Lime 5, Chapter Three: Current Betrayals

In this section, Crutcher addresses the abortion movement's push for chemical abortions and for abortions to be performed by non-physicians.

February 26, 1943: Woman's Death Gets One Sentence of News Coverage

Dr. Henry Gross, age 56, had a reputable medical practice at 843 Belmont Avenue in Chicago in the 1940s. However, after a Dr. Ira Willits died, Gross purchased the dead man's office and set up an abortion practice there under Willits's name.

On January 28, 1943, 22-year-old Lavern Perez died in her Chicago home. Gross was convicted in her death but won a new trial.

Buried in the coverage of Lavern's death is a mention of the February 26, 1943 abortion death of 20-year-old waitress Dorothy Weber.

After Gross was granted a new trial, he and both the women vanish from the records.

Sources:

• "Jurors Convict Physician of Abortion Death," Chicago Tribune, July 3, 1943
• "Dr. Gross Wins New Trial in Abortion Case," Chicago Tribune, October 23, 1943

February 25, 1980: Troubled Doctor and Trash-Bag Aftercare

At around 9 a.m. on February 22, 1980, 26-year-old Betty Jane Damato's sister, Mary Zellers, dropped her off at Abortion Clinic of Denver where Dr. James Franklin was to perform a safe, legal abortion.

That afternoon, Mary called the clinic and talked to her sister, who said that she'd had complications during the abortion. Mary went to pick Betty up and found her pale, weak, and in pain, clutching her stomach.

When she helped Betty get out of the car at her apartment, Mary notice a blood stain on the seat where Betty had been sitting. She decided to take Betty to spend the night with her at the Zellers home.

The morning of February 25, Betty was taken by ambulance to the emergency room at Porter Memorial Hospital, where she was found to have gone into total cardio-respiratory arrest. She was pronounced dead shortly after arriving. 

An autopsy revealed that Betty had died from massive infection originating from "a partially truncated and macerated fetus." Franklin had removed little more than the arms. 

According to Betty's family, Franklin knew that he had not removed all of the fetus. He instead had given Betty a trash bag, and instructions to collect whatever she expelled in the bag and bring it to him.

Franklin, an osteopath, told a grand jury that he did not perform the fatal abortion. He claimed that he had examined Betty, found the decomposing foot and ankle of the fetus protruding, and sent her to the hospital. However, when Betty was examined at the hospital, the fetus was protruding head first, making it impossible for Franklin to have observed its ankle since, as an expert witness testified, it's impossible for a dead fetus to turn around in the vagina and emerge head first.

A jury convicted him of manslaughter in Betty's death on October 19, 1981, and he was sentenced to prison for three years. 

Franklin already had a history of malpractice including causing an 11-year-old boy to be left paralyzed after a botched appendectomy and a man who died while hospitalized under Franklin's care. Those cases took place in New Mexico, where Franklin had been director of a hospital that went out of business. He was recruited by the Kiowa County Hospital in Eads, Colorado, after the doctor they'd hired turned out to be on the run after being caught practicing without a license in Kansas.

Watch Trash Bag Aftercare on YouTube.

Sources:

• "New doctor in small town lost two malpractice suites in N.M.," Grand Junction Daily Sentinel, February 23, 1975
• "Denver Doctor Found Guilty of Manslaughter," Grand Junction Daily Sentinel, October 20, 1981
• "Ex-City Doctor Found Guilty Of Slaying," Albuquerque Journal, November 5, 1981
• "Doctor Gets 3 Years in Fatal Abortion Case," Grand Junction Daily Sentinel, December 4, 1981

February 17, 1929: Midwife Kills Chicago Woman

Before her death at Illinois Masonic Hospital on February 17, 1929, Mrs. Gladys Schaeffer said that a midwife named Emma Schulz had performed an abortion on her on February 12.

Gladys was a married woman, 23 years old.

When police went to arrest Schulz, she took poison in a suicide attempt. Police took her to Belmont Hospital. 

I've been unable so far to determine if Schulz survived and if so, if she was prosecuted.

Source:

• "Woman Accused in Girl's Death Tries Suicide," Chicago Daily Tribune, February 18, 1929

February 16, 1931: The Middle of Dr. Emil Gleitsmann's Trail of Death

Dr. Emil Gleitsmann had a long criminal history of abortion starting in 1927 when he was implicated in the November 30 abortion death of 22-year-old homemaker Lucille van Iderstine. Gleitsman was indicted for felony murder in Lucille's death but for reasons I do not yet know why the case never came to fruition. 

He was prosecuted but acquitted in the December 12, 1930 death of Jeanette Reder.

After his acquittal for Jeanette's death he was indicted for the February 16, 1931 death of 25-year-old Mathilda Cornelius. According to census records, Mathilda and her husband, Joseph, had two young sons, ages 1 and 3.

Gleitsman was convicted three times on a single charge of manslaughter by abortion for the March 25, 1933 death of Mary Colbert, but each time his lawyer got a reversal and eventually the prosecutors gave up.

He was implicated again in the June 8, 1934 death of 26-year-old Elsie Quall.

Gleitsman got in trouble again in 1937 for the death of 16-year-old Phyllis Brown. However, that death was eventually attributed to Dr. C. Harold Edmunds.

At last he was held accountable for his crimes and sentenced to 14 years for the December 10, 1941 death of Marie O'Malley.

"Accused in Woman's Death," Chicago Tribune, February 18, 1931

February 13, 1929: Midwife Found Guilty (new source)

 Anna Fazio, age 20, underwent an illegal abortion performed about February 2, 1929, at the Chicago home of midwife Marie Zwienczak. Anna died on February 13. Zwienczak was arrested March 1, as recommended by the coroner. Stephanie Paczkiewicz was booked on February 23 as an accessory, but was not mentioned in the verdict. Zwienczak was indicted for homicide by a grand jury. She was tried, and was sentenced on June 20 to 14 years at Joliet Penitentiary.

