May 21, 1900: An Unknown Perpetrator in Pittsburgh

According to her husband, Baptist, 26-year-old homemaker Mary Jane Douds had been in ill health for four years. When he'd come home from work on the morning of Monday, May 18, 1900, he found her sick in bed. He wanted to call a doctor, but “she would not have it.” Baptist figured that his wife must be menstruating, since she always had difficult periods. When he came home on Saturday, he found Mary Jane in even worse condition. He sent for Dr. Staub, who treated her four or five times before recommending that she go to the hospital on Sunday. Mary Jane refused, asking for her old doctor, Dr. Heurits of Turtle Creek, who came to the house at about noon. Heurits prescribed medication for Mary Jane, but she couldn't keep it down. Baptist sent for another doctor, J.J. Green, who arrived at about 8:30 on the evening of May 20, then sent for his assistant, who stayed to provide care to Mary Jane under Green's supervision until about 3 a.m. She got weaker and finally lost consciousness a few minutes before her death at around 9:00 a.m. On May 21. Green diagnosed her cause of death as septic peritonitis from an abortion performed by an unknown perpetrator.

May 21, 1970: Oregon Native Dies in California

 Little is known about Sharon Margrave, but on May 21, 1970, she died following a safe and legal abortion in Los Angeles County, California. She was 25 years old, a native of Oregon. (Source: California Department of Health Services, Resident Deaths, Database run from July 21, 1995)

May 21, 1900: A Mystery Abortion in Pittsburgh

 According to her husband, Baptist, 26-year-old Pittsburgh homemaker Mary Jane Douds had been in ill health for four years. When he'd come home from work on the morning of Monday, May 18, 1900, he found her sick in bed. He wanted to call a doctor, but “she would not have it.” Baptist figured that his wife must be menstruating, since she always had difficult periods.

When he came home on Saturday, he found Mary Jane in even worse condition. He sent for Dr. Staub, who treated her four or five times before recommending that she go to the hospital on Sunday. Mary Jane refused, asking for her old doctor, Dr. Heurits of Turtle Creek, who came to the house at about noon.

Heurits examined Mary Jane, and said “there was no danger for her to keep quiet and she would be all right in a few days.” He prescribed medication for Mary Jane, but she couldn't keep it down.

Baptist sent for another doctor, J.J. Green, who arrived at about 8:30 on the evening of May 20, then sent for his assistant, who stayed to provide care to Mary Jane under Green's supervision until about 3 a.m. She got weaker and finally lost consciousness a few minutes before her death at around 9:00 a.m. On May 21.

Green diagnosed her cause of death as septic peritonitis from an abortion performed by an unknown perpetrator.

Source: Records in Allegheny County Coroner archives

May 21, 1939: Third Death, Still No Prison for Doctor's Widow

Gertrude Pitkanen

On May 21, 1939, 37-year-old widow Hilja Johnson, nee Ruovasala, of Butte, Montana, died at Butte's Murray Hospital from septic complications of an incomplete abortion. She had been sent to the hospital by Dr. Caroline McGill, who had been called to Hilja's home to examine the sick woman. 

Since her death certificate says, "Infection from gas producing bacteria," she most likely died from a Clostridium perfringens infection, most commonly known as gas gangrene.

Hilja had been employed by the W.P.A as a seamstress. She had been born in Wyoming on March 16, 1902 to immigrants from Finland. She left behind her mother and two daughters. 

A surgical nurse, Gertrude Pitkanen, admitted at the coroner's inquest that Hilja had come to her office, and that she had later visited Hilka at her home and advised her to go to a hospital. She denied having perpetrated an abortion. Nevertheless, Pitkanen was charged with murder in Hilja's death.

She fled, but was located about a year later, living near Columbia Gardens. She was brought to court in a wheelchair, pleaded not guilty, and was jailed in lieu of $5,000 bond. The charges were dropped in 1940, for reasons not reported.

Pitkanen, born in 1878 in Lincoln, Nebraska, had completed nurse's training at Cook County Hospital in Chicago. She moved to Butte in 1907, and was one of the first surgical nurses at St. James Community Hospital, assisting her husband, Dr. Gustavus Pitkanen. Dr. Pitkanen was an abortionist until he was jailed for sedition in 1917, whereupon his wife took up the curette.

Pitkanen had earlier been charged with the abortion deaths of Violet Morse (August 1, 1929) and Margie Fraser (October 11, 1936).  

A woman who was a student nurse at St. James Hospital in Bute remembered Pitkanen's victims. "They died horrible deaths from infection," she told a reporter from the Montana Standard.

The fact that Pitkanen had married a former Butte police detective might explain the lack of prosecution in spite of the multiple deaths. Abortion was also a sideline for her; she seemed to make more money selling babies on the black market than aborting them.

According to her death certificate, Pitkanen died of a brain bleed on April 19, 1960 at the age of 81.

Watch Third Death, Sill No Prison on YouTube.

Sources:

• Silver Bow County death certificate 44757 and duplicate record
• "County Attorney to File Murder Count in Butte Woman's Death," The Montana Standard, June 1, 1939
• “Mrs. Pitkanen Denies Manslaughter Charge,” Butte Montana Standard, Jul. 21, 1940

• “Black Market Adoption”, Denver Post, Aug. 4, 2002
• “Gertrude Pitkanen — Butte’s Notorious Abortionist”, by Peter Chapin, undated
• “Gertie’s Babies”, People, Oct. 7, 2002

May 20, 1934: One of Three Dead Patients of Dr. Justin Mitchell

Dr. Justin Mitchell

In May of 1934, 22-year-old Mary Schwartz asked Marie Hansen, a coworker at the Illinois Meat Company in Chicago, to help her arrange an abortion. Marie took Mary to Dr. Justin L. Mitchell's office south of Chicago's meatpacking district. Marie had undergone an abortion at Mitchell's hands three years earlier, and, telling him that her friend “wants to get fixed up,” she negotiated a discount from the usual price of $50 to $30. Marie co-signed on a $25 loan, and lent Mary $5 “in dimes” from her own money.

