A Beneficiary and a Victim

"Julie" was only 14 years old when she underwent an abortion in New York, under their liberalized abortion law, on March 26, 1972. She had retained fetal tissue, which doctors tried to remove with additional procedures. During one of these attempts to complete the abortion, Julie's uterus and bowel were perforated. Julie underwent a partial resection of her bowel and drainage of an abscess. But despite these procedures, she developed septicemia and peritonitis, dying on April 16, a dubious beneficiary of the laws that had removed the threat of prison from abortionists who injured or killed their patients..
 
On April 16, 1920, 24-year-old Rose Lieberman died at Chicago's Grant Hospital from a criminal abortion. Dr. Herman J. Webber was arrested, along with Walter Biesse, but they were released. Webber was indicted by a Grand Jury in June, and released on $10,000 bond, but the case never went to trial. Webber was later implicated in the 1927 abortion death of Irene Campbell.