People v. Zwienczak

February 13, 2013: Dead After Abortion at Brigham Clinic

 https://www.operationrescue.org/archives/federal-suit-against-disgraced-abortionist-reveals-dangers-of-corners-cutting-methotrexate-abortions/

February 12, 1907: Doctor Named in Dying Declaration

On February 11, 1907, housemaid Nellie Walsh, a 28-year-old Irish immigrant, was brought to National Emergency Hospital in Chicago in grave condition from complications of a criminal abortion. She had been admitted to the hospital by Dr. Michael Nelson, who had been called to her home and had been alarmed by her condition. A curettage was performed at around 4:00 that afternoon to try to save her life, but her condition continued to deteriorate.

The next day, February 12, the doctor told Nellie that there was nothing more that could be done for her, and that she was dying. Head nurse Cora Bachino asked Nellie if she'd like a priest to administer last rites. Nellie answered yes, and a priest was brought to her.

Shortly after receiving last rites, Nellie made her dying declaration. She named the baby's father as Patrick O'Connell of Wilcox Avenue. She named Dr. Adolph Buettner of 679 Lincoln Avenue as her abortionist. She said that Buettner had perpetrated the abortion at her request on Wednesday, February 6, after assuring her that "there would be no danger."

After the abortion, Nellie said, she had returned home and become ill. That was when Dr. Nelson had been called in to care for her and had decided to admit her to the hospital.

A stenographer, in the presence of nurse Bachino and another witness, typed up the statement. After both copies -- the handwritten one by the stenographer and the typed one, were read to her, Nellie confirmed that she understood them.

Less than an hour later, she died.

Both O'Connell and Buettner were arrested. Though O'Connell admitted that he'd taken Nellie to Buettner's office, and Buettner admitted to having attended to her, both denied any involvement in an abortion. 

Buettner, who had been practicing in Chicago for a number of years, had been indicted for another abortion case seven or eight years before Nellie's death. Found guilty of manslaughter for Nellie's death, was sentenced to Joliet. O'Connell was acquitted.

Sources:

• "Girl Dies After Operation," Chicago Tribune, February 13, 1907
• "Dying Girl Implicates Two," The Inter-Ocean, February 13, 1907
• "Girl Dead; Physician Held," Chicago Tribune, March 2, 1907
• "Two Held as Girl's Murders," The Inter-Ocean, March 2, 1907
• "Found Guilty of Girl's Death," The Inter-Ocean, August 2, 1907
• "Physician is Found Guilty," Chicago Tribune, August 2, 1907

February 12, 1916: Little Information on Queens Abortion Death

On February 12, 1916, 28-year-old homemaker Anna Farrell Nicholls of Sanford Street, Ravenswood, NY, died at St. John's Hospital in Queens, New York, from suppurative peritonitis after an abortion. The case was turned over to the coroner for investigation.

February 12, 1987: Dead After Planned Parenthood Botches CPR

On February 10, 1987, an ambulance arrived at an outpatient surgical facility to care for an unresponsive patient. The woman had begun having asthma symptoms after her surgery. Staff had twice helped her to use her inhaler, but she had more and more trouble breathing. She had begun to turn blue and staff had administered oxygen. Finally, she had stopped breathing entirely.

The ambulance crew found the patient, 22-year-old Elise Kalat, lying on the floor. One facility employee was doing the CPR compressions on Elise's abdomen rather than on her chest. Another employee was using the bag-valve mask improperly, inflating Elise's cheeks rather than her lungs. 

The doctor at the facility was under the impression that the CPR was effective because he was checking for a pulse in the patient's femoral artery, which was pulsing because the nurse was pressing so hard on Elise's abdomen and not because blood was actually circulating.

Nobody had initiated professional level resuscitation procedures such as intubating the patient, defibrillating her, monitoring her cardiac signs on EKG, or administering cardiac medications.

The ambulance crew loaded Elise onto a stretcher. One EMT noted, "As my partner and I attempted to strap the patient onto the stretcher, the personnel [of the facility] began to run with the stretcher down the corridor. There appeared to me to be much confusion with no organization among the staff.... "

Medics took over Elsie's care. She was finally successfully resuscitated at the hospital, but due to the improperly performed CPR she had suffered devastating brain injury. Her condition continued to deteriorate and she died on February 12.

The outpatient surgical facility was Planned Parenthood Clinic of Central Massachusetts. The procedure in question had been an 8-week abortion. When Elise's mother sued she learned that neither of the two nurses who had been botching the CPR had kept their certifications current. 

You don't have to oppose abortion to recognize -- and be appalled by -- incompetence that costs a young woman her life.

Watch Clueless CPR = Dead Patient on YouTube.

Sources:

• Lawsuit documents, including expert reviews, incident reports by EMTs, and Elise's death certificate.

February 12, 1974: Fatal "Maternal Indications" Abortion

Bonnie Fix, a 38-year-old mother of four, was admitted to Fresno Community Hospital on February 7, 1974. Doctors there performed an abortion via abdominal hysterectomy on Bonnie. Codes used at the state registrar's office indicate that an abortion had been induced on Bonnie for medical reasons. 

Several days after her hysterectomy, Bonnie began to suffer bowel and lung problems. She suffered cardiac arrest and was pronounced dead on February 12.

Sources: California Certificate of Death, 74-016613; Fresno County (CA) Superior Court, Case, 168185

February 11, 1985: "This is All a Bad Dream"

 "They told me I had to get down to St. Luke's right away, that Dawn was at that hospital fighting for her life."

It's the call every parent dreads. Ruth was no exception. Her 13-year-old daughter, Dawn, was active in the church where both her parents were ministers. The family sang Gospel songs together. Dawn was a dream child -- the kid who did her homework without being told, who liked to surprise her mother by cleaning the house. She was what's known in the vernacular as "a good girl." Her parents never expected any trouble about Dawn.

