Friday, April 24, 2026

April 24, 1932: Continued String of Oklahoma City Abortion Deaths

Summary: Lennis May Roach, age 25, was one of a string of abortion deaths that shook Oklahoma City in April of 1932.

A white man of about 60 years of age, with a very high forehead, large nose, and grim facial expression
Dr. Richard Thacker
Dr. Richard Thacker's trial for the April 15, 1932 abortion death of Ruth Hall brought out testimony concerning the April 24 death of 25-year-old Lennis May Roach and of other patients, including Robbie Lou Thompson, and Nancy Lee.

Lennis was a native of Tennessee. She left behind her husband, Francis Scott Roach, and at least one child, a daughter who would have been about four years old based on 1930 census records. Francis worked as a janitor in an auto factory.

Lennis had come to Thacker's office several times, he admitted. Thacker said that she had been in poor health and emaciated, and had a white discharge, indicative of infection, from her vagina. She also, Thacker said, had pains in her abdomen. Thacker said that he treated her with a tonic and with antiseptic tampons.

He adamantly denied that he had performed an abortion on her. However, other witnesses, including Lennis's husband, testified that Thacker had indeed performed an abortion, causing her death. Thacker was prosecuted only for Ruth Hall's death and was sentenced to life in prison. He died in prison in 1937. This is probably why he wasn't prosecuted for any of the other deaths. 

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April 24, 1921: Scanty Info From Homicide in Chicago Database

On April 24, 1921, 39-year-old homemaker Alice Emma Shanahan, who went by her middle name, died at Chicago's St. Anthony Hospital from an abortion perpetrated by a person who was not identified. 

Most abortionists in Chicago in that era were doctors or midwives, which makes it likely that Emma availed herself of one of these trained medical professionals.

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April 24, 1893: Racist Coverage of an Abortion Death

 An article on the death of 19-year-old Emma Hub underscores the racism of the time. It begins, "Uncle Billy Nickens, a well-known colored character of Hannibal [Illinois], was arrested there yesterday charged with causing the death of Emmy Hub by a criminal operation."

Emma was the daughter of Jacob Hub, a German shoemaker living just south of the Hannibal city limits. Jacob had expelled his daughter from the house due to "her wild habits", so she had moved in with a painter named Mathew Seoville.  

Around April 15 of 1893, Emma took ill, and was tended by a Dr. Ebbits. Ebbits suspected an abortion and refused to treat Emma until she admitted to it. "She continued to grow worse until death relieved her suffering at 1 a.m. yesterday" -- that being April 24.

Emma had told Mathew Seoville and his wife that she had gone to William Nickens' house, where he had used instruments on her to cause an abortion. She said that a girl from Illinois was also there for an abortion. Mathew had pressed Emma to write up a declaration.

The fatal abortion was reportedly Emma's second; the previous had been performed the previous October. She also had given birth to a child about two years earlier.  The article notes that Nickens was arrested, adding, "The negro has been brought up on similar charges before, but always managed to clear himself."


Watch Racist Coverage of Abortion Death on YouTube.

Source: 



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April 24, 1937: Oklahoma Midwife Prototype of Kermit Gosnell?

Untimely Death

Merl Williams

On April 24, 1937, Merl Williams of Watonga, Oklahoma, died of peritonitis. She was 21 years old, a worker in a poultry packing plant. Her death in a hospital in Clinton, OK was attributed to a botched abortion. She had been about two months pregnant.


Her mother, Emma Williams, described as a "black-haired, elderly, toothless little woman," was in shock and under a doctor's care after hearing of Merl's death. "I never even knew my girl was ill until the day before she died," Emma sobbed. "Then they called me to come to the hospital and I went as quickly as I could."

"There was my little girl looking whiter than the sheets on her hospital bed, and she was so ill she could barely talk to me." 

