1939: Houston Death at the Hands of Two Men

On October 13, 1939, the body of Barbara Hanson, age 21, was found in a Houston, Texas, motel room. James Carter and George F. Norton pleaded guilty to performing the abortion that killed Barbara, and each received a 5-7 year sentence. I have no information at all on their qualifications.l

Barbara's boyfriend and another man pleaded guilty to accessory charges and were each sentenced to one year.

The information I have on Barbara's death is so scanty that it's difficult to draw any conclusions.

During the 1940s, while abortion was still illegal, there was a massive drop in maternal mortality from abortion. The death toll fell from 1,407 in 1940, to 744 in 1945, to 263 in 1950. Most researches attribute this plunge to the development of blood transfusion techniques and the introduction of antibiotics. Learn more here.