On This Date in 1930, Sonia Ragins Died in Chicago

On January 5, 1930, bookkeeper Sonia Ragins, age 26, died from an illegal abortion performed at an unknown location by an unknown person. On January 6 the coroner recommended identification and arrest of the guilty party.

Sonia, a Russian immigrant, was married to another Russian immigrant. When the census was taken a few months after Sonia's death, her husband, who worked as a salesman, and the couple's two children, a 5-year-old boy and a 2-year-old girl, were living with Sonia's parents and her brother, sister-in-law, and two young nephews.

Keep in mind that things that things we take for granted, like antibiotics and blood banks, were still in the future. For more about abortion in this era, see Abortion in the 1930s. For more on pre-legalization abortion, see The Bad Old Days of Abortion.