W. C. Mouse, a railroad engineer, testified that he had taken Merl to Cordelia "Della" Moore's remote 3-room house on April 11, not knowing the reason for the visit. He said only that he had provided a $10 fee (about $222 in 2025 dollars) and had heard Merl ask Moore, "Will it be dangerous?" 

He then waited for Merl to finish whatever she'd come to the house for and heard Moore give Merl some unspecified "advice" as she prepared to leave.

Mouse, who was not prosecuted in exchange for information, was a married man and a father of two. After Merl's death, he was hospitalized for what was described as "a nervous breakdown." Investigators somehow concluded that he was not the baby's father, but just a friend of Merl and her family. 

Who Was Merl Williams?

Public records searches indicate that Merl (also spelled Merle) was evidently a nickname for Muriel. She came from a large Arkansas family that had already experienced grief, starting with the birth of a son who died at only three days old. Her parents then had a daughter, then a son, both of whom survived, followed by another little boy who died the day that he was born.  They had another son before the birth of Muriel. She was followed by three little sisters. They moved with their brood to Oklahoma when Merl was 14 years old. 

"My little Merl was always a good girl, very obedient, and I was proud of her. She had to work hard for a living, and while I didn't see her as often as I wanted to in the last few years I had the feeling that she was getting along all right and this comforted me," her mother told The Oklahoma News.

Merl's landlady, Mrs. Katie Jones, described her as "a model tenant." She had a boyfriend who too her out and visited but never stayed overnight. When Merl went out she usually came home at a reasonable hour. She occasionally went out with friends. She "seemed to be conservative in all her habits of living." She largely kept to herself.

Protecting the Guilty

It was Merl's family that started the ball rolling on the investigation, contacting the county attorney's office and requesting an autopsy.

Merl herself hadn't been cooperative at all as she lay dying. 

Mrs. Jones  reported that when Merle fell ill shortly after her April 11 visit to the village of Longdale, she tried to provide care to the young woman. She summoned Dr. Harry Cushman. When Cushman came to treat her, Mer insisted that she was merely suffering from a bad cold. Dr. Cushman provided some medication and left.

The medicine, of course, didn't help, so Mrs. Jones called Dr. Cushman in again. Merl had by that point told her landlady the real reason for her illness, and Mrs. Jones relayed this to the doctor. Merl then reportedly admitted the abortion to Dr. Cushman, "but," Mrs. Jones said, "she would make no statement involving anyone else."

Mrs. Jones also indicated that when she became ill, Merl received $100 (just over $2,200 in 2025 dollars) from her "friend" -- presumably the father of the baby -- to cover her medical bills. 

As time went on Merl because "violently ill," as her landlady described it. It was at 1:00 on the morning of Thursday, April 22, that Merl was finally admitted to the hospital. She left the $100 with her landlady with instructions to use it to pay the medical bills. But even then Merl refused to name either her baby's father or her abortionist. She took their guilty secret to her grave.

Or so she might have thought.

Initial Discoveries

Cordelia "Della" Moore
In her illness, Merl evidently forgot that she had written, but never mailed, a letter to Della Moore describing her symptoms, which had started troubling her the day after the abortion. This led investigators to the abortionist. Deputy Sheriffs Allman Russell and Merrill Baskins drove to a farm owned by Della Moore and her husband about a mile and a half north of Longdale, OK. They found Mr. Moore there and arrested him.

They then drove to the other family property -- "a three-room, weather-beaten shack" -- where Della Moore lived most of the time while her husband lived at the farm. They found two abortion patients there, and "let the young women depart without asking them any questions." 

In the bedroom of the shack they found a pair of three-quarter bedsteads. This is a size not typically used any longer, larger than a twin bed but smaller than a full. They also found "an old-fashioned surgical cabinet, numerous instruments and suppositories and a quantity of disinfectants. A pan of water was beside one of the beds, and a bottle of disinfectant was nearby."

