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Thursday, April 28, 2011

1880: Death in Brooklyn

Mrs. Sophia Berghusen of Brooklyn died on April 28, 1880, under the care of the mother-and-daughter midwife team of Mrs. Mary Kaufmann and Miss Margaret Kaufmann. The coroner concluded that Sophia had died of abortion complications. Both the Kaufmann women were arrested and tried but acquitted, though the sources do not say what was lacking in the case against them.

I have no information on overall maternal mortality, or abortion mortality, in the 19th century. I imagine it can't be too much different from maternal and abortion mortality at the very beginning of the 20th Century.
external image Illegals.png
external image Illegals.png

Note, please, that with issues such as doctors not using proper aseptic techniques, lack of access to blood transfusions and antibiotics, and overall poor health to begin with, there was likely little difference between the performance of a legal abortion and illegal practice, and the aftercare for either type of abortion was probably equally unlikely to do the woman much, if any, good.
For more on this era, see Abortion Deaths in the 19th Century.
For more on pre-legalization abortion, see The Bad Old Days of Abortion.
Sources: "City and Suburban News", The New York Times, April 29, 1880; "Brooklyn", The New York Times, July 17, 1880;

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