1984: After weeks in coma, abortion patient dies

Yvonne Tanner, a 22-year-old mother of a young daughter, had a safe and legal abortion performed by Stephen Pine and/or Morton Barke July 10, 1984 at Inglewood Women's Hospital.

Yvonne went into a coma immediately after the abortion, and died August 14, 1984. Her death certificate indicates coma, hypertension, and urinary tract infection.

The suit by her survivors alleged that Yvonne was not adequately advised of the risks prior to undergoing the fatal abortion.

The other women I know of who died from abortions at Inglewood are Kathy Murphy, Lynette Wallace, Elizabeth Tsuji, Cora Lewis, and Belinda Byrd.

What sort of facility was Inglewood Women's Hospita?
It was a respected, full-service women's hospital. The high number of deaths was attributed to the fact that they typically only performed abortions on high-risk patients.
It was an ordinary abortion facility that had a sudden cluster of deaths. They did an internal investigation in addition to the state investigation, and found that the deaths were all connected with a single nurse, who was fired and lost her nursing license.
It was a fairly seedy place that was frequently in violation of regulations but managed to stay open by always promising to do better next time. It was only shut down once, and re-opened almost immediately.
It was a disreputable abortion mill that was repeatedly shut down by the state, but by challenging the state's actions in court it was able to remain open.

For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice:



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