1912, when she was 21 and he was 30.

At first police were told that Gertrude had committed the abortion on herself. However, during an inquest held at the hospital, police concluded that a midwife had perpetrated the abortion.

I have yet to find any sources that name the midwife in question.

Sources:

• Homicide in Chicago Interactive Database
• Death certificate
• "Hunt for Midwife," Chicago Daily Tribune, May 20, 1919

May 16, 2014: 18th FPA Death (That I Know Of)

An autopsy report tells the story of yet another young woman I know of now to have died after an abortion at that National Abortion Federation flagship: Family Planning Associates Medical Group.

To preserve her confidentiality, I have given her the pseudonym "Kyla Ellis."

Kyla was 23 years old and about 11 weeks pregnant when she went to Family Planning Associate Medical Group at 601 S. Westmoreland Avenue in Los Angeles for an abortion on May 14, 2014. Like other young Black women, she was at higher risk of death than a white woman would be.

The day after the abortion, Kyla suffered agonizing abdominal pain. Her partner, whom I will call "Benjamin," called an ambulance, which rushed her to Centinela Hospital. She arrived at around 3:30 that afternoon. Kyla rated her pain at 10 on a scale of 10. Bright, fresh blood was flowing from her vagina. She couldn't pass urine at all. Hospital staff used a catheter to drain her bladder of about 200 cc of bloody urine.

Doctors decided that Kyla needed more intensive care than Centinela was able to provide. Kyla rode by ambulance to Kaiser West Los Angeles. She arrived shortly after midnight on May 16. At first she was awake, but at around 1:40 a.m. her gaze turned glassy and she became unresponsive. Staff took her to the lab for a CT scan, but on arrival Kyla went into cardio respiratory arrest. All efforts to revive her failed and she was pronounced dead at 2:45 a.m.

The autopsy found her uterus boggy and enlarged. The endometrium (lining) had been scraped away. 

Kyla had bled to death.

She's the seventeenth woman I'm aware of to have died after abortions at FPA. The others are: 

• 1970: Denise Holmes
• 1984: Patricia Chacon and Mary Pena
• 1985: Josefina Garcia
• 1986: Laniece Dorsey
• 1988: Joyce Ortenzio and Tami Suematsu
• 1992: Deanna Bell and Susan Levy
• 1994: Christina Mora
• 1995: TaTanisha Wesson
• 1998: Nakia Jorden
• 1999: Maria Leho
• 2000: Kimberly Neil and Maria Rodriguez
• 2003: "Imelda Laurence"
• 2004: Chanelle Bryant

Watch 17th Known Abortion Death at YouTube. (I had not yet learned of the 2003 death of "Imelda" when I recorded this video.)

Autopsy pages 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15

May 16, 1916: Was Dr. Albers Actually Guilty?

Anna Albers

On May 16, 1916, 25-year-old Lucile Bersworth died in Chicago's German-American hospital after telling authorities that Dr. Anna Albers had perpetrated an abortion on her.

She also mentioned a man named Fred Krause, so he might have been her baby's father.

Though Albers was held by the coroner and indicted by a Grand Jury, the case never went to trial. She was rather a respectable physician, at least as of 1912, so she seems an unlikely abortionist.

Watch Not a Lot to Go On on YouTube.

Sources:

• "Merely Comment," The [Chicago] Day Book, May 16, 1916
• Homicide in Chicago Interactive Database

May 15, 1972: Sudden Death from Hospital Abortion

Another researcher has a likely identity for the woman Life Dynamics dubbed "Wendy" Roe. Since I have seen no sign that the woman's family went public, I will continue to refer to her as Wendy. 

Wendy was 23 years old and 16 weeks pregnant when she sought an abortion at community hospital in a small North Carolina town in 1972. Wendy was black, which placed her at higher risk of death from safe, legal abortion.

Wendy's physician chose the saline technique, but overestimated the age of the fetus, and administered too much hypertonic saline. The saline got into Wendy's bloodstream. 

Wendy went into convulsions and developed disseminated intravascular coagulopathy (DIC), a clotting disorder. She died within the hour before expelling the fetus, leaving two children motherless.

Sources: 

• "Fatal Pulmonary Embolism During Legal Induced Abortion in the United States from 1972-1985," Lawson, Herschel W., MD, Atrash, Hani K., MD, MPH, Franks, Adele L., MD, American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Vol. 162, No. 4, April 1990, p. 986-990
• Death certificate

1972–1978: Abortion, Not Cancer, Kills Leukemia Patient

As a leukemia patient, “Selena” was already facing a battle for her life. She didn’t know that her cancer wouldn’t kill her, but a “safe and legal” first-trimester abortion would.

Selena suffered from poorly differentiated lymphocytic leukemia and was discovered to be pregnant sometime between 1972 and 1978. She was likely scared and may have also feared the effects of cancer medications on her child. At the time, it was not uncommon for pregnant cancer patients to be told to have an abortion, so she probably thought she had no choice. At eight weeks pregnant, she was put through a suction abortion and surgically sterilized to prevent her from becoming pregnant again.

Leukemia weakens the immune system, making post-abortion infection more hazardous for Selena than it would have been for a healthy client. Instead of improving her prognosis, the abortion made her sicker. She contracted an infection, developed sepsis and did not survive.