What Ruth didn't know was that Dawn had slipped off her pedestal, had engaged in a dalliance with a 15-year-old Romeo. And when she learned that she was pregnant, she knew her parents would be crushed. She went to a teacher for advice. The teacher and a counselor arranged to take care of the whole mess so that Dawn's parents would never have to know. The boyfriend borrowed a credit card from a relative to pay for the risky, expensive, 21-week abortion.

The counselor at Eastern Women's Center (a National Abortion Federation member) had seen how frightened Dawn was, and had marked on her chart that she should be treated with "tender loving care." But abortionist Allen Kline had his own ideas about what constituted "tender loving care." According to the suit filed by Dawn's parents, anesthetist Robert Augente didn't administer enough anesthesia to get the frightened child through the entire procedure. About halfway through, she began to cough, vomit, and choke. Abortionist Kline put a breathing tube in Dawn's throat, put her aside, and left her unattended to lapse into a coma. Dawn was eventually rushed to the hospital, where it finally occurred to somebody to do the obvious: call Dawn's mother.

"They told me I had to get down to St. Luke's right away, that Dawn was at that hospital fighting for her life," Ruth Ravenell later said. "I was going, 'How can she be fighting for her life? She left for school this morning, looking healthy, never been sick.' While I was there at the hospital -- they were doing tests -- I had to keep my hand pressed over my mouth to keep from screaming in horror. I kept going, 'This is all a bad dream. I am going to wake up and this will not have happened.'"

Day after day Dawn's family gathered at her bedside, talking to her, playing tapes of the family singing together, trying to lure her back from the brink of death -- all to no avail. Dawn died three weeks after her abortion, on February 11, 1985, without ever having regained consciousness.

The family sued and won. The amount the jury granted Dawn's family was the largest believed to have been awarded to date for an abortion death. But as a New York Post headline pointed out, "$1.2M Won't Bring Her Back." The story featured a photo of Dawn at her junior high graduation, in cap and gown, gazing out smiling at a future she would never have.

Watch "This Is All a Bad Dream" on YouTube.

Recently Added Sources:

• "$1.225M award," NY Daily News, December 11, 1990
• "Family awarded $1.2M in abortion death," The Journal News, December 12, 1990
• "Fatal heart attack after abort," NY Daily News, August 6, 1991

February 11, 1879: "I Was Almost Paralyzed With Horror."

 On February 11, 1879, 65-year-old Henry Sammis of Northport, Long Island, got a dispatch from Inspector Murray of the Brooklyn police to go to Brooklyn immediately. His daughter, 21-year-old Cora Sammis, a Sunday School teacher from Northport, Long Island, was deathly ill.

Mr. Sammis, a coal and lumber dealer, boarded the next train with his wife. About halfway to New York, he got a copy of the morning paper. There he read that his daughter had already died from the results of a botched abortion.

"I was almost paralyzed with horror, and count not believe the story to be true," he told the New York Herald. Fearful of upsetting his wife, Mr. Sammis kept his composure. Pretending to be adjusting the window on the car, he let the newspaper fly.

Once they got to the home of Mr. Sammis's sister, he broke the news to his wife. Leaving her in the care of friends, he went to the police station and was given the address where his daughter had died: 161 East 27th Street. It was the elegantly appointed premises of "Mme. Bertha Burger, doctress and midwife."

"The old man's eyes were red with weeping" as he left the police station. He was escorted to the dingy, unventilated upstairs front room where Cora, "clad in a blue merino wrapper, lay on the bed on which she had died."

Cora had been a lovely girl, with "luxuriant dark brown hair." But when her father saw her body, "Her features had become so shrunken and emaciated that he hardly knew her. He stooped and kissed her forehead, and, controlling himself, arose and looked at her for a long time in silence.

The police asked him about 27-year-old Frank Cosgrove. Mr. Sammis said that the family knew him well. He had been courting Cora for about two years, and the couple had become engaged and had planned to marry before the spring. Cosgrove, who worked in the shipping business, had seemed to have honorable intentions, and Cora had seemed to be of a chaste disposition. A resident of Newport said, "She was the last girl in the village that I could have suppose could be tempted."

However, in November of 1878, Cora had gone to Brooklyn to visit her aunt, and Cosgrove spent a lot of time in her company. Her parents believed that it was during this time that the liaison took place which had resulted in Cora's pregnancy.

Cora's body was taken to the coroner's office, where an autopsy was performed "which showed conclusively that death had resulted from malpractice."

Cora's aunt, Mary D. Betts, testified that Cora and her "alleged seducer," Frank Cosgrove, had met at her house on February 4. The couple had left, saying that they were going to visit friends. Cora and Frank instead went to the home of 35-year-old Bertha Berger.

About two hours after they arrived at the house, Berger perpetrated the abortion. Cora was to convalesce there but instead grew increasingly ill. Cosgrove, who sat up with Cora every night, grew more and more worried. He found an ad for Dr. Whitehead, who advertised that he practiced midwifery. Frank went to him on February 10 and offered him $100 (around $2,600 in 2021) to take over Cora's care. Frank was open with Dr. Whitehead about why Cora was ill. Whitehead insisted that they stop at his attorney's practice first. The lawyer told Whitehead that he had a duty to attend to the young woman because her life was in danger.

Upon examining Cora, Whitehead found that she had a raging fever from a uterine infection. He declared that the case was hopeless. He provided what care he could to the young woman and promised to return the following day. Berger offered him $50 to provide a death certificate but on the advice of his attorney Whitehead refused, instead notifying the authorities.

The following day, police went to Berger's house to question Cora, who was told that she was dying. With frequent rests and occasional sips of iced brandy she was able to give a deathbed statement, occasionally stopping "to lament her unhappy fate." As the detective bent close to hear her, Cora clasped him and asked him to pray for her and to "Spare my Frank." Her primary concern was that no harm would come to her fiancé.

Cora said that she and Frank had rented the room for the express purpose of having Berger perpetrate the abortion. When Berger was brought into the room Cora positively identified her as the abortionist.