A more in-depth description in The Oklahoma News on April 28, 1937 relayed descriptions by authorities of Della Moore's abode and abortuary. "It was a terrible place," county prosecutor Nelson Crow told reporters. "When we entered the little house, we found almost incredible filth on every hand. Even the surgical instruments we found in a cabinet in the corner of the bedroom were filthy." He added, "How any woman accustomed to ordinary cleanliness could bring herself to submit to being touched by some of the instruments and appliance we found is completely beyond my imagination. Why, some of the instruments were actually made out of ordinary fence wire. They had long tapering handles, and the handles were wrapped in filthy rags. The whole place had a furtive, dejected air and is encrusted with filth. There are perhaps no more unsanitary premises in this county."

Lest readers blame the conditions, and women's willingness to endure them, on the legal status of abortion, remember that women in the 21st century era of legalization submitted to abortions in Kermit Gosnell's "house of horrors," where flea-infested cats freely roamed and defecated throughout. There seems to just be something about abortion that makes women feel like they deserve the squalor.

The instruments were seized -- both ordinary instruments a doctor might have and the makeshift ones -- along with records indicating an abortion practice going back between seven and nine years. Correspondence found in the house from all over western Oklahoma and into neighboring states indicated a wide geographic reach of the business. The investigation found evidence that the 57-year-old Moore, formerly a registered nurse, had perpetrated hundreds of abortions in her home. The police found guilty correspondence from women in Oklahoma, Texas, Kansas, Colorado, and even one from California.

The prosecutors also believed that Moore and her husband habitually harbored felons, including three men who had escaped from the Granite reformatory in 1935 after murdering a guard.

Chilling in The Cooler

John Moore
Moore was arrested on April 25 and charged with abortion murder. She reportedly fainted upon hearing that she was being arrested for murder and was taken to jail once she revived. She denied even knowing or having ever met Merl Williams. After her arrest, Moore "unworriedly set her glasses on the end of her nose and continued her quilting in the county jail." Her husband, John, actually got up in his cell and jigged when a jaunty tune came on the radio. 

Evidently John Moore wasn't stuck in his cell all the time, because the May 6, 1937 Geary Star said that he "has appointed himself as an official reception committee of one at the jail. He shows visitors through the structure, declares that it is the cleanest in the state, and points to repair places where former occupants sawed their way through the bars. 

Moore consistently denied perpetrating any abortions, saying that she practiced as a midwife and engaged in "the installation of contraceptive devices." IUDs were not totally unknown at the time, but they were cutting-edge experimental medicine, not something an obscure self-identified midwife is likely to have known about. It's more likely that Moore came up with an excuse for meddling with women's wombs that she believed would head off any abortion charges. She also said that she dispensed suppositories that she ordered by mail from a physician who, of course, denied any knowledge of Moore or her goings-on.

More Revelations

As they read through the correspondence found in Della Moore's dilapidated property, they found that the $10 that Mouse reportedly provided was the typical abortion fee, though more prosperous-looking patients were charged $15. Many of the letters were patients complaining about painful complications after their abortions. One exchange of letters described a young woman's arrangements to pay for her abortion in installments with a $2.50 down payment (about $55 in 2025 dollars). 

The Moores also had two children -- a married daughter and a son, Guy, who had been in a Civilian Conservation Corps camp. Some of the correspondence found in the home indicates that men from the CCC camp were arranging abortions for the women they had impregnated. This might explain how women from such far-flung places learned of an obscure abortionist in rural Oklahoma

The Trial that Never Happened

The prosecutor's office went through a list of about 100 abortion patients to find the ones that would give the most effective testimony. In addition to W. C. Mouse, the state gathered 14 additional witnesses in the case against Moore, including women swearing under oath that Moore had done abortions on them. The prosecutors were also investigating the possible abortion death of a married woman a few years previously.

One of Merl's brothers, either Paul or Lyman, was expected to testify as well. The prosecutor expected to call Mrs. Katie Jones, who was Merl's landlady, along with Dr. Paulson and Dr. Cushman, who performed the autopsy. 