The next morning, the two women again went to Mitchell's office. Marie waited outside during the abortion, then took Mary home with her to recover. That evening, Mary took ill, so Marie called Mitchell and told him that Mary “was bad sick.” Mitchell told Marie to give Mary castor oil, and place warm towels on her abdomen to help with the pain. This did not alleviate Mary's pain, so on Marie took her back to Mitchell's office on Thursday evening and Friday morning.

At 4:00 Saturday morning, Marie was very concerned and called Mary's lover, Joe Henja, who was a foreman at the meat plant. Joe complied with Marie's request that he come right away and get Mary. He called his own doctor then rushed Mary to a hospital, where Mary died on May 20, 1934.

Harold Vaughan signed a complaint against Mitchell in December of 1931 stating that Mitchell had perpetrated a fatal abortion on Harold's wife, Ethel. Mitchell was later implicated in the abortion deaths of Florence Jordan in 1933, and of Alice Haggin and Mary Nowalowski in 1936. 

May 20, 1937: The Flight of the Abortionist and his Wife

Dr. Claude C. Long ran a rather fishy medical practice in San Francisco. He, his wife Isabel, and a relative named Ann Fisher, were charged with the May 20, 1937 murder of 26-year-old Genevieve Arganbright. 

Genevieve was, according to her husband, Perry, about 2 1/2 months pregnant at the time of her death. She had been in good health, athletic, and in the habit of taking long hikes, dancing, swimming, and playing tennis.

On the evening of May 20 Genevieve told her husband she going for her abortion, which she had scheduled by phone the previous day. She brought with her $50 that she had borrowed to pay for the abortion.  That was the last time Mr. Arganbright saw his wife. Nobody at Dr. Long's practice called to tell him that his wife had died on the operating table.

Dr. Long did, however, have Mrs. Fisher make a phone call to a Dr. Goldsand, who verified that Genevieve was dead and refused Long's request that he sign a death certificate.  The next call made from Long's office was to an undertaker's office. When two employees arrived to collect Genevieve's body at about 2:30 the morning of the 21st, Dr. Long wasn't present. Mrs. Long and Mrs. Fisher said that Dr. Goldsand had been the attending physician and that he would sign the death certificate in the morning.

The men took Genevieve's body to the mortuary, where the embalming was done in the morning. But when no relatives called to finalize arrangements, and nobody produced a death certificate, the undertaker notified the coroner.

While things were getting squirrely at the mortuary, Dr. and Mrs. Long were making tracks to a hotel.

While all this was going on, nobody had even tried to contact Genevieve's husband. It wasn't until later that day, when the police arrived, that Mr. Arganbright learned that his wife was dead.

Dr. and Mrs. Long were arrested at the Cecil Hotel on May 22.

The prosecution argued that the abortion had not been medically indicated by Genevieve's heart condition, and that even if it had been, Long's lack of due diligence had caused her death anyway. If the abortion had been elective, and thus illegal, Long was guilty of murder in Genevieve's death. If the abortion had really been to try to prevent Genevieve's death from pregnancy stress on her heart, but had been negligently performed, Long was guilty of manslaughter. And if the abortion had been medically indicated and properly performed -- if Genevieve had died from her pre-existing heart condition -- then Long was not guilty of any crime.

Long did not deny that he treated Genevieve on May 20. He said that she had not come specifically for an abortion, but was certain that she was pregnant, and that she was constantly tired, with chest pain, palpitations, and shortness of breath, all indications of heart problems. Long said that he then informed Genevieve that her heart was in very bad shape and that he recommended an immediate therapeutic abortion to prevent her death.

Expert testimony agreed that Genevieve did indeed have mitral stenosis, but there was no agreement on whether or not it warranted an abortion. The surgeon who performed the autopsy, and a pathologist from the coroner's office, both testified that Genevieve's heart was not at all enlarged. Her mitral stenosis seemed stable, and their expert testimony was that Genevieve would have likely tolerated pregnancy and delivery quite well.

Dr. Carr, the pathologist, testified that a patient sick enough to require an abortion would also have been too sick to simply perform one on the spot; a conscientious physician would have sought a consultation with a cardiologist, and would have hospitalized the patient for some time before the abortion in order to ensure that she was strong enough to survive the surgery. He also noted that the agony of having one's cervix ripped off would be enough in itself to cause shock in a patient with a weak heart.

All of these factors were indicative of lack of due diligence on Long's part in performing the abortion, regardless of his reasons for performing it. At the very least, if he really was performing the abortion due to concerns about Genevieve's heart problems, he was guilty of manslaughter for performing an outpatient surgery and ripping his patient's internal organs so badly.

Long was granted his request for a new trial, and his conviction overturned, on the grounds that the judge had improperly instructed the jury, placing the onus on the defense to prove the abortion had been medically indicated, rather than on the prosecution to prove that it had not been.