In fact, the Berger house was an abortion house. All but one of the other occupants of the house were arrested along with Berger. Those arrested included Berger's 17-year-old married daughter, and two 18-year-old young women who had been briefly boarding at the house. Police also learned that a young woman named either Margaret or Mary Steele had undergone an abortion at the Berger house and had been moved to "a wretched hovel" where Mrs. Berger's mother, Mrs. Riesler, was supposed to be caring for her but evidently hadn't even been giving her food. 

Cora was so sick that she was not troubled with a pointless transfer to a hospital. Instead, her aunt Mary was brought to her to stay with her. By then, around 9:00 p.m., Cora had slipped into unconsciousness. She died later that night.

When police searched the premises they found instruments consistent with an abortion practice.

Berger was held on $10,000 bond and Cosgrove on $5,000. He confessed shortly after his arrest, admitting to having both arranged and witnessed the fatal abortion. He was bailed out by his father and uncle. 

Berger and Cosgrove were granted separate trials. Berger's trial was a media circus played to crowds of gawking onlookers. Berger's attorney asserted that it had actually been Dr. Whitehead who had perpetrated the fatal abortion. He had, in fact, been convicted himself for abortion several times in the past, a point that Bertha Berger's attorney harped on extensively, calling him a convict, a coward, an "experienced malpractitioner," and "the prince of butchers." Cora's deathbed statement, along with the testimony of the other denizens of Mrs. Berger's abortion house, was sufficient. The jury retired at 5:00 p.m. to deliberate and returned at 11:10 with a verdict of guilty. They did, however, make a request for mercy in sentencing the woman. This last had been a concession to the two holdout jurors to get to an agreement. Berger's attorney immediately asked that sentencing be postponed until he could file motion for a new trial, and the judge agreed. Berger was eventually sentenced to 12 or 14 years -- sources aren't consistent. She then was granted the right to a new trial but instead just entered a guilty plea and was sentenced to five years in March of 1880.

After Berger's trial, Frank Cosgrove pleaded guilty as an accessory, which could potentially carry as severe a sentence as being the principle. His case sat in limbo, and Cosgrove in a prison cell, as his well-connected friends tried to get him released. In July of 1879 he finally ended up in Sing Sing, sentenced to four years. He requested time off for good behavior. His sentenced was reduced and he was released on time served in July of 1881.

Whitehead was sentenced to two years in prison and a $1,000 fine. 

Sources:

• "Briefs by Wire," Scranton Republican, February 12, 1879
• "Victims of Malpractice," New York Herald, February 12, 1879
• "Betrayed and Murdered," Cincinnati Daily Star, February 12, 1879
• "Infamy," Brooklyn Daily Eagle, February 13, 1879
• "Arrest for Malpractice," The Boston Globe, February 13, 1879
• "A Father's Great Grief," Selinsgrove (PA) Times Tribune, February 19, 1879
• "The Destroyers of Cora Sammis," Brooklyn Daily Eagle, February 20, 1879
• "Cora Sammis' Death," New York Herald, March 29, 1879
• "The Sammis Malpractice Case," The New York Times, March 29, 1879
• untitled entry, The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, April 2, 1879
• "Bertha Berger Convicted," The New-York Times, April 3, 1879
• untitled entry, The Brooklyn Daily Times, June 26, 1879
• "The Murderers of Cora Sammis," New Orleans Daily Democrat, July 8, 1879
• "Jailed for Malpractice," Record of the Times, March 23, 1880
• Sing Sing prison intake record for Frank Cosgrove
• Frank Cosgrove's name on Sing Sing's prison roster, 1879
• Frank Cosgrove commutation request
• Frank Cosgrove pardon request
• Frank Cosgrove's commutation record
• Bertha Berger request for pardon

February 11, 1905: Man Blows His Brains Out Over Abortion

On February 11, 1905, 17-year-old Leona Pearl Loveless died in the Ischua, New York home of 58-year-old Dayton M. Hibner, where she had been working as a domestic for two years. She had gotten the job with the assistance of her grandmother, who thought that working on the Wolcott, NY farm with her widowed father, Abram, would be too difficult for the girl. Abram objected but allowed his daughter to take the job.

Leona reportedly had been in good health until about 5:15 p.m., when she was found in her room in great pain. She died about fifteen minutes later, and the coroner was notified. He had Leona's body taken from the Hibner home to the parlor at a village hotel. There, an autopsy conducted in anticipation of an inquest. While the coroner had been at the house arranging to move Leona's body, Hibner quipped that he was going to blow his brains out and end the matter.

Whether because of this comment or because of other suspicious happenings or rumors, law enforcement sent a guard home with Hibner to stay with him pending the completion of the coroner's inquest.

Saying he was going to feed his horses, Hibner left the guard at his house and went into the barn and got out a double-barreled shotgun. His first shot, to the chest, took a downward trajectory that wasn't fatal. He finished himself off with a second blast that took off the top of his head.

Hibner's 52-year-old wife, Eliza, was left devastated. Dayton Hibner had been her second husband. Her first husband, Mr. Beebe, had died by hanging himself.

"The coroner made discoveries after the girl's death, which, if proved, would have made the lynching of the suicide among the possibilities had he not taken his own life," the Lake Shore News noted. Leona, it turns out, had died from an attempted abortion.

Even getting Leona's body to the family home in Wolcott proved difficult. Her grandmother, Mrs. Sherman, and her cousin, Maude Legg, only made the journey from Ischua as far as Niagara Falls before being stopped by winter storms. A relative of Maude's, who had worked for the railroad, managed to arrange a special train for the journey to be completed.

The coroner's jury must have decided that Hibner himself had perpetrated the fatal abortion, since there is no follow up on the case.

