Mrs. George Libby, age 18, died November 28, 1888, in Wahpeton in the Dakota territories.
Before her death she admitted that she had bought abortifacient drugs
from "a traveling doctor who made a specialty of selling such drugs." I have been unable to determine Mrs. Libby's first name.
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. Because of overall public health issues 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
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