Sources: 

• People v. Long, 15 Cal.2d 590

May 20, 1974: Hero Abortionist's Teenage Victim

Dr. Milan Vuitch

Dr. Milan Vuitch was a hero among abortion advocates. He had deliberately been arrested performing criminal abortions so that he could challenge the Washington, DC abortion law, and he succeeded in changing the way the law was enforced, effectively nullifying it.

On June 15, 1974, seventeen-year-old Wilma Harris of West Virginia went to Vuitch's Laurel Clinic for a safe and abortion. Five days later, on June 20, she was dead. During interrogatories, Vuitch said that anesthesiologist Strahil Nacev described Wilma as "so quiet" during the abortion. Although he had begun a vacuum abortion, Vuitch said that the fetus had been too big to pass through the suction tube. He said he used instruments to remove the remaining fetal parts.

Although the abortion was done at around 2:00 PM, Vuitch didn't transfer Wilma to a properly equipped hospital until after midnight. Wilma's family sued, claiming that Vuitch and his staff had allowed Wilma to lapse into a coma and lie unattended for 12 hours before transferring her to the hospital. The suit also claimed that Vuitch and his staff falsified records to cover their tracks. The family won a judgment on December 23, 1976, but the settlement was sealed by court order.

Georgianna English also died after an abortion by Vuitch. WDVM-TV won a Peabody Award for their expose of Vuitch after her death.

Vuitch isn't the only abortionist who kept his nose clean as a criminal abortionist, only to kill two patients after legalization. Jesse Ketchum managed to kill Margaret Smith and Carole Schaner in a four-month period after New York put out a welcome mat for carpetbagging abortionists in 1970. Benjamin Munson of South Dakota killed Linda Padfield and Yvonne Mesteth.

Watch "Permission to Take Lethal Risks" on YouTube.

Sources: 

• "Abortion Clinic Sued In Death Of State Girl," Charleston Daily Mail, October 14, 1975
• "Death of Girl Triggers Suit," Beckley Post-Herald, October 15, 1975

May 20, 1870: Two Deaths in One Month

On May 20, 1870, Mrs Matilda Henningsen, aka Matilda Hunt, died at No. 182 East Seventh Street in Brooklyn. Authorities investigated her death.

Matilda's sister, Henrietta Henningsen, testified that she recognized clothes and other items belonging to her sister. Henrietta said that Matilda had been sick about two months earlier, and had been treated by Dr. Herzog and Dr. Kennerer. Shortly after having taken ill, Matilda told Henrietta that she'd gotten an invitation to go to Williamsburgh, and that was the last Henrietta had seen of her sister.

August Herman Rauffes testified that he'd known Matilda for about twelve years. She had worked for several families as a live-in governess. In October of 1869 she had rented a room from him above his store. She had been treated by Dr. Herzog for sickness. She told Rauffes that she was going to the country, and left a forwarding address. After her departure, Rauffes found a card with the names of Dr. Wolff and Dr. Grindle written on it.

Dr. Max Herzod testified that he had treated Matilda on March 12 for abdominal pain. After three weeks of care, the pain continued, and Matilda also reported nausea. He examined her and determined that she was pregnant. Afterward she told him she was going to Germany. That was the last he'd heard of her until learning of her death. Dr. Krammerer, who had also treated Matilda, concurred with Dr. Herzod's testimony.

Dr. Joseph B. Chshman testified as to the post-mortem examination he had performed. He said he found all the evidence of uterine infection and resulting peritonitis, resulting from an abortion.

The Dr. Wolf whose name was on the card Matilda's landlord found, was Mr. A. A. Wolff, from Denmark, purported to be a physician. However, he is not identified as such in the source document. But he clearly was an abortionist. Six fetuses, along with various instruments, were found in his office.

The jury determined that Wolff had performed the fatal abortion.

May 19, 1858: One of Four Deaths Linked to Dr. Charles Cobe

Henry Weber, a tanner who also kept a hotel in Schoharie County, New York, had been married to his 28-year-old wife Amelia for six years. He testified that she'd left home on May 5, ostensibly to visit friends in Brooklyn and do some shopping. He later received letters, written in German, from a Dr. Charles Cobel, summoning him to the city.

"I went to Dr. Cobel's house and asked him how my wife was," Henry related, "and he said she was dead, that I had come too late. I asked him how it happened that I should find my wife in his house. He said that she was inquiring for him, and that she had come to his house on account of being very sick."

"I asked if my wife had been to see her friends and he told me no. I asked him what was the cause of her death, and he told me she came with a heavy cold, that the cold struck to her lungs and then to her brain. He said that she got a little better, and that he had written to me to say that she could come back home next week."

I asked him how it was she had got bad again. He said that she went out, that it rained all day, that she got wet through and came back, went to bed, and never stood up again. I asked him why he did not let me know that my wife was so bad, that I might come and have a conversation with her. He answered that she would not have him write to me to let me know she was so bad.

Cobel claimed that Amelia was an old acquaintance and had come to him on May 8 seeking treatment for influenza and pulmonary problems. However, Cobel claimed, Amelia subsequently went out in inclement weather and caught a cold, which caused the lung inflammation that led to her death.

An undertaker testified that Cobel, a 58-year-old German immigrant, had engaged him to perform a funeral for Amelia, and that he had collected her body from Cobel's garret. Cobel attributed Amelia's death to paralysis. The funeral was held and Amelia was buried in Greenwood Cemetery. 

"[F]rom the privacy of the burial and other mysterious circumstances surrounding the case, the body, six days after interment, was ordered by the Coroner to be exhumed for medical examination."

