On March 29, 1924, 30-year-old Etta Marcus died at Chicago's Francis Willard Hospital (pictured) from complications of a criminal abortion performed that day. The coroner concluded that Dr. William J. Wick had performed the fatal abortion at his office. However, on April 10, Wick was acquitted.
Etta's abortion was typical of criminal abortions in that it was attributed to a physician.
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 1920s.
Maternal deaths from all causes, including induced abortions, fell sharply through the beginning of the 20th century, long before abortion was decriminalized. For more on pre-legalization abortion, see The Bad Old Days of Abortion
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