Saturday, June 20, 2026

June 20, 1989: Fatal Uterine Perforation

Dr. William Fitzhugh

Margaret Paula Clodfelter, a 19-year-old secretary at an insurance agency, had an abortion at  Richmond Medical Center For Women on June 2, 1989. The abortion was performed by William Fitzhugh.

After she was discharged from the clinic, Margaret had pain and bleeding. She called the facility to consult with them, but they did not tell her that she needed any further care.

On June 4, she sought treatment at MCV Hospital in Richmond, where she was diagnosed with retained fetal tissue and a perforated uterus. She underwent a D&C. She developed infection, so doctors performed a hysterectomy. 

Their efforts were in vain. Margaret died of sepsis on June 20, 1989. She left behind a husband and a one-year-old son.

Sources: 
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June 20, 1974: Abortion Rights Hero Kills Teen

Dr. Milan Vuitch

Dr. Milan Vuitch was a hero among abortion advocates. He had deliberately been arrested performing criminal abortions so that he could challenge the Washington, DC abortion law, and he succeeded in changing the way the law was enforced, effectively nullifying it.

On June 15, 1974, seventeen-year-old Wilma Harris of West Virginia went to Vuitch's Laurel Clinic for a safe and abortion. She died five days later on her 18th birthday, June 20.

During interrogatories, Vuitch said that anesthesiologist Strahil Nacev described Wilma as "so quiet" during the abortion. Although he had begun a vacuum abortion, Vuitch said that the fetus had been too big to pass through the suction tube. He said he used instruments to remove the remaining fetal parts.

Although the abortion was done at around 2:00 PM, Vuitch didn't transfer Wilma to a properly equipped hospital until after midnight. Wilma's family sued, claiming that Vuitch and his staff had allowed Wilma to lapse into a coma and lie unattended for 12 hours before transferring her to the hospital. The suit also claimed that Vuitch and his staff falsified records to cover their tracks. The family won a judgment on December 23, 1976, but the settlement was sealed by court order.

Georgianna English also died after an abortion by Vuitch. WDVM-TV won a Peabody Award for their expose of Vuitch after her death.

Vuitch isn't the only abortionist who kept his nose clean as a criminal abortionist, only to kill two patients after legalization. Jesse Ketchum managed to kill Margaret Smith and Carole Schaner in a four-month period after New York put out a welcome mat for carpetbagging abortionists in 1970. Benjamin Munson of South Dakota killed Linda Padfield and Yvonne Mesteth.

Watch "Permission to Take Lethal Risks" on YouTube.

Source: Source: US District of Columbia District Court Case No. 75-1156

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June 20, 1929: Midwife's Efforts Leave Woman Dead

On June 20, 1929, 28-yaer-old Jennie Kuba died at Chicago hospital from an abortion performed there that day by midwife Mary Zwieniczak.

Zwienczak was arrested July 13. The grand jury handed down an indictment of homicide.

The coroner also recommended the arrest of Dr. Joseph Mienczak, who assisted Zwieniczak, as an accessory. It was common for non-physician abortionists to have a doctor who provided training, equipment, and medications, and who would provide aftercare if a woman suffered complications -- much like the arrangement that the abortion lobby is currently pursuing of allowing non-physicians to practice abortion as long as they have physician back-up.

Source: Homicide in Chicago Interactive Database

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June 20, 1908: Who Was Guilty -- The Doctor or the Midwife?

On June 20 or 24, 1908, 36-year-old housekeeper Lillian "Lillie" O'Neill died in Dr. Albert C. Davis's Chicago office from complications of an abortion performed June 20. Davis was acquitted for reasons not given in the source document. A midwife named Cornelia Meyers was arrested, tried, convicted, and sentenced to Joliet. Lillie's abortion was typical in that it was involved medical professionals, including a physician. This was especially true in Chicago during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

The coroner also recommended the arrest of Dr. Joseph Mienczak, who assisted Zwieniczak, as an accessory. It was common for non-physician abortionists to have a doctor who provided training, equipment, and medications, and who would provide aftercare if a woman suffered complications -- much like the arrangement that the abortion lobby is currently pursuing of allowing non-physicians to practice abortion as long as they have physician back-up.

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Friday, June 19, 2026

June 19, 1984: Teen Found Dead on the Bathroom Floor

After awakening from a nap on June 19, 1984, 14-year-old "Gwen Newhart's"* mother found her dead on the bathroom floor.

Dr. E. Wyman Garrett

Just five days before, Gwen had undergone a second-trimester abortion performed by 46-year-old Dr. E. Wyman Garrett** in Newark, New Jersey. She was 22 weeks pregnant.

At home after her abortion, Gwen began vomiting and suffered from abdominal pain and a high fever. Her mother called Garrett, who told her that the symptoms were normal and prescribed antibiotics. 

Gwen seemed to improve briefly, but took a turn for the worse on June 18.

Gwen's mother called the next morning and Garrett said to bring Gwen in to the office. Mrs. Newhart took a nap and awoke to find her daughter dead on the bathroom floor.

The massive infection that was causing her symptoms killed her.

An autopsy found that Gwen's uterus had been punctured, and her abdomen was full of pus and adhesions.

When the New Jersey medical board investigated Dr. Garrett, they noted that he had illegally altered Gwen's medical records. He had also performed Gwen's abortion in violation of state regulations, since New Jersey required that abortions past the first trimester be performed in a hospital.