Moore was held until she was released on $6,000 bond on May 14. John was released as well, and there's no mention of having to pay bond. 

The trial was first delayed in April of 1937 when a key witness, likely W. C. Mouse since he was identified in the Muskogee Daily Phoenix as the man "who took girl to Watonga farmer's home for operation," took ill and was thought to be moribund. 

In October, Moore herself took ill, resulting in a continuance of her trial. At the time she was free on a $6,000 bond.  By January of 1938, her condition had deteriorated even further. She was suffering from diabetes but would sometimes stop taking her medicine. 

Moore's trial was delayed so many times that eventually the judge dropped the bail requirement in August of 1939.

A woman by the same name died in Oklahoma City on May 7, 1944 after a long illness so it is likely that illness and death were the reasons that the case never went forward. 

Any Follow-Up?

The April 28, 1937 Oklahoma News spoke of other cases that might be pursued, including "the death three years ago of a Blain County High school girl" whose mother was "about to make a statement." That case also seems to have fallen off the radar, likely because Moore had died and there seemed to be no point in pursuing the case. 

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Thursday, April 23, 2026

April 23, 1932: One in a String of Oklahoma Abortion Deaths

Dr. Richard Thacker

Dr. Richard E. Thacker was prosecuted for the April 23, 1932 abortion death of 21-year-old telegraph worker Robbie Lou Thompson in Oklahoma City. Robbie Lou died of sepsis

Dr. Richard E. Thacker was implicated. Along with his wife, he fled the state, leading to a manhunt that finally located him in Springdale, Arkansas.

Thacker testified that Marvin Erdman had come with Robbie Lou to his office to consult him. He said that she was "in a rather serious condition" and that he advised Erdman to take Robbie Lou to the hospital right away.

Thacker said that Erdman and Robbie Lou left his office, and that at about midnight he got a call from Erdman, who wanted Thacker to meet them at the home of Mrs. Moore. When he arrived there, Thacker said, Erdman told him that Robbie Lou had died on the way to the hospital and that he wanted Thacker to make out a death certificate. "He prevailed on me to falsify that a little bit in order to protect her; I made out the certificate showing she died from acute gastritis. I was never paid for my services. I did not operate on Miss Thompson."

Erdman testified in the trial that he had indeed taken Robbie Lou to Thacker, who had charged him $50 for the abortion.

In his trial for the April 15 death of Ruth Hall, and over Thacker's understandable objections, the court permitted a number of witnesses to testify that after Ruth's visit to his practice, Thacker had performed fatal abortions on Robbie Lou, as well as on Lennis May Roach, who died on April 24, and Nancy Joe Lee, who died on April 25. The witnesses went into detail about the events, up to and including the death of each of them.

Thacker had been a physician in the army before taking up his career as an abortionist. A practical nurse, Mrs. Luther Bryant Pierce, operated a private sanitarium in the Oklahoma City area and said that though she did not allow Thacker to perpetrate abortions at her facility, she did provide aftercare for them at her site.

Thacker was also implicated in the April 14, 1932 death of Isabelle Ferguson, and along with Dr. J. W. Eisiminger was implicated in the April 25 death of Virginia Lee Wyckoff.

Thacker was sentenced to life in prison for Ruth Hall's death. His attorney announced an immediate motion for an appeal, on the grounds that Thacker's other abortions should not have been admitted as testimony. The appeal failed. Thacker died in prison on April 1, 1937 from a heart attack.


Watch Dr. Thacker's Bad Month in 1932 on YouTube. Watch Dr. Thacker's Bad Month in 1932 on Rumble.

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April 23, 1921: Another Victim of Dr. Achtenberg

On April 23, 1920, 30-year-old homemaker Violet McCormick died at the practice of an abortionist named Achtenberg, leaving behind three children ages 12, 9, and 6.