The inquest findings included:

"Dr. Cobel received an application from Mrs. Weber, who had left home for that purpose with her husband's consent, on the 8th instant, to produce an abortion upon her person, he did so, and violent inflammation supervened, which baffled his skill. He then called Dr. Kertachmann, pretending that the lungs were the seat of disease, but it was to no purpose."

The autopsy revealed noting at all wrong with Amelia other than an abdominal infection caused by the abortion and bringing about her death.

Cobel was indicted for manslaughter in Amelia's death on November 30, 1861. On January 23, 1862 he was tried and found not guilty of manslaughter in the second degree, but guilty of the misdemeanor charge of using instruments on a pregnant woman with intent to cause abortion.

Cobel successfully appealed the misdemeanor conviction on the grounds that he couldn't simultaneously be guilty of performing the abortion yet not guilty of causing Amelia's death by performing the abortion. Cobel, a known abortionist, was also implicated in the deaths of Antoinette Fennor, Catharine DeBreuxal, and Emma Wolfer.

Sources:

• Untitled, New York Herald, May 30, 1858
• "The Late Death From Abortion," New York Tribune, May 31, 1858
• "Death by Abortion," New York Times, May 31, 1858
• "Death by Abortion," Brooklyn Eagle, May 31, 1858
• "Charge of Manslaughter Against a Physician," New York Herald, October 27, 1858 
• "The Cobel Abortion Case," New York Times, October 27, 1858
• Sing Sing prison admission record, October 26, 1865

May 19, 1985: Mystery Abortion in California

The autopsy report for 22-year-old Joan Camp attributed her death to "complications apparently as a result of a recent termination of pregnancy."  Joan had been found unconscious in the morning on May 18, 1985. She was rushed to Memorial Hospital in San Leandro, California, where doctors tried to save her life.  Their efforts were futile. Joan died the next morning, May 19, 1985, from clots in her lungs.

The CDC would have classified Joan's death as "unknown" abortion, because they could not find out where the abortion was done. The CDC does not count an abortion death as a legal abortion death unless they can verify that the person who performed the abortion was a licensed physician, or another legally qualified medical professional in states that allow non-physician abortions.

Watch "Recent Termination of Pregnancy" on YouTube.

---

Sources: California Certificate of Death # 85-069355; Alameda County Coroner’s Report # 85-1122; Life Dynamics "Blackmun Wall"

May 19, 1995: Death By the Doctor With a "License to Lie"

Dr. Alberto Hodari

Chivon Williams, just days short of her 17th birthday, died on May 19, 1995 after an abortion performed by National Abortion Federation member Alberto Hodari in Detroit. 

According to a lawsuit, a suction abortion was performed on Chivon at about 11:30 a.m. She was discharged from the facility at about 1:10 p.m. even though she reported stomach and chest pains. 

A short time after returning home, she was found unresponsive, and pronounced dead at 5:17 p.m. Fieger Times, a newsletter put out by the law firm representing 15-year-old Tamiia Russell's family in her abortion malpractice death case against Hodari, states that Chivon had been in the first trimester of pregnancy.

Hodari, who was recorded telling Medical Students for Choice that he is "licensed to lie,"  was also implicated in the abortion death of Regina Johnson.

Watch A Dead Teen and a License to Lie on YouTube.

May 19, 1992: Homeless Woman Found Dead in Car, High-Volume Abortion Clinic at Fault

Susan Sondra Levy was 30 years old when she underwent a safe and legal abortion at the Family Planning Associates in Mission Hills, California on April 9, 1992. FPA is a member of the National Abortion Federation.  

Susan, originally from Florida, had evidently lived a difficult life. She is listed in the FBI Deceased Criminal Identification Files as a 5'4" 120-pound white woman with blue eyes and brown hair. At the time of her death, Susan was homeless and was living in a car owned by a friend. 

On May 19, 1992, she was found dead in that car. The cause of death was determined to be from an infection that developed from fetal tissue that was not removed during her abortion. (Sources: California Death Certificate No. 92-121785; Los Angeles County (CA) Autopsy Report No. 92-04539)

Other abortion patients to have died at FPA facilities include:

• Denise Holmes, age 24, 1970
• Patricia Chacon, age 16, and Mary Pena, age 43, 1984
• Josefina Garcia, age 37, 1985
• Lanice Dorsey, age 17, 1986
• Joyce Ortenzio, age 32, and Tami Suematsu, age 19, 1988
• Deanna Bell, age 13, 1992
• Christina Mora, age 18, 1994
• Ta Tanisha Wesson, age 24, 1995
• Nakia Jorden, 1998
• Maria Leho, 1999
• Kimberly Neil and Maria Rodriguez, age 22, 2000
• Chanelle Bryant, age 22, 2004
• "Kyla Ellis," age 23, 2014

Watch "How Many Skeletons in FPA's Closet?" on YouTube.

May 19, 1932: One of Six Deaths Blamed on Dr. Lou E. Davis

Irene Kirschner, age 24, died on May 19, 1932 at West Suburban Hospital in Chicago. Before her death, she named Dr. Lou E. Davis as the abortionist who had fatally injured her.

Davis had already been implicated in four other Chicago abortion deaths:  Anna Adler in 1913, Mary Whitney in 1924, Anna Borndal and Esther V. Wahlstrom in 1928.

When police went to arrest Davis for Irene's death, they found another abortion-injured woman at her house on Logan Boulevard, but no sign of Davis.

According to Illinois death records, Irene was a Chicago native, born to Austrian immigrants John and Bernice Briske Kirschner. She worked as a housekeeper. Her high school yearbook noted that she focused on commercial studies and was active in swimming and the dramatic club. Her nickname was Babs.