They noted other, non-fatal injuries including:

  • A 16-year-old girl who had to be hospitalized with a 1-inch tear in her uterus and a pelvic infection from a second-trimester abortion Garrett performed in his office rather than a hospital
  • A baby boy born alive at University Hospital in Newark after Garrett had initiated a saline abortion; the baby died 15 weeks later.
  • A baby girl who suffered birth injuries leaving her severely brain damaged after Garrett failed to diagnose intrauterine growth retardation
  • A woman who was discharged from the clinic with a fetal head left in her uterus

Garrett argued that he was suffering from ''burnout syndrome,'' caused by performing more than 2,600 second-trimester abortions between 1982 and 1986. He asserted, "If any man has this much work, he's going to have complications." He pleaded no-contest in the state case.

In 1986 the board concluded that Garrett was guilty of gross negligence, abandonment of patients, and professional misconduct. He failed to recognize and treat complications in a timely manner, they found. banned Garrett from performing abortions or other outpatient surgery. In 1987 they revoked his license. They cited a total of 26 abortions performed in a "grossly improper" manner. As of 1994 he still owed over $175,000 in fines and court costs from the medical board suspension proceedings.

Garrett had other unsavory run-ins with society. In 1971, during a teacher strike, Garrett (who was then a school board member) told a school trustee "We know where you live. We're going to get you." He then turned to a reporter who was taking notes and said, "You'll have to give me your notebook or you won't get out of this building alive." Garrett then, according to the reporter, summoned two men to beat the reporter up and take his notebook and wallet. Two weeks into the trial Garrett plea-bargained down to interfering with people at a public meeting and paid $2,000 in fines and costs. 

In 1983 he started refusing to do second-trimester abortions at University Hospital in Newark because they would no longer pay him $250 to $300 per abortion instead of the Medicaid physician fee of $79. (In 2022 dollars, he had been getting $734 - $880 per abortion when the Medicaid fee was $232.) Garrett publicly said that since the hospital was reimbursed $1,334 ($3,915 in 2022 dollars) per abortion and he performed 851 abortion there in the previous year, he'd brought the hospital more than $1.2 million in Medicaid dollars (about $3.5 in 2022 dollars). Garrett argued that he was entitled to more than $79 because his usual abortion fee was from $400 to $900 ($1,174 - $2,641 in 2022 dollars). 

In 1984 Garret performed a fatal abortion on Gail Wright.

In 1986 a whistleblower claimed that she discovered that Garret was preparing post-operative reports prior to surgery he was performing at University Hospital.

*Source failed to redact name in original, but out of privacy respect I use a pseudonym. 

** "John Roe 268" in Lime 5

Watch "Stopped Before He Could Kill Another Patient" on YouTube.

Sources: 

Deceived or lying?

Abortion advocates argue that although legal abortion deaths like Gwen's are indeed sad, they're only a pale shadow of the carnage that would ensue were legal protection restored to unborn children. They use these claims to garner support among those otherwise reluctant to support legal abortion as well as to slander life advocates.

There are two approaches Big Abortion takes when trying to scare people into supporting legal abortion as a means of protecting women's lives:

Outright lying. They will trot out the long-disproven claim that 5,000 to 10,000 women were dying every year from abortion before legalization.

Bernard Nathanson, co-founder of NARAL,* admitted that he and his associates knew that the claims of 5,000 to 10,000 criminal abortion deaths were false. They bandied them about anyway, Nathanson confessed, because they were useful. This, too, is old news -- Nathanson came clean in 1979 when he published Aborting America.

Lying by omission. They will use numbers that are accurate, but will totally remove them from context in order to draw a conclusion that is demonstrably false. which typically involves taking fairly reliable abortion mortality numbers from before and after legalization then crediting legalization for the drop. No less prestigious organization than the Alan Guttmacher Institute uses this statistical legerdemain: "As the availability of legally induced abortion increased, mortality due to abortion dropped sharply: The number of abortion-related deaths per million live births fell from nearly 40 in 1970 to eight in 1976."

The truth is that you can take virtually any time period from when public health officials first started collecting the data and you'll find that abortion mortality fell. The only exception is a strange leveling-off in the 1950s that I've been unable to account for:


Milan Vuitch

What caused abortion mortality to fall precipitously wasn't legalization. Legalization didn't even make a blip in the trends, likely because for every non-physician whose business fell away, a physician abortionist became sloppy once the risk of a prison sentence for botching an abortion was gone. I know of three erstwhile criminal abortionists -- Jesse Ketchum, Milan Vuitch, and Benjamin Munson -- who kept their noses clean prior to legalization but each went on to practice appallingly sloppy abortions that killed two patients after legalization.

*National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws, later renamed National Abortion Rights Association, now called NARAL Pro-Choice America

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June 19, 1922: A Chicago Midwife's Fatal Work

On June 19, 1922, homemaker Veronica Maslanka, a 26-year-old Polish immigrant, died in her Chicago home from complications of an abortion performed there that day. The coroner identified midwife Mary Pesova as the person responsible for Veronica's death. Since there were many midwives in addition to physicians practicing abortion in Chicago at the time, Veronica's abortion was typical of those perpetrated in that era.

Source: Homicide in Chicago Interactive Database

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June 19, 1908: An Abortion and a Murder

SUMMARY: On June 19, 1908, 27-year-old Elizabeth Geis died in Philadelphia from complications of an abortion most likely perpetrated by Dr. William H. Wilson.

Original falsified death certificate
On June 19, 1908, undertaker Thomas Graham went to the house of William C. Patterson in West Philadelphia. There he picked up the body of Patterson's 27-year-old sister-in-law, Elizabeth "Bess" Alexander Geis. The young woman, Graham was told, had died that day of Bright's disease.

