1926: Abortion by midwife proves fatal for teen

On December 21, 1926, fifteen-year-old Emily Mueller died from complications of a criminal abortion performed somewhere in Chicago on December 11. A midwife, Magdelane Stegeman, alias Motzny, was booked on December 28. The coroner cleared Stegeman, but she was nevertheless indicted for felony murder by the Grand Jury on February 15, 1927.



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

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