Dr. Lou E. Davis

For reasons that I haven't been able to yet determined, the coroner's jury cleared Davis, though she was a well-known abortionist. She went on to be implicated in the 1934 abortion death of Gertrude Gaesswitz. 

Watch "How Many Women Did Dr. Davis Kill?" on YouTube.

Sources:

• "Seek Physician in Girl's Death; Find New Victim," Chicago Daily Tribune, May 25, 1932
• "Woman Doctor Exonerated in Death of Girl Patient," Chicago Tribune, June 23, 1932

May 18: Happy Birthday Yamile Munoz

Yamile in the lap of her mother, Maggie Munoz,
with Mrs. Magaly Llaguno, Latin America Coordinator
for Human Life International

When Maggie Munoz learned that she was pregnant, she thought her only option was abortion. She was already an unmarried mother of four, and her friends and relatives told her that she already had "too many children" and that abortion was the "suitable solution." 

Ultrasound prior to the abortion revealed a normal 11-week pregnancy. 

Maggie underwent an abortion by D&C. After returning home, she was ill and depressed. 

Two weeks later, staff at the abortion facility called Maggie to tell her that the pathology report showed that the abortion was incomplete. Maggie returned to the clinic, where an ultrasound revealed a healthy fetus, still very much alive. But the employee told Maggie that there was "retained tissue" and gave her an appointment to return in a week for a second abortion procedure. 

Maggie didn't trust the clinic staff, and decided to go to her own doctor, who ordered an ultrasound showing a healthy 15-week fetus. 

Yamile was born May 18, 1992, perfectly healthy. Every day Maggie thanks God for her perfect daughter. 

Watch Happy Birthday, Yamile on YouTube.

(Source: Abortion Survivors [translation by Babelfish], from Right to Life League of Southern California, Fall 1992)

May 18, 2001: Two Kids Left Motherless

Dr. Ronald Blatt

Cynthia Quintana-Morales, a healthy 30-year-old mother of two, entrusted herself to the care of Dr. Ronald D. Blatt at Eastside Gynecology. She reported for her abortion appointment on May 7, 2001.

The facility administered Brevital to sedate Cynthia, and she went into cardiac arrest. She was transported to Lennox Hill Hospital, where she died of anoxic encephalopathy on May 18. She left a 16-year-old son and a 10-year-old daughter motherless.

Cynthia's husband of ten years, Andrew, sued Blatt and the practice, citing failing to use reasonable care, neglecting to heed Cynthia's condition, departing from accepted practices, performing contraindicated procedures, and lack of informed consent. Andrew asserted that his wife never would have consented to the abortion had she been adequately informed of the specific risks to her.

Blatt promptly closed the practice and reopened it as East Side Gynecology Services, effectively protecting his practice from financial liability.

Cynthia's husband settled with Blatt on March 30, 2008 for $1.25 million. Blatt's insurance covered the settlement.

Other women who died from Brevital mishaps include Susanne Logan, Kia Jorden, Melissa Heim, Donna Heim, Delores Smith, Gabriella Alonso, Venus Ortiz, Deanna Bell, Tanya Williamson, Suzanne Logan, and Debra Gray.

Watch Two Children Left Motherless on YouTube.

Thanks to Operation Rescue for these sources:

• Andrew Moraless v. Ronald Blatt, Index #13093/03
• Order of Compromise, Index #13093/03
• Order to Show Case, Index #13093/03

May 17, 1972: A College Student's Fatal Journey

It was May of 1972. Pamela Modugno, an 18-year-old unmarried college student living in Medford, Massachusetts, was pregnant. She decided that the best course of action would to be to go to New York to take advantage of their more liberal abortion law.

On Wednesday, May 17, Pamela went to Monsey Medical Center. Monsey had opened on with much local fanfare on July 3, 1970 two days after abortion-on-demand was legalized in the state.  The director, Dr. Lester Lando, was a licensed OB/GYN.

Pamela assumed that by going to a legal, openly operating abortion facility she'd be safe. She wasn't. During the abortion she went into cardiac arrest and died.

County Medical Examiner Dr. Frederick Zugibe determined that an air embolism had caused Pamela's heart to stop. He postulated that reverse air pressure from a suction unit might have blown air into her bloodstream instead of suctioning out the fetus.

Pamela was the second death from a safe, legal abortion in the county since New York liberalized the abortion laws effective July 1, 1970. The first, Edith Clark, had died on June 24, 1971. Like Pamela, she went into cardiac arrest and died during the procedure.

Pam's father, Thomas Modugno sued for negligence in how the abortion was performed and under the theory that the abortion was "assault and trespass" against Pam because at the time of the abortion, no surgery was permitted on an unmarried patient under the age of 21 without parental consent except in an emergency.

Pam is identified as "Danielle" in Life Dynamics' list of safe, legal abortion deaths.

Watch College Student's Fatal Journey on YouTube.

Sources:

• "18-year-old student dies during abortion," The Journal News, May 18, 1972
• "Abortion death suit filed," The Journal News, January 18, 1973

May 16, 2014: 17th FPA Death (That I Know Of)

An autopsy report tells the story of the seventeenth young woman I know of now to have died after an abortion at that National Abortion Federation flagship: Family Planning Associates Medical Group.

To preserve her confidentiality, I have given her the pseudonym "Kyla Ellis."

Kyla was 23 years old and about 11 weeks pregnant when she went to Family Planning Associate Medical Group at 601 S. Westmoreland Avenue in Los Angeles for an abortion on May 14, 2014. Like other young Black women, she was at higher risk of death than a white woman would be.

