Abortion deaths in 1930

We need some perspective first. All surgery of any sort in 1930 was done without the aid of modern blood transfusion and antibiotics. All surgery of any sort in 1930 was riskier than similar surgery today. This is the era where kitchen-table surgery was phasing out in favor of hospital-based surgery. I have an obstetrical nursing textbook from this era that describes how to set up an operating table in the woman's home to perform a c-section.

Blood banks were cutting-edge battlefield medicine just a few years before, and had not yet come into common usage. Blood type compatibility was not yet understood. It wasn't until the late 1930s and early 1940s that things like separating blood products started to come into practice. Antibiotics were not manufactured and used widely until after WWII. (See chart, below)

So keep in mind that things that may seem appalling to us in the early 21st century -- such as performing surgery in one's home -- was not appalling at the time. Things we take for granted, like antibiotics and blood banks, were still in the future.

With that said, I can't find any numbers for abortion mortality prior to 1940. It seems that before that, the information available lumps all maternal mortality together, and abortions can't be sorted out. But we can hazard a guess that the numbers were at least as high as they were in 1940. How much higher? It's hard to say.



So our best guess, based on what I've been able to find, is about 1,400 deaths a year from abortions in the late 1920s and early 1930s -- a number that would combine illegal abortions, the rare "therapeutic abortion" performed as a last-ditch attempt to save a dying woman, and miscarriages.

With that established, let's look at some examples of women who died, and who did their abortions:

Genevieve Arganbright died after an abortion performed by Dr. Claude C. Long in his San Francisco office.

Alberta Beard died at the office of Dr. Davis Lucas from an abortion performed there that day.

Ethel Crowell died in the office of Dr. Hans Paulsen, from an abortion performed on her that day.

Evelyn Dellorto died from an abortion believed to have been performed at the office of Dr. Frank Psota.

Marie Epperson was the first in a string of Oklahoma City abortion deaths attributed to doctors J. W. Elsiminger and Richard E. Thacker.

Grace Iorio died from an illegal abortion in the Chicago home of midwife Stepina Pazkiewicz.

Dorothy Jasinski died after an abortion by an unknown perpetrator.

Matilda Kleinschmidt died from an abortion, believed to have been performed in the office of Dr. J. Murney Nicholson.

Sonia Raggins died from an illegal abortion performed at an unknown location by an unknown person.

Jeanette Reder died from an abortion performed at the Chicago office of Dr. Emil Gleitsman.

"Eudora" Roe died after an abortion performed in Wichita by Dr. C.C. Keester.

Mary Tulis died from an abortion performed by an unknown perpetrator.

Here is the breakdown of who performed the fatal abortions I've identified for the 1930s:



*Doctor: 73.68%
*Perpetrator or perpetrator's profession unknown: 15.79%
*Other medical professional: 7.89%
*Self: 2.63



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

For more abortion deaths broken down by year, see this post.

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