Elizabeth's brother, Leslie Alexander, knew that Bess had not died from Bright's disease. He went to the police, telling them that she had died from a botched abortion and demanding that they arrest Dr. William H. Heck, who had cared for Elizabeth during her final illness.

The investigation was complicated, and in some ways derailed, on June 26, when Wilson died after drinking poisoned ale that had been sent to him via an express office. Police theorized that Bess's husband, Frederick Geis, Jr., had poisoned Heck in revenge for having caused his wife's death.

Police questioned Heck. He said that Bess's husband had summoned him to the Edward Haasz residence, saying that his wife was pregnant and having convulsions and kidney trouble. This was on the morning of June 18. Heck said that he had given Bess some medication, then came back the next morning and found that her condition had deteriorated. "I did what I could for her," he said, "but when I was called four and a half hours later she was dead. I was told that a child had been born before she passed away."

"Her husband seemed to be very excited, due, in my opinion, to his belief that a criminal operation had indeed caused his wife's death. Had I known that when I was first called in on the case I certainly would not have had anything to do with it. There were intimations that the woman did not wish to become a mother because her marriage had been clandestine."

Heck, described in newspapers as "a reputable physician," wrote on Bess's death certificate that she had died of uremic poisoning aggravated by Bright's disease, though he admitted that he suspected that she had been injured in an abortion. He based his diagnosis for the death certificate, he said, on the medical history given by Frederick. Dr. Heck said that he was perplexed as to why somebody had given his name to Mrs. Geis as the person to call for care if she took ill after her abortion.

William Wilson
Haasz, one of Frederick's co-workers at Curtis Publishing Company, said that Bess had died in his home on June 6 after being attended by Dr. William H. Wilson, not by Dr. Heck. Haasz's wife said the same thing. Police later determined that Mr. and Mrs. Haasz had been confused about the date of Bess's death because they were accustomed to the European method of writing dates. They had seen 6/19/08 being written on a document and had thought that the 6 designated the sixth day of the month rather than the sixth month.

Police found it suspicious that Bess's body had been removed from the Haasz and taken to undertaker Sarah Elliot, who had already buried the baby under the name Elizabeth A. Wilson, child of Fred Wilson and Elizabeth Alexander Wilson. "in an obscure corner of the Franklin Cemetery." Elliot sent Bess's body to another undertaker, George Graham, who buried Bess in Mt. Moriah Cemetery.

Frederick Gies and Leslie Alexander were good friends, and remained so even after Bess died. They even rode together to the cemetery for Bess's burial. Leslie and his father, John W. Alexander, visited Gies after he was arrested, and appeared to the police to be very concerned about him. As father and son left the jail, they were pestered by news photographers, and hid their faces with their hats. Leslie kicked the camera out of the hand of a photographer who chased them and continued trying to take pictures.

All of Fred's friends and relatives, including his brother, Charles, came to his defense. Charles indicated that he hadn't known about the marriage until after Bess died.

Fred and Bess had secretly married in Delaware during May, giving false names. Fred told Bess's father, John W. Alexander, that he'd married Bess "to save her good name and because I loved her." He said that they'd married under assumed names so that she'd not lose her teaching job, since at that time female teachers were not permitted to be married women. He also said, "I do not propose to discuss her trouble or mine with a police official or any one else. It is too sacred a subject to me."

Fred's only comment to the press was, "I do not wish to discuss my predicament, but I do want to thank you for the fair way in which the newspapers have treated me since my arrest."

A graduate of the Girls' High School in 1901 and later of the Girls' Normal school, Mrs. Gies was considered a teacher of exceptional ability and promise, and her death was a great shock to her old class-mates and to her many friends in the southern part of the city. There she was born and reared, a light-hearted girl, who was extremely fond of books.

The police arrested Fred, a press room foreman at Curtis Publishing Company, because they believed that he had given Wilson the poison as revenge for having killed Bess. That theory turned out to have been entirely mistaken, since the poisoned ale had been sent to Wilson before Bess's death.

Sources:
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Thursday, June 18, 2026

June 18, 1891: Died on her Wedding Day

May E. Parmenter's memorial at Find-a-Grave includes an 1891 clipping that reads:

Died on Her Wedding Day. Athol, Mass., June 19. -- Miss May Parmenter, one of Athol's prettiest and brightest girls, was to have been married yesterday to Leroy Felton, a well-known young man of Orange. on the morning of the wedding she was taken violently ill, and died during the afternoon. It now transpires that Miss Parmenter was the victim of malpractice, performed by a well-known physician. She was urged to take the step by a very near relative, against the wishes of her intended husband.

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June 18 in 1914 and 1917: Mysterious Deaths in Chicago

Grok AI illustration
On June 18, 1914, 39-year-old Bridget Murphy died at Post Graduate Hospital in Chicago from an abortion performed that day by an unknown perpetrator. (Sources: Death certificate and Homicide in Chicago Interactive Database)

The Coroner was never able to identify the abortionist responsible for the death of 19-year-old Julia Suchora on June 18, 1917, at her Chicago home. (Sources: Death certificate and Homicide in Chicago Interactive Database)

Given the plethora of physicians and midwives running abortion practices in Chicago, it is likely that Bridget and Julia availed themselves of one of these options. 