From information about other Chicago area abortion deaths, we can gather that the abortionist in question was Dr. Louise Achtenberg, who had already been implicated in the abortion deaths of Dora Swan in 1907 and Florence Wright in 1909.

After Violet's death, Achtenberg was held by the coroner and tried, but acquitted, freeing her to cause the 1924 death of Madelyn Anderson.

Source: Homicide in Chicago Interactive Database

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Wednesday, April 22, 2026

April 22, 1923: Doctor Indicted in Chicago Abortion Death

On April 22, 1923, 30-year-old Daisy Anna Singerland died at Chicago's Robert Burns Hospital from complications of a criminal abortion performed earlier that day.  

On June 1, 54-year-old Dr. James W. Lipscomb was indicted for felony murder in Daisy's death. I have been unable to determine the final outcome of the case.

Watch From the Homicide in Chicago Interactive Database on YouTube.

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Tuesday, April 21, 2026

April 21, 1912: Likely Self-Induced in Chicago

In the morning of April 21, 1912, 38-year-old Mrs. Grace Peters died at Columbus Hospital in Chicago. She had been taken to the hospital after having taken very ill in her home the previous Thursday.

When asked who had perpetrated the abortion, Grace refused to say. There was some conjecture that she had perpetrated the abortion herself.


Watch Likely Self-Induced in Chicago on YouTube.
Watch Likely Self-Induced in Chicago on Rumble.

Source: "Criminal Operations are Fatal to Two Women," The Inter Ocean, April 22, 1912
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April 21, 1955: Pro-Choice Icon's Forgotten Victim

1970s photo of a 30-something white man in a classroom, wearing a white turtlenedk under a dark, double-breasted jacket and holding what looks like some sort of plastic medical instruments
Self-styled "Doctor" Harvey Karman

Nearly two decades before the "Mothers Day Massacre" pulled off with Kermit "House of Horrors" Gosnell in Philadelphia, 30-year-old Harvey Karman was working at the University of California at Los Angeles, seeking a doctorate in psychology. At times he claimed that he was an instructor at the university, but his instruction duties were likely limited. 


He was not licensed to practice medicine.

The Abortion

Around early February of 1955, 26-year-old Joyce Yvonne Maynard Johnson told her husband, Ben, that she was pregnant. The couple already had two children, and they discussed an abortion. 

Joyce had been a promising young woman who had been a member of the Alpha Epsilon Phi sorority when she attended the University of California at Los Angeles in the late 1940s. 

Ben was friends with Harvey Karman. Karman had a passion for writing, inventing, performing medical experiments on rattlesnakes, and, as we already know, abortion. He agreed to perform an abortion on the young homemaker. His fee was $150, which was a substantial sum for somebody whose only income at the time was $180 a month for tutoring teens in remedial reading. 

Joyce Maynard Johnson
On April 6, 1955, Karman met Joyce in a motel room in Westwood, California while Ben waited outside in the car. Using a speculum, Karman inserted a nutcracker into Joyce in order to perform an abortion. Karman walked Joyce out to the car, he said, and told Ben, "Get her to a doctor." He reportedly returned the $150 abortion fee to cover Joyce's inevitable medical bills.

On April 8, Joyce's husband took her to St. Joseph's Hospital. She was examined by a Dr. Moss who diagnosed her as suffering from "an infected criminal abortion." The dead fetus was still in her uterus. She expelled it while at St. Joseph's.

On April 13, Joyce was transferred to General Hospital for specialized treatment. She died there on April 21. An autopsy was performed, and Joyce's death blamed on bronchial pneumonia brought on by the septic abortion.

Karman was arrested. He admitted to perpetrating the abortion but said, "I only did it because she begged me to do it." Then again, Karman clearly needed the money.