Recently Added Sources:

• "D. N. Hibner of Ischua Commits Suicide," Buffalo Evening News, February 13, 1905
• "Did Blow His Head Off," The Buffalo Commercial, February 14, 1905
• "Miss Leona Loveless," Democrat and Chronicle, February 16, 1905
• "Blew His Head Off," Journal and Herald, February 16, 1905

February 11, 1992: High Risk Abortion in an Outpatient Setting

Danette Pergusson, a 19-year-old medical assistant, submitted to a safe, legal abortion on February 11, 1992, at the hands of Robert Tamis of Phoenix, Arizona.

Danette had a rare condition called Pyruvate Kinase Deficiency , a hereditary blood disorder that made her a very high-risk patient for an abortion. Dr. Thomas Murphy Goodwin, a high-risk OB/GYN, pointed out in later court proceedings that any abortion on a woman with PKD should have been done in a hospital, and special steps should have been taken to prevent possible fatal clots from forming in DaNette's blood stream.

During the abortion, Danette stopped breathing, and paramedics were summoned.

The Maricopa County deputy medical examiner determined that Danette died from a pulmonary embolism, which is when blood flow in the lungs is blocked by material such as a clot.

• Perguson v. Tamis, 937 P.2d 347 (Ariz. Ct. App. 1996)

February 11, 1913: Very Little Information on Self-Induced Abortion

As I went through New York death records I learned of the self-induced abortion death of 27-year-old Polish immigrant Carmelia Marfiski Carnechi. Carmelia had come to the United States when she was about fourteen years old. "

The daughter of Frank and Josephine Marfiski, Carmelia was listed on death records as a "housewife" who lived on Leant Avenue in Flushing, Long Island. 

Carmelia died of septicemia on February 11, 1913.

I've been unable to learn anything else about her death.

February 11, 1861: "While you're here...."

During early 1861, a German physician by the name of John H. Joecken was caring for Mr. Malinken, who was ailing in his Brooklyn home.

On one of his visits, Malinken's 35-year-old wife, Caroline, approached Joecken privately and told him "she did not want to have so many children, and wished to know if it was possible to get rid of her present burthen. The doctor replied that it was the easiest thing imaginable, and that in eight days all would be over."

Joecken set to work on Caroline, "and by the use of drugs as well as instruments succeeded in making her very sick." Over the course of several days her condition deteriorated. She died late Monday night, February 11.

The coroner's jury concluded that Caroline had died from "pyemia, supervening upon metritis, consequent of an abortion produced at the hands of Dr. Joecken." Joecken was arrested.

February 10, 1941: Scanty Information on Self-Induced Abortion

I'm always looking for more cases of abortion mortality that I can learn from. New York death records cite the February 10, 1941 death of Anita Luhs, a "dress operator."

Anita was 40 years old and lived with her husband, Walter, on Linden Street in New York. Anita had come to the US from Italy 28 years earlier. Her death is attributed to "septic endometritis following self-induced abortion."

That's all I've been able to learn.

February 9, 1911: A Chicago Midwife's Fatal Work

On February 9, 1911, 47-year-old homemaker Elizabeth Martin died at German American Hospital in Chicago from sepsis caused by of an abortion perpetrated at 1310 Eddy Street. Midwife Schutner, age 33, was held by the Coroner's Jury and indicted, but the case never went to trial.

February 8, 1968: Retroactively Safe and Legal

Nancy Ward

In November of 1967, Nancy Ward, a student at the University of Oklahoma, told her boyfriend, Fred Landreth, that she was pregnant and wanted an abortion. Fred contacted his father for help. On January 30, 1968, Fred's father contacted osteopath Dr. Richard Mucie at his ear, nose, and throat clinic in Kansas City to consult with him about an abortion.

Mucie wanted to know how far advanced Nancy's pregnancy was. There were some calls back and forth between the elder Landreth, his son, and Mucie. Eventually Fred indicated that Nancy had been examined by a doctor and was about 13 or 14 weeks pregnant.

On February 7, Nancy and Fred flew from Oklahoma to Kansas City and visited Mucie at his clinic. Mucie examined Nancy while Fred waited, then told the couple that he would contact them at their hotel. The two had dinner and went to a show, then went to the hotel. 

At 11 p.m., Mucie called and arranged to pick Nancy and Fred up and drive them to his clinic. He took Nancy back for the back room while Fred waited in the outer office. About 20 to 30 minutes later, Mucie, dressed in a surgeon's gown, returned to the front office and asked Fred for money, $400, before starting the procedure. It wasn't until about 7:30 on the morning of February 8, Mucie came out and asked Fred if he wanted to come back and see Nancy.

Dr. Richard Mucie

Fred went with Mucie into the office and saw Nancy lying on a couch with a cover over her. Fred said, "Hello," to her. She smiled and moved her hand. Mucie told Fred that Nancy was still sedated. Fred went back to the waiting room to nap. He was awakened at about 11:30 that morning by Mucie's porter. Mucie told Fred that Nancy had suffered a heart attack and was in shock and had been taken to the hospital. He told Fred that he would come back for him, then went back into his office. Fred went looking for him and followed the sound of his voice to a back room, where Mucie was lying on a cot, talking on the phone and saying something to the effect of needing to call the coroner and filling out a death certificate.

Stunned, Fred went back to the waiting area. Mucie came out a few minutes later, told him that Nancy had died, and that they needed to stick to the story that the couple had been traveling through Kansas City and had called him because Nancy had started to have chest pains. It was around that time that the ambulance arrived. The driver and attendant found Nancy on a cot. Mucie told them that she still had a pulse, and instructed them to take her to Osteopathic Hospital and administer oxygen on the way. 

The ambulance driver and attendant noticed that Nancy's fingers had blood on the, her arms were stiff, and her hands were in a "clawed" position. They lifted Nancy and found that she was already stiff. The doctor at the hospital concluded that Nancy been dead about four hours. He called Mucie, who told him that he'd been treating Nancy for about two weeks for a heart condition. Nancy's body was taken to the morgue, where a detective observed the autopsy, noting needle marks on her arms, buttocks, and left breast. The detective took custody of the uterus, which had a tear about half an inch long inside. It also contained the skull and upper spine of a fetus of roughly 4 1/2 to 5 months gestation. Most of the remainder of the fetus, consisting of a shoulder blade, upper arm and shoulder joint, and part of a collar bone, was found in the trash at Mucie's clinic.