Ironically, research later found that surgical abortion for pregnant cancer patients is not associated with higher chances of maternal survival at all. Today, well-established treatments exist for pregnant cancer patients and doctors are usually able to save babies while still effectively treating the cancer patient.

(Patient 3)

May 13, 1972: Journey to Safe and Legal Convulsions and Death

Grok AI illustration

"Roxanne" was 17 years old when she decided to take advantage of New York's new abortion law, and traveled there from Michigan to have a first-trimester abortion in a doctor's office. 

The doctor gave her sedatives and local anesthesia to begin the abortion on May 13, 1972. But before the abortion could be started, Roxanne started to have convulsions and went into cardiac arrest.  

Roxanne was taken to an area hospital, but she was declared dead on arrival.  

An investigation into the case revealed that the doctor had exceeded the recommended dose of the local anesthetic. This is the same cause of death of Stacy Ruckman in 1988. 

The 1970 liberalization of abortion had made New York an abortion mecca until the Roe vs. Wade Supreme Court ruling that abortionists could legally set up shop in any state of the union. In addition to "Roxanne," these are the women I know of who had the dubious benefit of dying from the newfangled safe-and-legal kind of abortion in pre-Roe New York:

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

Watch Overdose Death in Liberalization Land on YouTube.

Sources: 

• "Maternal Mortality Associated With Legal Abortion in New York State: July 1, 1970 - June 30, 1972," Berger, Tietze, Pakter, Katz, Obstetrics and Gynecology, 43:3, March 1974, 324.
• "Maternal deaths associated with paracervical block anesthesia," Berger, Tyler, Harrod, American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, 118:8, April 1974, 1142-43.

May 13, 1981: Multiple Professionals Let Barbara Down

Senior photo, Sanford Calhoun High School,
Merrick, NY 1977

A lawsuit filed by Frank Dillon, the father of Barbara Ruth Dillon, a 22-year-old junior at SUNY New Paltz, alleged that Barbara underwent a safe and legal abortion performed by Dr. Mark Silver at Long Island Gynecological Group on April 18, 1981. According to public records, Frank had already faced one tragedy after the other: he had lost his father in 1966, his wife in 1978, and his mother in 1979. 

The Pathology Findings

The tissue from Barbara's abortion was delivered to Idant Laboratory on April 21. Dr. Michael J. Klein completed a microscopic analysis. Both he and the histotechnologist, who performed the gross examination (visible without a microscope), found placental tissue but no fetal parts. The lab notified Long Island Gynecological Group on April 22. 

The pathology finding indicates that the fetus was still inside Barbara's body, either left behind in her uterus or implanted in her fallopian tube. It also didn't eliminate the possibility that Barbara had a double pregnancy -- one embedded in the uterus and the other in her fallopian tube.

Nobody from Long Island Gynecological Group contacted Barbara to inform her that she needed to be seen to determine where the fetus was, or specifically that she needed to be seen to rule out a potentially life-threatening ectopic pregnancy.

Fruitlessly Seeking Care

Barbara suffered pain and bleeding from May 5. On May 10 she finally went to the emergency room at Kingston Hospital and was treated with antibiotics by Dr. Kalyanasundaran Venkataraman and advised to see a gynecologist named Dr. Theodore Jackaway, the on-call gynecologist for the hospital, for follow-up care. 

Barbara was in severe pain later that day and began to vomit, so her roommates called the emergency room again. They were told to give the antibiotics more time. 

At 5:30 on the morning of May 11, Barbara was in so much pain that one of her roommates called Dr. Jackaway's answering service and left a message. Jackaway called back and said that he couldn't take any responsibility for Barbara because he hadn't seen her, so he suggested that she be taken to the emergency room. 

About three hours after talking to Jackaway, Barbara's roommate contacted a neighbor who called the SUNY health center. There, Dr. Johannes D. Weltin requested that somebody take her to the health center so that he could examine her. The neighbor drove Barbara to university health center at around 9:25 a.m. Barbara was unconscious upon arrival, with no respiration, blood pressure, or pulse. 

Dr. Weltin called the hospital and spoke to Dr. Jackaway, and told him that Barbara had blood in her abdomen and needed immediate surgery. Jackaway refused to see her because she wasn't his patient and he didn't want to get involved. Dr. Weltin tried to call Dr. Kirk for a consultation, which he refused to do -- though he did call Dr. Jackaway and try to convince him to treat Barbara.

Too Late

Finally at 11:45 that morning somebody brought in Dr. Venkataraman, who performed emergency surgery. Despite this final doctor's efforts, Barbara went into irreversible shock and died on May 13. (Note: I originally had an incorrect date, May 11, due to lack of clarity in the legal document.) 

It turned out that Barbara had an ectopic pregnancy which the clinic had failed to detect. Barbara's father sued Dr. Silver, Dr. Jackaway, Dr. Kline, and the Long Island Gynecological Group.

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. In Barbara's case, it seems that everybody in the medical establishment except the pathologist and the university physician utterly let her down.

Watch "Passing the Buck Leads to Death" on YouTube.

Source: Dillon v. Silver, New York Appellate Court 134 A.D.2nd 159 (1987)