The day after the abortion, Kyla suffered agonizing abdominal pain. Her partner, whom I will call "Benjamin," called an ambulance, which rushed her to Centinela Hospital. She arrived at around 3:30 that afternoon. Kyla rated her pain at 10 on a scale of 10. Bright, fresh blood was flowing from her vagina. She couldn't pass urine at all. Hospital staff used a catheter to drain her bladder of about 200 cc of bloody urine.

Doctors decided that Kyla needed more intensive care than Centinela was able to provide. Kyla rode by ambulance to Kaiser West Los Angeles. She arrived shortly after midnight on May 16. At first she was awake, but at around 1:40 a.m. her gaze turned glassy and she became unresponsive. Staff took her to the lab for a CT scan, but on arrival Kyla went into cardio respiratory arrest. All efforts to revive her failed and she was pronounced dead at 2:45 a.m.

The autopsy found her uterus boggy and enlarged. The endometrium (lining) had been scraped away. 

Kyla had bled to death.

The Centers for Disease Control published back in 1983, "Deaths from hemorrhage associated with legal induced abortion should not occur." In every hemorrhage death they investigated, "Lack of adequate postoperative monitoring or treatment of hemorrhagic shock" was a factor. Kyla had been sent home with undiagnosed bleeding. That shouldn't happen. But it does happen, and not just to Kyla. It happened to other women, such as Eurice Agbagaa, Mickey Apodaca, Leigh Ann Alford, Gloria Aponte, Jacqueline Bailey, Junette Barnes, Myrtha Baptist, Cassandra Bleavens, Belinda Byrd, Dorothy Brown, Teresa Causey, Patricia Chacon, "Susanna Chisolm," Pamela Colson, Twila Coulter, Liliana Cortez, Mary Ann Dancy, Barbaralee Davis, Glenda Davis, Synthia Dennard, Anjelica Duarte, Evelyn Dudley, Gladyss Estanislao, Linda Fondren, Kathleen Gilbert, Maria Gomez, Shary Graham, Doris Grant, Sharon Hamplton, Lou Ann Herron, Louchrisser Jackson, Sandra Milton, Ruth Montero, Denise Montoya, Sylvia Moore, Dorothy Muzorewa, Guadalupe Negron, Mary Paredez, Shirley Payne, Mary Pena, Katrina Poole,  Tonya Reaves, Magdalena Rodriguez, Carole Schaner, Margaret Smith, Jennifer Suddeth, Cheryl Tubbs, and Latachie Veal.

To top it off, Kyla is the seventeenth woman I'm aware of to have died after abortions at FPA. The others are: 

• 1970: Denise Holmes
• 1984: Patricia Chacon and Mary Pena
• 1985: Josefina Garcia
• 1986: Laniece Dorsey
• 1988: Joyce Ortenzio and Tami Suematsu
• 1992: Deanna Bell and Susan Levy
• 1994: Christina Mora
• 1995: TaTanisha Wesson
• 1998: Nakia Jorden
• 1999: Maria Leho
• 2000: Kimberly Neil and Maria Rodriguez
• 2004: Chanelle Bryant

Watch 17th Known Abortion Death at YouTube.

Autopsy pages 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15

May 16, 1916: Was Anna Albers Really Responsible?

On May 16, 1916, 25-year-old Lucile Bersworth died in Chicago's German-American hospital after telling authorities that Dr. Anna Albers had perpetrated an abortion on her.

She also mentioned a man named Fred Krause, so he might have been her baby's father.

Though Albers was held by the coroner and indicted by a Grand Jury, the case never went to trial. She was rather a respectable physician, at least as of 1912, so she seems an unlikely abortionist.

Watch Not a Lot to Go On on YouTube.

Sources:

• "Merely Comment," The [Chicago] Day Book, May 16, 1916
• Homicide in Chicago Interactive Database

May 13, 1972: Convulsions and Death At Start of Abortion

 "Roxanne" was 17 years old when she decided to take advantage of New York's new abortion law, and traveled there from Michigan to have a first-trimester abortion in a doctor's office. The doctor gave her sedatives and local anesthesia to begin the abortion on May 13, 1972. But before the abortion could be started, Roxanne started to have convulsions and went into cardiac arrest.  Roxanne was taken to an area hospital, but she was declared dead on arrival.  An investigation into the case revealed that the doctor had exceeded the recommended dose of the local anesthetic. This is the same cause of death of Stacy Ruckman in 1988. 

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 "Roxanne," 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, July, 1970, cardiac arrest during abortion
• Carmen Rodriguez, July, 1970, salt solution intended to kill the fetus accidentally injected into her bloodstream
• Barbara Riley, July, 1970, sickle-cell crisis triggered by abortion recommended by doctor due to her sickle cell disease
• "Amanda" Roe, September, 1970, sent back to her home in Indiana with an untreated hole poked in her uterus
• Maria Ortega, October, 1970, fetus shoved through her uterus into her pelvic cavity then left there
• "Kimberly" Roe, December, 1970, cardiac arrest during abortion
• "Amy" Roe, January, 1971, massive pulmonary embolism
• "Andrea" Roe, January, 1971, overwhelming infection
• "Sandra" Roe, April, 1971, committed suicide due to post-abortion remorse
• "Anita" Roe, May, 1971, bled to death in her home during process of outpatient saline abortion
• Margaret Smith, June 1971, hemorrhage from multiple lacerations during outpatient hysterotomy abortion
• "Annie" Roe, June, 1971, cardiac arrest during anesthesia
• "Audrey" Roe, July, 1971, cardiac arrest during abortion
• "Vicki" Roe, August, 1971, post-abortion infection
• "April" Roe, August, 1971, injected with saline for outpatient abortion, went into shock and died
• "Barbara" Roe, September, 1971, cardiac arrest after saline injection for abortion
• "Tammy" Roe, October, 1971, massive post-abortion infection
• Carole Schaner, October, 1971, hemorrhage from multiple lacerations during outpatient hysterotomy abortion
• "Beth" Roe, December, 1971, saline injection meant to kill fetus accidentally injected into her bloodstream
• "Roseann" Roe, February, 1971, vomiting with seizures causing pneumonia after saline abortion
• "Connie" Roe, March, 1972, cardiac arrest during abortion
• "Julie" Roe, April, 1972, holes torn in her uterus and bowel
• "Robin" Roe, May, 1972, lingering abortion complications
• "Danielle" Roe, May, 1972, air in her bloodstream