The autopsy found abundant evidence of the abortion, including stains from antiseptic on Nancy's upper thighs and genital area, a 1/2 inch tear in Nancy's uterus. The condition of her uterus, heart, and other organs indicated that she had gone into shock and died at the clinic at about 9 a.m. February 8, in spite of Mucie's attempts to resuscitate her. She had bled to death.

Mucie took the stand with a story that he hoped the jury would believe. He confirmed the call from Fred's father, the repeated calls back and forth as they tried to figure out the gestational age, and that Fred's father wanted to arrange an abortion. Mucie said that he had merely offered to examine Nancy for a $4 fee. He admitted that Fred and Nancy had come to his office and said that he'd examined Nancy and found her to be 4 1/2 to 5 months pregnant. He said that he told Nancy that she was so far along that nobody would be willing to do an abortion.

Mucie said that Nancy became frantic, saying that it would kill her father to learn of the pregnancy and that she would kill herself if nobody would perform an abortion. He said he gave Nancy some Vistaril to calm her then dropped the young couple back off at their hotel.

Mucie said that he had run some errands and gone to bed when he got a call from Nancy. "She was crying and hysterical" and feeling very ill. He said that he told Nancy to come back to the clinic. When the couple arrived, Mucie said, Nancy told him, "I had to do it. I just had to do it."

He then described at length examining Nancy. "She was in a state of aborting, and at this time immediate medical attention had to be instituted." He described at length the procedure to finish the abortion Nancy had supposedly started and treating her for the complications she suffered. 

Mucie was convicted on June 8, 1968, of performing an abortion "not necessary to preserve the life" of the mother. Illegal abortion at that time carried a penalty of 3-5 years, with the sentence to be increased in cases where the mother died. Mucie was sentenced to ten years, but only served 14 months then was released on parole. Parole was set to expire on July 27, 1977. His medical license was revoked on May 4, 1971. 

After Roe v. Wade overturned Missouri's abortion law, Mucie successfully appealed his conviction and got his license restored under a ruling that made Roe retroactive in Missouri. He was released from probation and his record expunged of the manslaughter-abortion conviction.

Watch Retroactively Safe and Legal on YouTube.

Sources:

• State of Missouri vs. Richard P. Mucie, No. 54317, Supreme Court of Missouri, Division No. 1, January 12, 1970
• Dr. Richard P. Mucie, Petitioner, v. Missouri State Department of Corrections et. al., Respondents, 543 F.2d 633 (8th Cir. 1976)

February 7, 1929: Death in the Home of a Midwife

Serene Mary Baker, age 17, of Venice, Illinois, died at the home of 80 (87?)-year-old Mary Adamson, 4501 West Main St., Belleville, IL.

Adamson was described in the February 9, 1929 Decatur Evening Herald as an "alleged midwife." The December 11, 1930 Belleville Daily News-Democrat identifies her simply as a midwife.

Rolla Carmack, aged 20, of East St. Louis, told police that he was the baby's father and that he'd paid Adamson $25 to perform an abortion.

Rolla's older brother, Edward (Irving?) Carmack, told Police Chief Charles W. Arbogast that he and his younger brother accompanied Serene to the Adamson home for the abortion on February 2.

Adamson denied having performed the abortion and refused to say anything more.

Adamson was indicted by the Grand Jury in April of 1929 and the trial was set for May 2, but both parties agreed on a postponement. Then Mrs. Adamson's attorney approached the judge asking for her to be released on bond so that she could be hospitalized for "senility." She was released on a $52,000 bond and was instructed to return to jail as soon as she regained her health. She remained free on bail 

Rolla wasn't charged with a crime, likely in exchange for turning state's evidence against Adamson. However, once the defense was ready to proceed -- not until December of 1930 -- he was nowhere to be found and the trial was delayed by the prosecution. He had moved from East St. Louis to Detroit then vanished from the prosecution's radar.

Sources:

• "Hold Woman, 80, In Girl's Death," Decatur (IL) Evening Herald, February 9, 1929
• "Three Held In Jail Today On Death Charge," (DeKalb, IL) Daily Chronicle, February 9, 1929
• "Mrs. Adamson Murder Case is Continued," Belleville (IL) Daily News-Democrat, December 11, 1930

February 7, 2013: Emergency Equestrian Supplies

Jennifer McKenna-Morbelli, a 29-year-old kindergarten teacher, and her husband, Timothy James "TJ" Morbelli, had eagerly anticipated the birth of their baby, named Madison Leigh. However, because of a prenatal diagnosis, Jennifer, accompanied by her parents, husband, and sister traveled from New Rochelle, New York to a late-term abortion facility in Germantown, Maryland on Sunday, February 3, 2013. Madison was 33 weeks gestational age.

Germantown Reproductive Health Services is a National Abortion Federation member facility, which means that it supposedly provides only the best and safest care. However, it is operated by Dr. Leroy Carhart, who had already had a less than savory history and whose late term abortion clinic in Belleview, Nebraska, looks like a muffler shop and had employees coming forward reporting illegal and dangerous practices.

The prolifers who gather outside when Carhart is perpetrating abortions report seeing the woman arriving for her appointments on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, appearing "pale and weak." Jennifer spent over nine hours at the facility on Wednesday. After she was discharged, Carhart and his wife left the state to work at another abortion facility.

According to Operation Rescue's anonymous source, Jennifer started suffering chest pain early on Thursday morning. She was unsuccessful in her attempts to reach Carhart, per instructions that in the event of complications she was to call clinic staff rather than go to the emergency room. In fact, an emergency number Carhart provided actually rang to the answering machine for his wife's equestrian supply business. Finally, at about 5:00 a.m. her family took her from the hotel to the emergency room. Hospital staff were unable to get in touch with Carhart either, though he eventually did return their calls.

