1973: Chicago quackery kills young woman

Survivors of Julia L. Rogers, age 20, alleged that she underwent a safe and legal abortion by Theodore Roosevelt Mason Howard at Friendship Medical Center in Chicago on April 21, 1973. Julia's death certificate states that her death April 28 at Tabernacle Hospital was due to "bronchopneumonia and generalized peritonitis complicating extensive necrotizing endometritis and myometritis with sealed perforation." In other words, she developed pnuemonia on top of peritonitis. A hole had been poked in her uterus, causing an infection that made the muscle tissue of her uterus start to rot inside her. Evelyn Dudley and Dorothy Brown also died after abortions at Friendship Medical Center. Sources: Chicago Sun-Times 11-19-78, The Abortion Profiteers; Chicago Tribune 4-30-73, 5-3-73, 7-17-73; Death Certificate No. C612195