January 20

Mary Ackerly, age 19, died January 20, 1846 after a forced abortion performed in New York, purportedly by Dr. Seth Shove.


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On January 20, 1910, homemaker Elizabeth Lambacher, age 27, died at her Robby Street home in Chicago from septic peritonitis caused by an abortion. A nurse or midwife named Mrs. Hopp was indicted by a grand jury. The source document does not indicate that the case ever went to trial.

Note, please, that with general public health issues such as doctors not using proper aseptic techniques, lack of access to blood transfusions and antibiotics, and overall poor health to begin with, there was likely little difference between the performance of a legal abortion and illegal practice, and the aftercare for either type of abortion was probably equally unlikely to do the woman much, if any, good. For more information about early 20th Century abortion mortality, see Abortion Deaths 1910-1919.


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"Andrea" was 26 years old when she underwent a newly legalized abortion at a New York City abortion facility on January 12, 1971. After her abortion, Andrea contracted an infection. Her system was unable to fight the infection, and she died on January 20, 1971, leaving behind six children.



The 1970 liberalization of abortion had made New York an abortion mecca until the Roe vs. Wade Supreme Court ruling that abortionists could legally set up shop in any state of the union. In addition to "Andrea," these are the women I know of who had the dubious benefit of dying from the newfangled safe-and-legal kind of abortion in pre-Roe New York:

• Pearl Schwier, Carmen Rodriguez, and Barbara Riley, July, 1970; "Amanda" Roe, September, 1970; Maria Ortega, October, 1970; and "Kimberly" Roe, December, 1970
• "Amy" Roe, January, 1971; "Sandra" Roe, April, 1971; "Anita" Roe, May, 1971; Margaret Smith and "Annie" Roe, June, 1971; "Audrey" Roe, July, 1971; "Vicki" Roe and "April" Roe, August, 1971; "Barbara" Roe, September, 1971; "Tammy" Roe and Carole Schaner, October, 1971; and "Beth" Roe, December, 1971
• "Roseann" Roe, February, 1972; "Connie" Roe, March, 1972; "Julie" Roe, April, 1972; "Robin" Roe,  "Roxanne" Roe, and "Danielle" Roe, May, 1972

*****


The survivors of 21-year-old Linda Fondren sued after her death. Linda had a safe and legal abortion performed by Mohammad Pourtabib* at Pre-Birth in Chicago on New Years Day, 1974. She suffered bleeding, but Pourtabib did not provide follow-up care. Linda was taken by ambulance to Michael Reese Hospital, in shock and needing emergency care. They would not admit her, but instead sent her to Cook County Hospital, where doctors performed an emergency hysterectomy.

Linda remained hospitalized at Cook County. On January 16, doctors tried to drain fluids from Linda's chest and inadvertently punctured her spleen. Linda died on January 20 from "hemoperitoneum with splenic rupture following hysterectomy and earlier dilatation and curettage." She left behind a small child.


* According to immigration records, Pourtabib was born in Tehran, Iran in 1942 and became a US citizen in 1980. I haven't been able to determine how long he was in the US before performing Linda's fatal abortion. His immigration form was signed by people who had only known him since July of 1975.