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June 18, 1972: Taking Fatal Advantage of Liberalization in New York

Grok AI illustration
"Sara" underwent a second trimester abortion in New York City in May of 1972. She was 18 weeks pregnant. She had problems with retained tissue, so three weeks after the abortion she had a D&C to remove the tissue. Sara had developed infection from the retained tissue, and on June 18, 1972, the infection took her life. She left one child motherless.

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 "Sara," 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
  • "Annie" 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
  • Carole Schaner, October, 1971, hemorrhage from multiple lacerations during outpatient hysterotomy abortion
  • "Tammy" Roe, October, 1971, sent home to die of sepsis
  • "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
  • "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

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, 320
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June 18, 1910: Self-Induced in Chicago

SUMMARY: Clara, age 21, died at Chicago's Cook County Hospital on June 18, 1910 from complications of a self-induced abortion.

Grok AI illustration
"Clara," identified as "Miss F." in the source document, was 21 years old when she used a catheter to perform a self-induced abortion in mid-May of 1910.

Five days after using the catheter on herself, Clara began suffering chills, fever, and abdominal pain. She passed the fetus the nest day but did not pass the placenta.

Her condition deteriorated, so on June 12, 1910 she went to Cook County Hospital. Her admission notes indicate, "Very weak and sick. Face drawn and anxious. Abdomen distended and tender. Muscles rigid." Her pulse was 116, her respirations 24, her temperature 99.6.

The following day, Clara's temperature began to fall below normal and her pulse became more rapid. She died on June 18 from streptococcal peritonitis.

Illinois death records show one woman of this age who died in Chicago on June 18, 1910: Annette Fanton.

Context

The fact that Clara induced her own abortion makes her case unusual.
Mary Calderone

Mary Claderone (then Medical Director of Planned Parenthood) and Nancy Howell Lee (a pro choice researcher) both investigated the practice of criminal abortion in the pre-legalization era. Calderone estimated that 90% of all illegal abortions in the early 1960s were being done by physicians. Calderone further estimated that 8% were self-induced and that 2% were induced by someone other than the woman or a doctor. Lee estimated that 89% of pre-legalization abortions were done by physicians, an additional 5% by nurses or others with some medical training, and 6% were done by non-medical persons or the woman herself.

Calderone's numbers came from "43 men and women from the various disciplines of obstetrics, psychiatry, public health, sociology, forensic medicine, and law and demography." Lee interviewed women who had undergone pre-legalization abortions. The discrepancy between Lee's and Calderone's breakdowns of non-physician abortions is probably due to sampling errors.

Lee, who spoke with women who survived abortions, would of course not encounter women whose abortions killed them. Therefore she would not be exposed to the proportionate number of women who chose the most dangerous alternative. Lee's sample also included only willing survey participants, who would be more forthright and complete in divulging information, such as who really performed the abortion, than women being interviewed by health or law enforcement officials.

Calderone, on the other hand, spoke with those likely to see the botched and fatal abortions, and therefore they would be exposed to a higher percentage of the most dangerous, self-induced abortions. Also, Calderone's informants would have been investigating botched abortions that could be subject to a criminal investigation. Therefore, women speaking to them would be likely to withhold the true identity of their abortionists to protect them. Also, should the woman die, her family and friends might identify the woman herself as the abortionist, rather than admit their own roles in arranging or performing abortions, in order to close the investigation.

Anecdotal data tends to support Lee's research. Stories of abortions by midwives, orderlies, chiropractors, and assorted lay practitioners like Harvey Karman and the Jane Syndicate are far too common to represent only 2% of criminal abortions. We would probably not err too far if we relied primarily on Lee's numbers and adjusted them slightly to reflect the slight under-reporting of amateur abortions. Thus, a fair estimate of the breakdown of criminal abortions would probably look like this:
  • 90% performed by physicians
  • 5% performed by trained non-physicians (medical and lay)
  • 3% performed by an untrained accomplice
  • 2% performed by the woman herself
Possible ID: Cook County death records show a 21-year-old Annette Fanton who died on June 18, 1910.

Source: "A Study Of and Deductions From Fifty Fatal Cases of Puerperal Fever," Dr. Herbert Marion Stowe, Surgery Gynecology and Obstetrics, 1912, Part 1 and Part 2
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June 18, 1973: Abortion Rights Folks Side With Deadly Doc

 Dr. Hugh Benjamin Munson had been practicing criminal abortion in Rapid City, SD as early as 1967. In 1969, he was convicted of performing an abortion on a 19-year-old patient. Munson, who went by his middle name, won an appeal in circuit court. When the state appealed, the South Dakota Supreme Court upheld the conviction. Munson was in the process of appealing this decision when Roe vs. Wade was handed down, making the case moot. Munson was free to practice abortion at-will.

Into this situation walked 28-year-old Linda Padfield.

Linda's Last Days

Linda Padfield

On June 14, 1973, Linda traveled about five hours to Munson's Rapid City clinic from her home in Groton, SD with her three small children and a friend. 

The following day Linda went to Munson's clinic, where  the 57-year-old doctor performed an abortion. Linda, her friend, and her children went to spend the night at a nearby hotel.

According to Linda's friend, Munson was supposed to come to the hotel the next day to check on Linda, but he never arrived. The two women were unable to reach him by phone, so they took Linda's children to do some sightseeing and then headed home to Groton. 

When arrived on the 17th, Linda was already sick with nausea and high fever. She told her mother about the abortion, and her mother took her to St. Luke's Hospital in Aberdeen for emergency surgery, but the infection had progressed too far and Linda died on June 18.

Three Years Later

Not a word about Linda's death appears in the media until three years later, almost to the day. Munson was arrested and charged with manslaughter on June 17, 1976.