The Trial

During the trial, a photograph of the autopsy was available, but the district attorney didn't display it. He instead told the jury, "you can look at it up in the jury room if you are so inclined--it's an autopsy picture--I'm not going to show it to you because some people don't like to see things like that--she was 26 years old April 6th. She was a girl in good health. She was pregnant. She wanted to do something about having an abortion for this pregnancy."

The district attorney also told the jury, "Frankly, I don't know how you feel about this matter of abortion--it is a matter of difference of opinion. Some people say well, people can't afford it, it's all right to have an abortion. Some people say if the woman's health won't stand it it's all right to have an abortion. Our law says it's all right to have an abortion if her health is of such nature she can't have a baby. Some people think abortions are all right. Some people are absolutely against all of them. If you want to know the truth, I'm pretty much against all abortions myself, I think it's a terrible thing for a girl to be talked into this."

Harvey was convicted on the illegal abortion charge but acquitted on the accompanying murder charge for a reason that would only make sense to a jury. He was given a one-to-ten-year prison sentence.

The Appeal

The appeals court found it "improper for the district attorney to express his personal belief as to all abortion," but noted that since the jury was admonished to ignore the comment Karman had no grounds for appeal in the fact that the DA made the comment.

Karman's defense called a Dr. Gilbert as an expert. He reviewed the autopsy report and medical records, an opined that Joyce did not die from a septic abortion. He was paid $150 for his testimony, ironically the same amount Joyce paid for the abortion.

The defense also appealed on the grounds that the the DA unduly prejudiced the jury by bringing out in cross-examining Karman that he'd been convicted previously of a felony. The appeals court ruled that this was proper impeachment of a witness.

Karman's defense further argued that Joyce's husband and friend, Patricia, were improperly granted immunity after they originally refused to testify.

Karman's defense also claimed that the prosecution failed to prove that the abortion wasn't necessary to save Joyce's life. But the appeals court found that the testimony of Ben and Patricia that Joyce had been in good health settled that matter. Of course, pure logic would prove that matter, since Joyce was seeking an illegal abortion from an amateur in a motel room. Had her life been in danger, an ob/gyn would have been able to admit her to a hospital and perform the abortion there.

An appeals court found that the district attorney's statement that what defendant did was "absolute butchery" was fair argument on the facts, and not an unduly prejudicious statement. It came out in the case that Joyce's husband was dating another woman and therefore had an interest in Joyce securing an abortion.

The Pardon

Though Karman had finished serving his sentence before Jerry Brown was sworn in as California Governor in 1975, Brown was enamored enough of Karman's work to issue him a pardon.

Joyce's abortion was unusual in that it was performed by an amateur, rather than by a doctor, as was the case with perhaps 90% of criminal abortions. However, it also stands out because Harvey Karman was treated like a real doctor by the abortion establishment. He was invited to train abortionists, and was celebrated by abortion advocates for having invented a suction cannula designed specifically for early abortions. Despite being an amateur, and despite the death of Joyce Johnson and the fiasco in Philadelphia, on his death Karman was eulogized as a champion of safe abortions.

Watch Pro-Choice Icon's Forgotten Victim on YouTube.

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Monday, April 20, 2026

April 20, 1939: Dillinger's Doc Does Fatal Abortion

Poor-quality newspaper photograph of a mostly bald, middle-aged white man, in profile
Dr. Clinton E. May

Dr. Clinton E. May had crossed paths with the law when he harbored John Dillinger. In an apparent attempt to keep a low profile, he relocated to California after his release and didn't bother to get licensed to practice medicine, but rather set up housekeeping, and an abortion practice, with a woman in San Francisco using the aliases Cy Dalton and Miss Ralston,

On April 12, 1939, a woman called St. Joseph's Hospital and anonymously told a doctor there that a woman had suffered uterine damage in an abortion. The doctor said to send the woman to the hospital immediately.

