1975: Undiagnosed ectopic kills California woman after abortion

Early on the morning of September 27, 1975, 22-year-old Lynette Wallace went to the emergency room reporting abdominal pain. Staff reported that she became agitated and "difficult to handle." They put her in restraints, and
she was pronounced dead of cardiopulmonary arrest at 10:53 AM.

She had undergone a safe and legal abortion at Inglewood Women's Hospital in Los Angeles County on September 13, and had been sent home.

The autopsy revealed what the abortionist should have detected -- the pregnancy had not been in Lynette's uterus but in her fallopian tube. The tube had ruptured, spilling blood and a 10-week fetus into Lynette's abdomen.

Women who seek abortion should be less likely to die of ruptured ectopic pregnancies than women who do not seek abortion. After all, the abortionist is supposed to perform an examination verifying the size of the uterus, and is supposed to visually examine the abortion tissue to be sure that the entire fetus and placenta are present. Also, a pathology examination is supposed to be done on the uterine contents to verify the presence of the entire fetal/placental unit.

In practice, does this hold true?
Yes. Women who choose abortion have lower rates of death from undiagnosed ectopic pregnancies.
No. Women who choose abortions are more likely to die from undiagnosed ectopic pregnancies.

Lynette is one of many deaths currently attributed to Inglewood Women's Hospital (aka Inglewood Women's Clinic) in Los Angeles County. The others are Yvonne Tanner, Kathy Murphy, Belinda Byrd, Cora Lewis, and Elizabeth Tsuji.

For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice:



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