Fatal abortions of all sorts, from 1848 to 2000

In the late winter and early spring of 1848, 20-year-old Ann Gallager of Boston tried a variety of home abortion attempts, in spite of the attempts of a friend and two doctors, including Dr. John Stevens, to dissuade her.  Eventually she took ill with a severe fever. Prior to her death on March 25, Ann gave a sworn statement blaming the fatal abortion on Stevens.

On March 25 of 1889, in spite of the best efforts of three physicians, Delia Mae Bell of Birmingham, Alabama, died after a sudden, violent illness, eventually traced to an abortifacient purchased from a saloon keeper.


Homemaker Celia M. Schultz, age 29, died in a Chicago home from septicemia caused by an abortion on March 25, 1910. A woman named Mary Rommell was indicted for felony murder by a grand jury. The source document does not indicate her profession, or that the case ever went to trial.

Mary Colbert, age 21, died on March 25, 1933 from the effects of an abortion her boyfriend, Edward Dettman, had arranged at her behest with Chicago abortionist Dr. Emil Gleitsman.earlier in the month. 

Jolene Griffith died on March 25, 1962 of a lingering infection caused by an abortion prochoice hero Dr. W.J. Bryan Henrie, an osteopath, performed at his clinic in Grove, Oklahoma on March 3. According to her survivors, Griffith had abandoned her and provided no care to treat the infection. Henire was convicted, and served 25 months of a 4-year sentence. Upon his release, he went right back to doing abortions. 

On March 25, 2000, 22-year-old Maria Rodriguez went to Steve Lichtenberg at the Family Planning Associates Medical Group's Albany Medical Surgical Center for a late second trimester abortion. At around 9:00 a.m., Maria was showing signs of going into hemorrhagic shock. Rather than transfer to a hospital where there were adequate facilities to determine and treat the cause of the bleeding, Lichtenberg kept Maria at the clinic, where he made various attempts to deal with it himself for an hour and a half. Finally Maria was transported to a hospital, where doctors were unable to save her life. At a National Abortion Federation Risk Management Seminar in the 1990s, Michael Burnhill of the Alan Guttmacher Institute scolded Lichtenberg for "playing Russian roulette" with patients' lives by performing risky abortions in an outpatient setting and treating serious complications on site in his procedure room rather than transporting them to a hospital. Evidently Lichtenberg chose not to listen to Burnhill's warning. Other women to die from abortions at FPA facilities include:Denise Holmes,  Patricia Chacon,  Mary Pena,  Josefina Garcia,  Lanice Dorsey,  Joyce Ortenzio,  Tami Suematsu,  Deanna Bell,  Susan Levy,  Christina Mora,  Ta Tanisha Wesson,  Nakia Jorden,  Maria Leho,  Kimberly Neil, and Chanelle Bryant. FPA is a flagship member of the National Abortion Federation.