Two Abortion Deaths: 19th Century and 20th Century

Mr. and Mrs. William J.F. Bullerman ran "a rather mysterious sort of rookery" in Chicago on November 8, 1879. There, police discovered a woman named Elizabeth Foley seriously ill with septicemia. Police suspected that the abortion had probably been perpetrated by Dr. Franklin Brooks, "who, a few years ago, was awarded six years at Joliet for abortion." They took Mrs. Foley to Cook County Hospital, where she died later that day. To the end, Elizabeth insisted that she'd given birth and that her sister, Mary, and taken the child to their mother's home in Greenbaugh, Wisconsin. Mary denied this, and her employer told police that she'd not been out of town at all. The post-mortem examination showed that Elizabeth had indeed died from an abortion.

Eighteen-year-old Christine Mora underwent a safe, legal abortion at Doctors' Surgical Center in Cypress, California -- an FPA (Family Planning Associates Medical Group) facility -- on November 2, 1994. She was about 17 weeks pregnant and a high school senior.A nurse practitioner inserted laminaria to dilate Christine's cervix. Christine went hom and returned the following day for the abortion. Dr. Thomas Grubbs performed the D&E and sent Christine to recovery.Preparing to leave the clinic, Christine fell while unattended. Grubbs was called to check her, and noticed slurred speech and inappropriate responses. Christine was taken to La Palma Hospital, where she  was admitted to the intensive care unit. Her condition deteriorated until she was finally taken off life support at noon on November 8, and pronounced dead. Christine left an 18-month old child motherless.The autopsy showed acute septicemia and hemorrhage in the brain, along with some small cervical lacerations.Christine wasn't the only young woman to die from abortion at a facility owned by FPA head honcho Edward Campbell Allred. Others include Denise Holmes, age 24, 1970; Patricia Chacon, age 16, 1984; Mary Pena, age 43, 1984; Lanice Dorsey, age 17, 1986; Joyce Ortenzio, age 32, 1988; Tami Suematsu, age 19, 1988; Deanna Bell, age 13, 1992; Susan Levy, age 30, 1992; Nakia Jorden, 1998; Maria Leho, 1999; Kimberly Neil, 2000; Maria Rodriguez, age 22, 2000; and Chanelle Bryant, age 22, 2004.Allred's facilities remain members of the National Abortion Federation despite these deaths.