On January 6, 1905, a young woman was found dead in a ditch near
Dunning, Illinois. The hunters who had stumbled across the body quickly
notified the police. The dead woman was taken to an undertaking establishment, where it remained
until nearly a month later, when she was identified by her
siblings as 28-year-old Ida Vierow, who had been employed as a domestic
servant in the home of former County Commissioner O. D. Allen. She had
been missing since leaving the Allen home on January 1, telling the
Allens that she was going to visit her parents in St. Louis, though her
parents actually lived on a farm near Proviso. It was determined that she had died January 6, 1905, from an abortion performed in Chicago.
Two midwives, Amella Maichrowicz and Anna Becker,
were arrested, along with Maichrowicz's husband, Joseph. The
Maichrowiczs, who ran an unlicensed hospital in Melrose Park, were
arrested near the end of February. Click here for more abortion deaths in the 1900s.
On December 30, 1923, 26-year-old Helen Koss underwent an illegal
abortion somewhere in Chicago. On January 6, 1924, she died at Norwegian American Hospital of complications. Midwife Mrs. Emma Morch was arrested, and indicted for homicide by a grand jury. Keep in mind that things that things we take for granted, like
antibiotics and blood banks, were still in the future. Click here for more abortion deaths in the 1920s.
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