The woman, 30-year-old Doris Alexander, arrived at the hospital in a taxi. She was in critical condition. There, she told hospital staff, her husband, and the police about the abortion. Based on the information Doris had provided, police raided Clinton May's apartment the following day, finding a makeshift operating table, abundant surgical instruments typically used in abortions, and parts of a human fetus of about three or four months of gestation that was not Doris' fetus.

May was arrested and taken to the hospital, where Doris tentatively identified him. She never mentioned a woman being involved in the abortion. Doris died on April 20, and police arrested a woman named Frances Zoffel, whom they said was the mysterious "Miss Ralston."

May and Zoffel were charged with murder and conspiracy. May was convicted of second-degree murder, Zoffel of conspiracy. Zoffel was able to get a new trial on the grounds that she was not "Miss Ralston" and that there was no evidence linking her to May's practice, although she had been implicated in abortion rings in the past and would be implicated again in the future.


Watch Dillinger's Doctor Does Fatal Abortion on YouTube.
Watch Dillinger's Doctor Does Fatal Abortion on Rumble.

Sources:

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April 20, 1933: A Doctor When the Pills Didn't Work

In Seattle, Washington in February of 1933, Mary Agnes McNeil, a 22-year-old unmarried grocery store clerk, discovered that she was pregnant. Mary informed her boyfriend of the pregnancy, and he got her some pills supposed to cause an abortion, but they didn't work. She tried another round of different pills in March.

On April 8, Mary went to a nursing home operated by a nurse to ask about an abortion. The nurse informed the woman and her lover that Dr. E. T. Martin or another doctor would be able to perform an abortion.

On April 11, Mary's boyfriend went to Dr. Martin's office and consulted with him. On Dr. Martin's instructions, Mary's boyfriend brought her back the next morning, a Wednesday, for an examination. Mary was in Dr. Martin's office for about half an hour. Dr. Martin then told Mary's boyfriend that the total fee, including a stay at the nursing home until Saturday night, would be $75. He then instructed the boyfriend to take Mary to the nursing home, which he did that afternoon.

On Friday the 14th, Dr. Martin performed a curettage on Mary to remove the fetus. The nurse claimed that she had no idea what Dr. Martin was planning to do.

After the D&C, Mary became alarmingly ill. Dr. Martin said that he himself was not in proper physical condition to care for the patient, so he summoned a Dr. Templeton. Dr. Templeton evidently cared for Mary at the nursing home until April 19, a Wednesday, when he advised staff to transfer Mary to Virginia Mason hospital. She died the following morning of general peritonitis following an incomplete septic abortion.

Dr. Martin, with some corroboration from the nurse, said that Mary already had a rapid pulse and fever when she first consulted with him. He also said that she was bleeding vaginally already. Dr. Martin said that Mary had told him she'd missed three periods, taken abortifacients, had fallen, and had a chronic bowel condition.

Dr. Martin testified that he'd recommended hospitalization, but that Mary wanted to avoid the possible publicity surrounding a hospitalization. It was then that he'd decided to send her to the nursing home instead. He also testified that she'd been bleeding from the 12th until the 14th, when he'd performed a curettage. He said that this curettage was necessary to treat her fever and bleeding.

Dr. Martin was convicted of manslaughter in Mary's death, but the nurse was acquitted.


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Sunday, April 19, 2026

April 19, 1977: Fatal Abortion at San Jose Hospital

Mary Paredez was a 26 years old Nicaraguan immigrant when she underwent an abortion at San Jose Hospital on April 19, 1977.

During the procedure, Mary's uterus was perforated. She began to hemorrhage.

Less than seven hours later, she was dead.

The autopsy found 2500 cc of blood in Mary's abdomen.

Watch Fatal Abortion in California Hospital on YouTube.