Jennifer was suffering from massive internal bleeding and coded six times as staff struggled to stabilize her. She finally died at around 9:30 a.m.

Christin Gilbert

The medical examiner indicated that Jennifer died from disseminated intravascular coagulopathy (DIC) caused by an amniotic fluid embolism (AFE) -- in other words, amniotic fluid and fetal tissue got into her blood stream and caused a cascading series of catastrophic problems including the inability of her blood to clot.

AFE and DIC are rare and difficult to predict, but are also a known complication that abortion doctors should be alert for and ready to quickly diagnose and treat.

This is the second third-trimester abortion patient to die under Carhart's care. The first was Christin Gilbert, who was being treated by Carhart at George Tiller's Wichita abortion facility in 2004.

Watch Emergency Equestrian Supplies on YouTube.

Additional source: Death certificate

February 6, 1986: Another of FPA's many anesthesia deaths

Seventeen-year-old Laniece Dorsey underwent an abortion at a Family Planning Associates Medical Group facility in Orange County, California, on February 6, 1986.

Laniece lapsed into a coma, was transferred to a nearby hospital, and died later that day.

The Orange County Sheriff’s Department medical examiner blamed the death on cardiorespiratory arrest due to the anesthesia, although he also found a “thick adherent layer of fibrinous material containing moderate numbers of inflammatory infiltrates” in Laniece’s uterus.

Laniece wasn't the first or last young woman to die from abortion at a facility owned by FPA head honcho Edward Campbell Allred. Others include:

• Denise Holmes, age 24, 1970
• Patricia Chacon, age 16, 1984
• Mary Pena, age 43, 1984
• Josefina Garcia, age 37, 1985
• Joyce Ortenzio, age 32, 1988
• Tami Suematsu, age 19, 1988
• Susan Levy, age 30, 1992
• Deanna Bell, age 13, 1992
• Christina Mora, age 18, 1994
• Ta Tanisha Wesson, age 24, 1995
• Nakia Jorden, age c. 16, 1998
• Maria Leho, 1999
• Kimberly Neil, 2000
• Maria Rodriguez, age 22, 2000
• Chanelle Bryant, age 22, 2004
• "Kyla Ellis," age 23, 2014

Allred's facilities remain members of the National Abortion Federation despite these deaths.

Watch "Don't Know. Don't Care." on YouTube.

Sources: Orange County Sheriff-Coroner Case No. 86-0682-AK and Orange County Superior Court Case No. 51-04-15

February 6, 1952: An Airman's Grief

 Elizabeth Barbara "Betty" Helman was the 35-year-old wife of Air Force Major Carl Helman Jr., who had been stationed in Tokyo for over a year. Evidently Betty found the separation lonely, for she became pregnant while he was away.

On January 28, 1952, Betty was admitted to the Tinker Air Force Base hospital in critical condition, suffering from pain and low blood pressure. Her red blood count was very low, and her white count very high, indicating infection. She admitted to having undergone an abortion on January 25.

When questioned by investigators on January 31, Betty said that friends had referred her to a woman named Jane. She was shown a photo and identified the woman in it, 43-year-old Mrs. Jane McDaniel White, age 43, as her abortionist. She gave White's address as the place she had gone for the abortion. Betty put her statement in writing and signed it. 

Betty said that White had put her off for several days while she got over her fear of undergoing the abortion. She promised White $100, but only paid her $50. White initiated the abortion with some kind of packing and sent Betty home.

Betty became very ill, and called White who with her daughter came to Betty's home and "scraped her out".

After Betty gave her statement, police raided White's home. White and her daughter, Mrs. S. B. Anderson, Jr., were nowhere to be found. It took eight days for police to track the pair down and arrest them for murder and procuring an abortion.

Betty died on February 6 from peritonitis, leaving her three children without a mother. Her husband had managed to rush home from Tokyo in time to see his wife before she died. An autopsy verified that an abortion had been performed and had caused Betty's death.

White was at first denied bail, then finally released on a $20,000 bond. 

When questioned White said, "She called me on the phone the latter part of January. She asked for Jane and gave her name as Betty. I was called several times. Then on a Saturday she came to my house and said she wanted to talk to me."

White said that Betty had told her that she thought she was pregnant. She told White that she had been vomiting. "She also said she had been taking white capsules and shots."

When Betty had asked her to perform an abortion, White asserted, "I told her I strictly was not in the business." She said that Betty's vomiting made her think that the young woman was suffering from ptomaine poisoning.

White admitted that she had indeed gotten a phone call from Betty and had gone with her daughter to the Helman home. "She asked if I would come by for she needed a laxative. I went by for I felt sorry for her and I suggested she get a doctor immediately."

White admitted under examination that had no medical training. She said that she'd assumed that Betty was suffering from ptomaine poisoning because she'd gone through a bout herself. She'd recommended a laxative for Betty because "I didn't think a little milk of magnesia would hurt her."

The criminal case against her went well until the defense managed to have the Betty's deathbed statement, given on January 31, inadmissible because it couldn't be proved satisfactorily that Betty believed herself to be near death. With the deathbed statement thrown out, the case was dropped.

This had been White's third arrest for abortion charges. She had been convicted in 1947, under the name Jane McDaniel, and sentenced to seven years for an abortion she had performed on a 17-year-old girl, but the conviction was thrown out on a technicality based on how advanced the girl's pregnancy had been. A new trial had been scheduled, but it never took place because the main prosecution witness had left the state or died. White was clearly operating as an abortionist, since an operating table, fashioned from an old restaurant table, and surgical instruments had been sized from her home at the time of her arrest -- "enough instruments and medicine to stock a small hospital." She was charged again in 1951 but the main witness had vanished and the case had been dismissed.

Watch The Atypical Abortionist on YouTube.