Legal Wrangling and Taking Sides

Dr. H. Benjamin Munson
Munson asked that the manslaughter charge against him be dismissed because the statute of limitations had run out. The judge ruled that the clock began running not on the day Linda had been injured but on the day she had died. Thus, he ruled, charges were filed one day short of the expiration of the statute of limitations.

Munson also alleged that the decision to prosecute was made in bad faith because Attorney General William Janklow was opposed to abortion. Munson's attorney noted that since his client performed almost all the abortions in South Dakota, taking him out of circulation would put a virtual halt to abortions in the state. 

Abortion-rights activists with the National Abortion Rights Action League started a defense fund for Munson, raising over $40,000 (over $200,000 in 2022 dollars). The National Organization for Women took out a large newspaper ad offering public support for Munson. Given the choice between a dead patient and the person who had caused her death, they chose the latter.

The Trial Begins

Jury selection was held behind closed doors. Circuit Court Judge Merton Tice Jr. said that he wanted to have prospective jurors "free from influence outside of those which are proper." The Rapid City Journal sought to have the closure lifted so that they could cover jury selection. They lost their bid to open the procedure.

The jury was sequestered during the trial. Judge Tice asked the attorneys for both the prosecution and the defense not to talk to the press. 

Jurors were taken for a tour of Munson's clinic on the first post-selection day of the trial. 

Testimony From Doctors

One of the doctors who had treated Linda at the hospital, Dr. James Hovland, said that Linda had been conscious when she first arrived but that she deteriorated rapidly. She seemed to be going into kidney failure, and didn't even bleed from the incision made for exploratory surgery. When asked if an immediate hysterectomy would have saved her, Hovland expressed his doubts, given how gravely ill Linda was from the results of the infection raging through her entire body.

Dr. A. C. Vogele, another doctor who treated Linda, agreed with Dr. Hovland that Linda had been conscious and alert but was showing low blood pressure, abdominal pain, bleeding, and signs of shock. The exploratory surgery found no perforation of the uterus or bowel. The doctors halted any further surgery, Vogele said, because Linda was so sick that she'd have died during surgery. When asked if he would have performed a hysterectomy had he known how much of Linda's fetus was still inside his body, Vogele responded that he probably would have. 

The only person who knew how much of Linda's fetus was still in her body was Benjamin Munson, and he evidently had not bothered to tell anybody.

How much of Linda's unborn baby had been left in her uterus? A pathologist found the remains of a five-month fetus, missing the left leg, right arm, part of the skull, and part of the front of the torso. A five-month fetus typically weighs about 360 grams; Munson had left 240 grams behind. He had only removed about a third of Linda's baby.

The 240 grams of retained fetus were, the pathologist believed, the source of the problem. The retained fetus caused sepsis, which caused hemorrhage, which caused the adrenal failure that killed Linda.

The prosecution focused on the fact that infection will inevitably result from that much retained tissue and that there was simply no way Munson could have been unaware that he had failed to complete the abortion. The Attorney General commented, "You take a three-inch leg off something, you have to know that there's more in there than just the leg." 

Munson's Attorney's Argument

The defense argument was basically this:

  1. Lots of abortion doctors send patients home with retained tissue, figuring that the woman will just expel it later.
  2. Yes, retained tissue can cause infection, but infection is an accepted risk of abortion.
  3. The prosecution didn't prove that Munson was aware of how much of Linda's fetus had been left in her womb.
  4. The prosecution didn't prove that Munson had intended to cause Linda any harm.
  5. The only standard of care that can apply is the local standard of care. Since Munson was the only local abortion provider, whatever he did constituted the standard of care and therefore he could never violate that standard.

In short, he argued that since Munson was the only abortionist in South Dakota, whatever he did was by definition the right thing to do. Unless you could prove that he wanted Linda to die, you couldn't hold him accountable for her death.

The Verdict and Aftermath

The judge agreed with Munson's attorney and directed the jury to return a verdict of "Not guilty."

Munson called the directed verdict "like Christmas in October."

Munson later became a member of the National Abortion Federation (NAF). He evidently didn't to much to change his standards of care, because in 1985 he sent a teenage patient, Yvonne Mesteth, home with retained tissue. She, like Linda Padfield, died of infection. Again Munson was prosecuted for manslaughter, and again he beat the rap. As the only abortionist in South Dakota, he was the ultimate arbiter of what was accepted practice.

Munson in Context

Munson is the third former criminal abortionist I've learned of who had a clean record -- no patient deaths -- as a criminal abortionist, only to go on to kill two patients in his legal practice. The others are Milan Vuitch (Georgianna English and Wilma Harris) and Jesse Ketchum (Margaret Smith and Carole Schaner).

Munson died at a ripe old age in a Vermont nursing home in 2003. Had Linda not turned to Munson but instead reached out to a pregnancy resource center, she would have been 57 years old, and her baby 30 years old. 

Watch "It Was the Right Thing to Do Because He Did It" on YouTube.

Sources:



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June 18, 1953: Dumped in the Bushes

 The Journey

In June of 1953, Bettye Porter, 24, lived in Anchorage, Alaska with her husband, Herbert, and their two children. This young black woman flew to Washington state with the boys, ages 11 months and 3 years, on June 14.

As Herbert, a young bartender, saw his family off, he had no way of anticipating what would follow. 

After arriving in Washington, Bettye Porter left her children with friend Anna Barzar in Tacoma. Bettye then went to Seattle on her own to visit friends there. Days later those friends called Herbert to tell him that his wife was missing. They hadn't seen her since June 18. Herbert contacted Seattle police and flew down himself.