Watch Overdose Death in Liberalization Land on YouTube.

May 12, 1971: Journey to Safe, Legal Death

 Anita was a 23-year-old mother of two when she chose safe and legal abortion in 1971.

She traveled from Massachusetts to New York for her abortion. She was 22 weeks pregnant. She had not told her husband that she was planning on the abortion. She used a fictitious name at the facility.

On May 11, the doctor initiated a saline abortion, then sent Anita home to expel the fetus. The next day, Anita was found unresponsive at her home. She was rushed to a local hospital, where she was pronounced dead on arrival. 

A post-mortem examination found the lower half of a 650-gram fetus protruding from Anita's uterus. A quarter off the placenta was still firmly attached to the uterus. The puncture wound from the saline injection was noted.

Anita had bled to death.

Sources: 

• "Maternal Mortality Associated With Legal Abortion in New York State: July 1, 1970 - June 30, 1972, Berger, Tietze, Pakter, Katz, Obstetrics and Gynecology, 43:3, March 1974, 325
• "Two Deaths From Mid-Trimester Abortion," New England Journal of Medicine, January 4, 1973; 288:47-48

May 12, 1989: Found Collapsed in the Bathroom

On May 12, 1989, Gladyss P. Delanoche Estanislao, 28-year-old mother of one, was found unresponsive on the floor of the rest room near her college classroom. A doctor who was in the vicinity performed CPR while awaiting an ambulance. Gladyss was taken to Greater Laurel Beltsville Hospital, where she was declared dead on arrival from cardiac arrest due to blood loss from a ruptured ectopic pregnancy.

On December 10, 1991, Human Life International sent a news release about Gladyss's death to the medical board. They identified Gladyss as "Patient A" in documents.

The board noted that Gladyss had gone to Dr. Alan J. Ross at Wisconsin Avenue Women's Health Center in Bethesda, Maryland on April 25 for an abortion. Ross diagnosed Gladyss as being 6 - 8 weeks pregnant and performed a suction abortion under local anesthesia. 

"A review of Patient A's office records indicated that [Ross] found the aspirate from Patient A's uterus to be grossly abnormal, containing mainly blood clots..." He did not send the specimen for a pathological examination. He also did not do an ultrasound to figure out why there was no evident fetal tissue. He also failed to do serial HCG studies to measure pregnancy hormones over time to see if Gladyss was still pregnant.

He merely discharged Gladyss with a prescription for antibiotics.

The fact that the abortion specimen did not contain fetal parts should have indicated that Gladyss had an ectopic pregnancy. This condition is routinely treated by competent doctors, saving the lives of the mothers. But Ross missed his diagnosis and allowed Gladyss to leave his clinic with her life in danger. Because of the sloppiness of abortionists like Ross, women who choose abortion are more likely to die from a ruptured ectopic pregnancy than are women intending to carry to term.

"In this inspection, the reviewers found that [Ross's] office records were grossly inadequate." They were hand-written so illegibly that Ross was often unable to read his own handwriting. They lacked detail. None of them showed an adequate medical history or physical examination. 

Inspectors also noted that Ross disposed of everything -- used needles, used gloves, and fetal remains -- in the regular trash.

Ross did all of his own lab testing for things such as RH factor, chlamydia, etc., even though he was not qualified to do so. He defended this on the grounds that he didn't charge patients for these services.

The board characterized Ross's medical services as "careless and inattentive." They suspended his license for one year and fined him $25,000. His license was also placed on probation under specific requirements that he clean up his act. He seems to still be practicing gynecology in Bethesda, Maryland as of this date.

Gladyss had been born in the Philippines and had come to the United States as a child. She was a 1978 graduate of Oxon Hill High School. Her sister sued on behalf of her motherless child, who was two years old when the fatal abortion was performed. 

Watch Found Dead on the Bathroom Floor on YouTube.

Sources: 

• Alan Ross License Suspension Order
• Matibag vs. Women's Health 

May 11, 1981: Multiple Professionals Let Barbara Down

A lawsuit filed by Frank Dillon, the father of Barbara Dillon, a 22-year-old college student at SUNY New Paltz, alleged that Barbara underwent a safe and legal abortion performed by Dr. Mark Silver at Long Island Gynecological Group on April 18, 1981. 

The Pathology Findings

The tissue from Barbara's abortion was delivered to Idant Laboratory on April 21. Dr. Michael J. Klein completed a microscopic analysis. Both he and the histotechnologist, who performed the gross examination (visible without a microscope), found placental tissue but no fetal parts. The lab notified Long Island Gynecological Group on April 22. 