Sources:

• "Abortion Fatal To Major's Wife," The Daily Oklahoman, February 7, 1952
• "OKLAHOMA CITY, Feb. 8 (IP)," Seminole Producer, February 8, 1952
• "Pair Sought In Abortion Case Submit," Norman Transcript, February 8, 1952
• "Judge Refused Bond To Mother Held For City Abortion Slaying," The Daily Oklahoman, February 9, 1952
• "OC Woman Is Freed On Abortion Charge," The Seminole Producer, February 12, 1952
• "State Woman Indicted In Death From Abortion," Ponca City News, March 7, 1952
• "Attorneys Seek Release of City Women Now in Jail," Alva Review Courier, February 11, 1952
• "Woman Charged In Abortion Death Is Freed on Bond," The Daily Oklahoman, February 12, 1952

February 5, 1996: Refugee Lost Her Legs and Then Her Life

Carolina Gutierrez

Carolina Gutierrez, a part-time waitress, had come to the United States as a refugee from Nicaragua at age 13. In the summer of 1995 she married Jose Linarte, who had also come to the US from Nicaragua as a teen. Jose, age 25, became a loving stepfather to Carolina's two young children, 5-year-old Alba and 2-year-old Darwin.

When they found out that Carolina was pregnant, Jose later said, they were happy to be having a baby together. But 20-year-old Carolina started having second thoughts because of the family's finances. She proposed an abortion. Jose was against the idea.

Without saying anything to her husband, Carolina had a friend drive her to Maber Medical Center, a storefront clinic stuck between a cigar factory and a bar in Miami for an abortion on December 19, 1995. 

The evening after her abortion, Carolina had pain in her chest and abdomen. She staggered about the house, barely able to walk. She called the clinic for help, but whoever answered the phone hung up on her.

Over the next two days, Carolina left messages on the clinic answering machine, but nobody returned her calls. 

On December 21st, she could hardly breathe, so her family called 911. She arrived at the emergency room of Jackson Memorial Hospital already in septic shock. Whoever had done the abortion had poked two holes in her uterus. Carolina underwent an emergency hysterectomy at the hospital to try to halt the spread of infection from her perforated uterus. She was put into the intensive care unit, where she battled for her life against the raging sepsis. She was on a respirator, with her fingers and feet going black with gangrene as doctors pumped antibiotics into her.

Relatives cared for her children, a five-year-old girl and a two-year-old boy, while Carolina's husband spent as much time as he could by her side. "I can't sleep. I try to take my mind off it, but it's impossible," he told the Miami Herald.

Carolina's 21st birthday came and went as she lay in the ICU. Doctors fought to help the young woman to gain enough strength to undergo amputation of her gangrenous limbs. Finally doctors took off both legs below the knee. But despite the hysterectomy, the amputations, and all their other efforts, Carolina died on February 5, 1996.

"I have lost the love of my life," Jose said in a press conference. "I'm heartbroken. They have taken my happiness away."

He remained bewildered about the abortion. "We wanted a child. That's all we talked about. We even bought clothes for the baby."

When an attorney acting on behalf of the motherless children tried to get Carolina's medical records so that he could sue the clinic. The clinic owners simply shut the place down and refused to allow any contact. Maber Medical Center first began operating without a license in the 1980s. When they got caught in 1991, they simply called and asked for a license. The license was issued on request.

Maber Medical Center passed all of their inspections after licensing. This should come as no surprise since thanks to abortion-rights lobbyists, an annual "inspection" consisted of six questions answered from examining paperwork. Inspectors would verify that the clinic posted its license, kept patient files, had arrangements (on paper at least) for medical waste disposal, and had at least one doctor's name on file. There was no examination of the premises or equipment or review of staff training. 

A Miami Herald reporter went to the closed-down clinic and peered through a window:

A narrow and dingy waiting room, little more than a corridor with chairs facing each other, can be seen.... The rules are posted. No lying down. No children in the waiting room. Everyone shows up at 9 a.m. You take a number off the peg on the wall, and you wait your turn."

Maber had only one doctor officially on staff, Dr. Luis J. Marti. Because officials were unable to get any records from the clinic they were unable to determine if he had actually been the one who performed the fatal abortion.

While investigating the clinic, owned by Maria Luisa and Roque Garcia, officials noted that although Carolina could not read English, her only consent form was in English -- and the line for her signature was blank. She had paid $225 in cash for the abortion that took her legs and her life. 

Dade County Right to Life raised the money to cover funeral expenses and to help Jose to care for the children. As for abortion rights activists, one of the wrote a letter to the Miami Herald advising women to consult with Planned Parenthood and the National Abortion Federation -- organization whose affiliates and members have committed enough acts of malpractice to prove themselves untrustworthy. The Miami Herald also put in a good word for NAF with a little inset box in an article telling readers about NAF's stated standards and provided a toll-free number for women who would be left unaware that they were calling an organization that had the likes of Abu "The Butcher of Avenue A" on its membership rolls. And Representative Ben Graber, chairman of the Florida House Health Care Committee, opposed tightening abortion clinic regulations beyond the cursory check of paperwork. Any additional regulations, Graber said, would just make abortion more expensive and limit options for low-income women. Graber, like many prochoice activists after him, insisted that the best way to improve abortion safety would be to just let the doctors do as they please because this would take off the pressure. Exactly how that would motivate them to provide better care remains a mystery.

Watch Access to Horror on YouTube.

Sources: 

• "Abortion patient ill; clinic under scrutiny," Miami Herald, January 26, 1996
• "Infection kills abortion patient," Miami Herald, February 6, 1996
• "Raging infection takes life of Dade abortion patient," Miami Herald, February 6, 1996
• "Infected woman dies after abortion," News Press, February 6, 1996
• "Carolina Gutierrez Services Set," Miami Herald, February 8, 1996
• "Avoid abortion tragedies," Miami Herald, February 8, 1996
• "Abortion clinic regulations often found to be lax," Miami Herald, February 18, 1996