SUMMARY AND CONTEXT: Wanda Gray, age 20, died on April 9, 1935 after an abortion perpetrated by a prolific abortionist named Dr. Guy E. Brewer. This story highlights a seldom-addressed reality: Most pre-legalization abortions were perpetrated physicians or trained medical professionals, not the woman or some amateur.
As then-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.
One of those physician-abortionists was Dr. Guy E. Brewer.
The Philanthropic Dr. Brewer
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| Dr. Guy E. Brewer |
Brewer had graduated from the University of Louisville in 1906 and had been practicing medicine in Garber, Oklahoma for 21 of the 29 years he had been a physician. He supported young men during their university studies, maintaining houses for them to live in and paying for their tuition and other expenses.
Though Brewer had spent many long years helping boys and young men, his impact on women's lives was evidently lightning-fast.
On June 7, 1935, Brewer pleaded guilty to six counts of manslaughter for the deaths of six women who died from complications of abortions he had perpetrated. He made these please ostensibly to avoid putting those who cared about him through the embarrassment of a public trial on such distasteful charges. One particular statement by Brewer is very telling:
"I could not stand to have my boys brought into this case and I would not betray the trust so many people have placed in me by having them harassed, and in some instances their lives ruined by the notoriety a trial would bring to them."
This implies that a lot of those abortions were done at the behest of Brewer's "boys," who would themselves face serious charges for arranging the fatal abortions on women they had impregnated. Those "boys" offered support to Brewer from all corners of the globe, where they had work they attributed to Brewer's support in getting their educations.
Habitually Deadly Abortionist
The first of the women known to have died at Brewer's hands was 23-year-old Elizabeth Shaw, who died om May 25, 1928. Next was 21-year-old Myrtle Helen Rose, of Ponca City, Oklahoma, who died on December 23, 1931. Ruby Ford, a 26-year-old homemaker, died April 1, 1934. Hermoine Fowler, a 20-year-old coed, died June 27, 1934.
The next to die was Wanda Lee Gray, age 20, who died April 9, 1935 at the home of her parents, Lewis and Effie May Wickline, in Enid, Oklahoma. She left behind her husband, Robert George Gray, two brothers, and two sisters. She was a 1933 graduate of Enid High School. She and Robert were newlyweds, having only married the 30th of the previous July. They had honeymooned in Chicago to visit the World's Fair, traveled in Michigan and Minnesota, then returned to set up house on a farm southwest of Kremlin, Oklahoma.
Wanda had not even been buried yet when an abortion at Brewer's hands ended the life of
Doris Jones, a 20-year-old mother of two, who died April 11, 1935.
The county attorney who arranged the plea bargain, Holbird, didn't seem to think that Brewer had done much harm. "In accepting Dr. Brewer's plea of guilty in these abortion deaths I do so with the feeling that the law has collected its debt. The matter of the penalty assessed is unimportant. The thing that counts is that these crimes have been exposed to the world, and the people can now realize the serious danger and hazard to life in this kind of operation."
Thus came Brewer's six four-year sentences, to run concurrently, for all six abortion deaths. The likely reason that he got such a light sentence was his extreme popularity for his benevolence in putting local young men through college. So beloved was Brewer that one victim's husband was fired in retaliation for reporting his wife's death to the police.
Governor E. W. Marland, however, was not exactly delighted with the wrist-slap administered by local officials. "This is the worst case I ever heard of," the governor said, "He was, in my opinion, guilty of mortal turpitude of character almost as serious as that resulting in the death of these women." Noting that Brewer would be eligible for parole after serving only 28 months, the governor urged an investigation which he was certain would uncover more crimes so that additional charges could be brought so that Brewer would end up serving a sentence commensurate with the harm he had done.
In the end, Brewer's supporters triumphed. The young men prospered, the young women lay dead in their graves.
Context in Closing:
The idea that legalizing abortion magically eliminated tragic deaths is false. The major decline in maternal mortality — including deaths from illegal abortion — occurred decades before Roe v. Wade (1973), driven primarily by sulfa drugs (1930s), penicillin and other antibiotics (1940s), improved blood transfusions, and advances in obstetric care. Legalization simply shifted many abortions from one set of physicians to another. In some cases it led those "back alley" physicians to move onto main street and start killing women with a carelessness they never would have dared before legalization, as exemplified by Milan Vuitch, Jesse Ketchum, and Benjamin Munson. All three had no criminal abortions deaths to their discredit but each went on to kill two patients with appalling malpractice after legalization. Legalization did not eliminate the human cost or the incentives for providers to cut corners. Claims of dramatically improved “safety” still rest on voluntary self-reporting from the facilities and physicians performing the procedures, a system with documented cases of falsified records and gaps in accountability.
Source:
- "Wickline-Gray Vows Monday," Enid (OK) Morning News, July 31, 1934
- "Graduate of Enid High School Dies," Enid (OK) Daily Eagle, April 10, 1935
- "Murder Charges Multiply On Philanthropic Doctor," Miami (OK) Daily News-Record, May 5, 1935
- "Fourth Murder Charge Filed Against Physician," Muskogee )OK) Daily Phoenix, May 10, 1945
- "Two More Murder Charges Are Filed Against Physician," Bristow (OK) Daily Record, June 6, 1935
- "Two New Deaths Laid to Garber's 'Sweet Grouch'," Muskogee Times-Democrat, June 6, 1935
- "Link Doctor in 2 New Deaths," Oklahoma News, June 6, 1935
- "Dr. Brewer Accused of Death of Logan Woman," (Guthrie, OK) Leader, June 7, 1935
- "Dr. Brewer Calm To New Charges," Miami (OK) News-Record, June 7, 1935
- "Dr. Brewer Gets Four Years on Plea of Guilty," Okmulgee (OK) Daily Times, June 8, 1935
- "Garber Doctor Given Four Year Sentence For Abortion Deaths," Muskogee Daily Phoenix, June 8, 1035
- "Marland Hints More Charges Against Doctor," The Oklahoma News, June 9, 1935
- "Mild-Mannered County Doctor Pleads Guilty To Six Charges of Manslaughter and Gets 4 Years," Nowata (OK) Daily Star, June 9, 1935
Mamie Ethel Crowell, age 20, was a telephone operator living on Belmont Avenue in Chicago.
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