The Grim Discovery

On June 29, Alfred and Dwight Aronson, ages 10 and 18 respectively, went out picking blackberries with their friend, 15-year-old Richard Hook. As they foraged near the south end of Midway Road near the Gig Harbor end of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, they spotted the body of an attractive young black woman. 

At around 5:20 pm, Deputy Sheriffs Chet Jones and E. E. Bathke arrived and took charge. Officers Lyle Lanthrop and Ed Dahl photographed the scene. The woman was fully clad, dumped face-down about 300 feet east of the south end of Midway road and 12 feet south of an old logging road.

Care had been taken to remove tags from the woman's expensive clothing before her body was dumped. Police theorized that this had been in an attempt to make her harder to identify. 

The person or persons who did this, however, didn't realized that police would be able to tentatively identify the body from fingerprints. Believing that the corpse was the missing Bettye Porter, they contacted Herbert. He was able to make a positive identification.

How Bettye Died

An autopsy concluded that Bettye had bled to death internally from a criminal abortion. She had been dead between 7 and 14 days. 

After an investigation, police arrested 34-year-old mechanic Norman Wade Austin. He was charged with attempted abortion, second degree murder for Bettye's death, and manslaughter for the death of her 5-months unborn child. Police concluded that he had perpetrated the abortion in a massage parlor he had recently opened in the Savoy Hotel at 1214 2nd Avenue.

The hotel's operator, Harry A. Howard, and 23-year-old Geraldine Lowe were charged with second-degree murder for their roles in arranging the fatal abortion. All three parties were held pending posting of $10,000 bail each.

Bettye's date of death was determined to be June 18.

And... That's All.

I can't find any evidence of a successful prosecution, just an article noting that by November of 1953, when they were arrested for running an auto-theft ring, Geraldine and Norman were identified as a married couple.

The fact that Bettye went to a lay abortionist made her choice highly unusual. 

Who performed abortions before legalization?

Mary Claderone (then Medical Director of Planned Parenthood) and Nancy Howell Lee (a pro choice researcher) both investigated the practice of criminal abortion in the pre-legalization era. Calderone estimated that 90% of all illegal abortions in the early 1960s were being done by physicians. Calderone further estimated that 8% were self-induced and that 2% were induced by someone other than the woman or a doctor. Lee estimated that 89% of pre-legalization abortions were done by physicians, an additional 5% by nurses or others with some medical training, and 6% were done by non-medical persons or the woman herself.

Calderone's numbers came from "43 men and women from the various disciplines of obstetrics, psychiatry, public health, sociology, forensic medicine, and law and demography." Lee interviewed women who had undergone pre-legalization abortions. The discrepancy between Lee's and Calderone's breakdowns of non-physician abortions is probably due to sampling errors.

Lee, who spoke with women who survived abortions, would of course not encounter women whose abortions killed them. Therefore she would not be exposed to the proportionate number of women who chose the most dangerous alternative. Lee's sample also included only willing survey participants, who would be more forthright and complete in divulging information, such as who really performed the abortion, than women being interviewed by health or law enforcement officials.

Calderone, on the other hand, spoke with those likely to see the botched and fatal abortions, and therefore they would be exposed to a higher percentage of the most dangerous, self-induced abortions. Also, Calderone's informants would have been investigating botched abortions that could be subject to a criminal investigation. Therefore, women speaking to them would be likely to withhold the true identity of their abortionists to protect them. Also, should the woman die, her family and friends might identify the woman herself as the abortionist, rather than admit their own roles in arranging or performing abortions, in order to close the investigation.

Anecdotal data tends to support Lee's research. Stories of abortions by midwives, orderlies, chiropractors, and assorted lay practitioners like Harvey Karman and the Jane Syndicate are far too common to represent only 2% of criminal abortions. We would probably not err too far if we relied primarily on Lee's numbers and adjusted them slightly to reflect the slight under-reporting of amateur abortions. Thus, a fair estimate of the breakdown of criminal abortions would probably look like this:


Additional sources: 
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Wednesday, June 17, 2026

June 17, 1918: Chicago Doctor Dies Before Trial

On June 17, 1918, 25-year-old Sophie Suida died at Chicago's St. Mary's Hospital from complications of an abortion reportedly perpetrated by Dr. L. D. Tucholska, who died at the county jail on June 28, before the case could come to trial. Physicians and midwives ran an abundance of semi-clandestine abortion practices in the Chicago of that era.

Sources: Homicide in Chicago Interactive Database

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1977: Death in New York for “Hallie”

"Hallie" is the name Life Dynamics gave to a young woman on their Blackmun Wall. 

Citing a New York State database run done on July 19, 1995, Life Dynamics indicate that Hallie was a black woman between the ages of 20 and 24 who died in 1977 from an abortion in New York state.



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June 17, 1913: Doc Implicated but Never Prosecuted

On June 17, 1913, 36-year-old homemaker Freda Englehard died in Chicago, at the scene of an abortion reportedly perpetrated that day by Dr. Joseph A. Meeks. Meeks was held for murder, and Mrs. Mollie Flaherty was held as an accessory, but the case never went to trial.

Sources: Homicide in Chicago Interactive Database; Illinois death records

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Tuesday, June 16, 2026

June 16, 1910: First Death Attributed to Fred Orainger

On June 16, 1910, Mrs. Paulina Sproc, a 35-year-old immigrant from Bohemia, died in a Chicago home from an abortion that had been performed on June 5.

