Wednesday, April 05, 2017

Another Chicago Doctor's Abortion Business, 1927

On the morning of April 5, 1927, Arhne Reynolds died at the Chicago office of Dr. Louis Ginsburg from an abortion performed on her there that day. Ginsburg was arrested on April 18, and indicted for felony murder on May 15.

So far I have been unable to determine the outcome of the case.

Arhne's abortion was typical of illegal abortions in that it was performed by 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

During the first two thirds of the 20th Century, while abortion was still illegal, there was a massive drop in maternal mortality, including mortality from abortion. Most researches attribute this plunge to improvements in public health and hygiene, the development of blood transfusion techniques, and the introduction of antibiotics. Learn more here.


Graph showing the maternal mortality rate at about 850 in 1800, dropping to 700 around 1910, jumping to around 800 in 1920, falling at about a 45 degree angle until 1940, then plummeting sharply until 1950, where it begins to level off before sitting just above 0 from around 1978 onward


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