Sources: California Death Certificate No. 77-051142; Santa Clara County (CA) Autopsy Report No. CA77-364

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Saturday, April 18, 2026

April 18, 1944: Abortion-Rights Death Claim Confirmed

I stumbled across a video about a self-induced abortion death -- one I was able to verify by searching for a death certificate. Winifred "Win" Mayer died on April 18, 1944, at around 2:00 in the afternoon. Her death certificate attributes her death to shock "due to attempt at criminal abortion self inflected." She was in the second month of her pregnancy. The autopsy showed cuts in her uterus, hemorrhage, and congestion of her lungs, liver, and kidneys.

According to the YouTube video, Win was living in military housing in Virginia with her husband and two small children. Her husband, Eddie, worked for the government was about to be deployed overseas for an undetermined amount of time and Win didn't feel prepared to care for a third child while he was away. She already had a son, Peter, who was not quite three years old and a 10-month-old baby girl, Judy. Win was college educated and financially comfortable, according to her granddaughter.

Win's mother, her granddaughter says, was a nurse in New York. Win travelled to New York to use her mother's connections with doctors who performed criminal abortions. For some reason this arrangement fell through. Win's father, who was a doctor, refused to perpetrate the abortion. Win's daughter said that Win's French stepmother told her that women in France "take care of this themselves." Win returned to Virginia.

Whether she got specific instructions from her stepmother or another person or just came up with an approach on her own, Win put the children down for their naps, went into the bathroom, and attempted the abortion. Eddie came home after work and found her dead.

Mary Calderone

There is no record of why Win chose to abort her unborn baby. There is also no record of why she didn't pursue a professional abortionist, as most abortion-minded women did. Planned Parenthood Federation medical director Mary Calderone estimated in the July, 1960 American Journal of Public Health, "90 per cent of all illegal abortions are presently being done by physicians." Another researcher, Nancy Howell Lee, estimated in The Search for an Abortionist (1969) that 89% of illegal abortions were being done by physicians. These estimates are the result of independent research. Calderone was basing her estimates on Planned Parenthood's 1955 conference "Abortion in America," in which physicians, public health officials, and even one criminal abortionist worked together to draw as accurate picture as possible. Lee based her estimates on an extensive survey of women who had sought out abortions prior to legalization. 

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April 18, 1971: They Didn't Tell Her There Was No Baby

Grok AI illustration
"Sandra" is one of the women Life Dynamics identifies on their "Blackmun Wall" as having been killed by a safe and legal abortion.

Sandra was 18 years old when she underwent a first-trimester abortion procedure in New York, under the state's liberal abortion law.

Three days later, on April 18, 1971, Sandra killed herself. Before her death, she had expressed guilt about having "killed her baby."

Tragically, nobody had contacted Sandra to give her the results of the pathology report on what had been removed from her uterus. There had been no embryo. Sandra had not actually been pregnant.

Abortion is associated with an increase in all forms of violent death: accident, homicide, and suicide.

Other post-abortion suicides include:

  • Carol Cunningham, age 21, who shut herself in her garage, ran her car, and died from the exhaust fumes in August of 1986
  • Arlin della Cruz, age 19, who hanged herself in the woods near her house in October of 1992
  • Laura Grunas, age 30, who shot her baby's father and then herself in August of 2006
  • “Haley Mason”, age 22, who overdosed on pills and alcohol in April of 2001
  • Sandra Kaiser, age 15, who threw herself off an overpass into traffic in November of 1984
  • Stacy Zallie, age 20, who committed suicide in October of 2002


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 "Danielle," 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:

  • 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
  • Pearl Schwier, July, 1970, anesthesia complications
  • "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, death after saline abortion
  • "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
  • "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
  • "Roxanne," May, 1972, convulsions and death at start of abortion
  • "Robin" Roe, May, 1972, lingering abortion complications
  • Pamela Modugno, May, 1972, air in her bloodstream


LDI Sources: "Maternal Mortality Associated With Legal Abortion in New York State: Jul. 1, 1970 - Jun. 30, 1972; Berger, Tietze, Pakter, Katz, Obstetrics and Gynecology, 43:3, March 1974, 321

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