A man mistakenly identified in the Homicide in Chicago Interactive Database as W.L. Orsinger was held by the coroner's jury. However, his name was actually Fred L. Orsinger. Orsinger had battled with the medical board for 32 years trying to get licensed and insisted on practicing regardless.

Ten years later Orsinger was implicated in the abortion death of Minnie Schofield in March of 1917.

For more on pre-legalization abortion, see The Bad Old Days of Abortion

Sources: 
Chicago Business Directory, 1904


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June 16, 1971: Empty Promise of Legalization Means Death for Young Mom

Summary: Margaret Loise Smith, age 25, sought a safe abortion after being exposed to rubella. She was dead by the end of the day.

Who Was Jesse Ketchum?

Dr. Jesse Ketchum
Back before legalization, Jesse Ketchum (November 7, 1917 - July 20, 2005) operated his abortion practice alongside a legitimate (if somewhat lawsuit-prone) medical practice. Although Ketchum's criminal abortion practice wasn't the best in the world, he evidently maintained some standards and protocols for screening patients. No patient deaths have been attributed to Ketchum's criminal practice, though he was arrested a total of three times for perpetrating abortions, and was convicted of breaking federal tax laws, and for obscene conduct in a pornographic movie theater. He settled or was judged against in nine malpractice suits.

Ketchum kept abortion instruments in his house and perpetrated abortions in a motel room. Clergy Consultation Services (CCS), an organization created specifically to refer women to abortionists, began referring women to him.

In late 1969 or early 1970, Ketchum was arrested after an undercover policewoman arranged for him to perform an abortion at a motel in Southfield, Michigan. She had been referred to Ketchum through Clergy Consultation Service.

The Michigan Women's Commission and CCS responded to Ketchum's arrest by starting a drive to repeal laws against abortion. County Prosecutor Thomas Plunkett objected to feeling forced to prosecute Ketchum because he, himself, favored abortion rights. Whether allowing the likes of Jesse Ketchum to ply the abortion trade without let or hindrance was not even taken into consideration by his supporters.

Shuffle Off to Buffalo

When New York legalized abortion on demand in 1970, 52-year-old Ketchum -- assisted by his wife, Judith, nearly 30 years his junior -- set up shop in a Buffalo motel suite. For Ketchum, New York must have seemed like the Promised Land. Abortionists were flaunting safety standards with impunity. Practices such as injecting patients with saline then sending them home to abort raised eyebrows, to be sure, but they didn't get anybody thrown in jail even if the woman died. CCS continued to refer women to Ketchum in his new location.

On May 28, 1971, Ketchum did a D&C abortion under general anesthesia on Ellen K. Lawler of New Baltimore, MI, in his Buffalo office. Only later, at an undisclosed time, did Mrs. Lawler discover that Ketchum had lacerated her uterus, anterior cul-de-sac, right broad ligament, and peritoneum. He had told her the abortion had been uncomplicated. Such severe injuries in a criminal abortion patient would have brought the heat down on our boy Jesse. But this was New York, abortion was legal, and although Mrs. Lawler suffered ill effects from Ketchum's foul-up, Ketchum himself was able to carry on. And carry on he did. By late October of 1971, Ketchum had signed and filed 862 fetal death certificates, about 15% of the total abortions done in the county that year. He reported having done 17 abortions in a single day -- February 3, 1971. 

Ketchum decided to do hysterotomy abortions -- which involve slicing the uterus open to remove the baby -- in his office. It didn't take long for this practice to turn deadly. In the second half of 1971, Ketchum caught the eyes of the authorities by allowing two hysterotomy patients to bleed to death. 

Enter Margaret Smith

His first victim was 25-year-old Margaret Louise Smith. Margaret was a divorced mother with two children from her marriage. When she discovered that she was pregnant by her boyfriend, Billy Ray Ellenburg, they intended to keep the baby. However, Margaret's 5-year-old daughter contracted either measles or rubella, commonly known as German measles. 

If a mother contracted rubella during early pregnancy, there was a significant risk of catastrophic harm to the unborn baby. Later in pregnancy the risks would be less severe but still concerning. Mere exposure, however, would not harm the baby, especially if the mother herself had contracted rubella in childhood. As for ordinary measles, even a full-scale bout of measles posed no risk to the baby at all. 

Laypersons could easily be confused about measles vs. German measles, as well as the risk of exposure vs. the risk of actually contracting the disease. It's no surprise, then, that Margaret was afraid that the exposure to her sick daughter had harmed the unborn baby, so she contacted Clergy Consultation Services (CCC). 

CCC was organization convinced that they were doing God's work by finding and referring women to abortionists rather than helping them to resolve the issues that were making abortion look like a solution to their problems. In Margaret's case, with a pregnancy she originally planned to carry to term, a responsible course of action would have been to reassure Margaret that the risk was very low and that there was a cheap blood test to determine if she had contracted rubella without showing symptoms. But CCC didn't have a culture of holistic approaches. They had a culture of hasty referrals, and any mention of possible rubella exposure was to be handled with an abortion referral without taking the time or trouble to find out if even a loved and wanted baby had been harmed. When in doubt, abort. 

CCC volunteers not only weren't informed of any information that might reassure a frightened pregnant women, they weren't informed of CCC's rather sketchy method of vetting the practitioners women were referred to. They would send women posing as patients to see if the practice looked clean and professional, but these were laypersons with no training in proper medical practice. When CCC did bother to send a doctor to vet abortionist Milan Vuitch, Nathanson noted rushed procedures, inadequate follow up, and a rather blasé attitude towards compilations, but Vuitch was a fellow soldier in the fight for legalization so Nathanson endorsed him in spite of his reservations.

