Illegal in 1917, legal in 2001

I don't know much about today's illegal abortion death. On September 12, 1917, 20-year-old Genevieve Popjoy of Momence, Illinois, died at Chicago's Northwest Side Hospital from a criminal abortion perpetrated by an unknown suspect on about August 30. My source doesn't have any more information than that.

I've found a lot more about our safe, legal abortion death. Brenda Vise, a 38-year-old pharmaceutical representative, died on September 12, 2002, of a ruptured ectopic pregnancy after her abortion at Volunteer Women's Clinic in Tennessee. Her survivors filed suit against the facility, as well as Dr. Edgar Perry and Dr. Richard Manning. Despite having been shut down by the state in 1999 for legal violations, VMC continued to do business and to advertise in the yellow pages for abortions, including chemical abortions.

Brenda made an appointment for Friday, September 7, 2001. VMC staff did a pregnancy test and did an ultrasound, and told Brenda that the ultrasound showed no fetus in the uterus. They told her that this was because the fetus was "too small to be seen." Instead of doing further tests to verify what was most likely an ectopic pregnancy, VMC just started a chemical abortion on Brenda. She was sent home with a dose Cytotec that she was to self-administer to complete her abortion. She did not have a follow-up appointment scheduled, and was told not to go to a local doctor or hospital, but rather return to VMC, if she suffered any complications.

Brenda repeatedly called VMC over the next few days, and was told that her symptoms of paleness, intense abdominal pain, and nausea were "normal and routine." Finally, on September 10, they made an appointment for a follow-up later that afternoon and again told her not to go to a hospital because they would not know how to care for her.

Later that day, before he could take her to her appointment, Brenda's boyfriend called an ambulance, which rushed Brenda to a Chattanooga hospital. She was in critical condition with a ruptured ectopic pregnancy. She lapsed into a coma and died on September 12. Even though, in theory, women who choose abortion should be less likely to die of ectopic pregnancy complications, experiences shows that they're actually //more// likely to die, due to sloppy practices by abortion practitioners.