So with zero effort to determine if her wanted baby had even been exposed to rubella and no real appreciation of the background of their trusted practitioner, CCC referred Margaret to Ketchum.

By the time Margaret and her boyfriend arrived in Buffalo on Tuesday, June 15, 1971, Ketchum had moved his practice out of the motel room and into a proper medical office, Room 605 Medical Towers, 50 High Street in Buffalo. (Up through January of 1971, Ketchum had been doing his abortions at the Sheraton Hotel at 715 Delaware Avenue.) The fact that Ketchum was in an actual medical arts building rather than a motel likely would have reassured Margaret that CCC had indeed set her up for an abortion that was not only legal, but safe. She and Billy Ray went to Ketchum's office for a 9:15 appointment on June 16. They gave Ketchum five $100 bills to pay for the abortion. That's just over $1,000 in 2025.

Grok AI illustration
Billy Ray left, trusting his loved one to Ketchum's care.

Ketchum performed a vaginal hysterotomy on Margaret at 10:30 the morning of June 16, 1971 in his office. Margaret would have been put in stirrups and heavily sedated. Ketchum would then position Margaret's uterus by grasping the cervix with a tenaculum and pulling it into position. This would enable him to cut through the back of the vagina to access the uterus, then cut through the uterus to access and remove the fetus. The fetus would be put in a pan and left to die of prematurity while Ketchum was supposed to remove the placenta and suture shut the incisions he had made. 

Ketchum performed his procedure, then left Margaret virtually unattended until Billy Ray returned at around noon. He spent about half an hour with Margaret, noting that she was having trouble breathing. Ketchum reassured him and told him to return later. Billy Ray came back again at around 2 pm and again found Margaret struggling to breathe. He begged Ketchum and his staff to do something.

Paramedics were summoned, but they were unable to revive Margaret. They pronounced her dead at 4:5o pm. The firefighters on the rescue squad considered the circumstances suspicious and contacted the homicide squad. Ketchum told police that Margaret "had a heart seizure." 

Margaret's body was taken to the morgue for autopsy. Margaret's vagina had been sutured, but a laceration in her uterus and cervix had not been repaired. Ketchum had cut the uterus open but not stitched the incision shut again. Margaret had bled to death. -- just across the street from a hospital that could have saved her life had Ketchum made the effort to monitor her. (Ketchum V. Ward No. Civ-75-79)

Unexpected Fallout

Ketchum was verily astounded when he was charged with criminally negligent homicide in Margaret Smith's death. Abortion, after all, was legal. How could one be prosecuted for doing something legal? And evidently he didn't think the state could possibly succeed in their case. He kept taking risks with patient's lives Before his case went to trial, he performed a similar abortion on 37-year-old Carole Schaner of Ohio on October 20, 1971. Carole was 14 weeks pregnant. After the abortion, Carole went into shock, and was taken to a hospital. Despite all efforts, Carole died before doctors could even fully assess the extent of her injuries. She left behind four children.


A balding middle-aged white man leaning back in a chair and gesturing with his hand
Dr. Milan Vuitch
Ketchum was convicted of criminally negligent manslaughter for Margaret's death on October 26, 1973, despite the fact that renowned abortionist Milan Vuitch (who had challenged the District of Columbia abortion law) testified on his behalf. Margaret's parents sued him for $350,000. Ketchum tried various legal moves to stay out of prison. When Roe v. Wade was handed down and assorted criminal abortionists started getting their old convictions thrown out, Ketchum tried Roe for leverage. He got nowhere. Eventually, he was sentenced to prison. 

Ketchum Bounces Back

Ketchum served little time, however. He was released after less than a year, and relocated to Florida.
.
Ketchum had asked to take the test to become licensed in Florida but his request was denied. In spite of this, he found work at the University of Miami School of Medicine, at Jackson Memorial Hospital, and at the VA hospital in Miami, from September of 1976 to November of 1977. It turned out that no license was required for a doctor to practice in a government operated hospital.

In 1978, he and Judith divorced.

While at the Miami School of Medicine, Ketchum was administering oxygen to Mrs. M for routine surgery. Rather than the 40% oxygen he was to administer, Ketchum provided only 15%. Mrs. M failed to notice until Mrs. M had gone into a coma from which she still hadn't recovered after 19 months.

According to the medical board licensee lookup, Ketchum relocated to Michigan. His petitions to restore his medical license, made in 1984 and 1987, were both denied. Nevertheless, despite killing two women, he remained a free man until his death in 2005.

News clipoping photo, poor quality, of a middle-aged white man with a receeding hairline and a mustache, wearing a jacket and tie
Dr. Benjamin Munson
As for the former criminal abortionist, Milan Vuitch, who had testified on Ketchum's behalf -- he also had kept his nose clean as a criminal abortionist, then went on to kill two legal abortion patients. Wilma Harris and Georgianna English. Another abortionist that I know about, Benjamin Munson, likewise, had a clean record in his criminal abortionist then went on to kill two women in his supposedly safer legal practice -- Linda Padfield and Yvonne Mesteth.

Legalization -- as we can see from these specific tragedies as well as from the numbers -- did nothing to protect women from dying at the hands of abortionists. If anything, it seemed to have emboldened them to take risks they never would have considered taking were a botched abortion alone enough to carry the risk of the loss of a medical license or even of freedom.

Sources  


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