The pathology finding indicates that the fetus was still inside Barbara's body, either left behind in her uterus or implanted in her fallopian tube. It also didn't eliminate the possibility that Barbara had a double pregnancy -- one embedded in the uterus and the other in her fallopian tube.

Nobody from Long Island Gynecological Group contacted Barbara to inform her that she needed to be seen to determine where the fetus was, or specifically that she needed to be seen to rule out a potentially life-threatening ectopic pregnancy.

Fruitlessly Seeking Care

Barbara suffered pain and bleeding from May 5. On May 10 she finally went to the emergency room at Kingston Hospital and was treated with antibiotics by Dr. Kalyanasundaran Venkataraman and advised to see a gynecologist named Dr. Theodore Jackaway, the on-call gynecologist for the hospital, for follow-up care. 

She was in severe pain later that day and began to vomit, so her roommates called the emergency room again. They were told to give the antibiotics more time. 

At 5:30 on the morning of May 11, Barbara was in so much pain that one of her roommates called Dr. Jackaway's answering service and left a message. Jackaway called back and said that he couldn't take any responsibility for Barbara because he hadn't seen her, so he suggested that she be taken to the emergency room. 

About three hours after talking to Jackaway, Barbara's roommate contacted a neighbor who called the SUNY health center. There, Dr. Johannes D. Weltin requested that somebody take her to the health center so that he could examine her. The neighbor drove Barbara to university health center at around 9:25 a.m. Barbara was unconscious upon arrival, with no respiration, blood pressure, or pulse. 

Dr. Weltin called the hospital and spoke to Dr. Jackaway, and told him that Barbara had blood in her abdomen and needed immediate surgery. Jackaway refused to see her because she wasn't his patient and he didn't want to get involved. Dr. Weltin tried to call Dr. Kirk for a consultation, which he refused to do -- though he did call Dr. Jackaway and try to convince him to treat Barbara.

Too Late

Finally at 11:45 that morning somebody brought in Dr. Venkataraman, who performed emergency surgery. Despite this final doctor's efforts, Barbara went into irreversible shock and died on May 11. 

It turned out that Barbara had an ectopic pregnancy which the clinic had failed to detect. Barbara's father sued Dr. Silver, Dr. Jackaway, Dr. Kline, and the Long Island Gynecological Group.

Even though, in theory, women who choose abortion should be less likely to die of ectopic pregnancy complications, experiences shows that they're actually more likely to die, due to sloppy practices by abortion practitioners. In Barbara's case, it seems that everybody in the medical establishment except the pathologist and the university physician utterly let her down.

Watch "Passing the Buck Leads to Death" on YouTube.

Source: Dillon v. Silver, New York Appellate Court 134 A.D.2nd 159 (1987)

May 11th Criminal Abortion Deaths

On May 11, 1884, a young woman who had given her name as Alice Brown died at the Chicago residence of Mrs. R. A. Hough. She was identified as 20-year-old Lottie Hudson of Austin, Illinois. She had gone to Chicago to live with a man identified as C. O. Owen, "a printer who already had a wife and family." He was boarding with Lottie's mother, Mrs. Hudson, who had visited Lottie twice at Mrs. Hough's home during her illness. It was determined that Lottie had died from blood poisoning due to an abortion, believed to be perpetrated by a doctor whose name neither Lottie nor Mrs. Hough either could or would divulge. On the day of the funeral, Mrs. Hough went to Mrs. Hudson's house and "was decidedly uneasy during the forenoon." At 11 a.m., Hough asked Mrs. Hudson to leave with her because the police would soon come to arrest them since they'd not called in a doctor to attend to Lottie as she was dying.

Homemaker May Johnson, age 36, of Melrose Street in Chicago died on May 11, 1915 from a self-induced abortion "after advice from quack."

Safe and Legal May 11th Deaths

 "Anita" is one of the women Life Dynamics identifies on their "Blackmun Wall" as having been killed by a legal abortion. Anita was a 23-year-old mother of two when she traveled from Massachusetts to New York to take advantage of the law legalizing abortion. She was 22 weeks pregnant. On May 11, 1971 the doctor initiated a saline abortion by injecting a strong sterile salt solution into Anita's uterus. The idea was that the fetus would inhale and swallow the fluid, which would cause massive internal hemorrhaging and death. this would then trigger labor. Anita's doctor sent her home to expel the fetus. The next day, Anita was found unresponsive at her home. She was rushed to a local hospital, where she was pronounced dead on arrival. She had bled to death.

"Melissa" is one of the women Life Dynamics identifies on their "Blackmun Wall" as having been killed by a safe and legal abortion. Melissa was 27 years old and five months pregnant when she checked into Lutheran Medical Center of Brooklyn on May 1, 1992. For some reason, her doctor chose the dangerous and antiquated saline abortion procedure. She died of complications on May 11.

Fifteen-year-old Sara Neibel went to Midtown Hospital in Atlanta for a safe and legal abortion at 17 weeks. She was given a clean bill of health and sent home. The next day, she reported a severe headache, sore neck, neck stiffness, and trouble seeing. Her parents began the drive to take her to the hospital. On the way there, Sara began screaming and behaving strangely. When they got to the hospital, she refused to get out of the car. She was disoriented and stuporous upon admission. Sara went into respiratory arrest, and was admitted to the ICU. She was pronounced dead May 11, 1994. The cause of death was determined to be Group B Streptococci Meningitis caused by infected amniotic fluid in her bloodstream. The autopsy performed on Sara found dead tissue and a fetal bone fragment in her infected uterus. Sources: Georgia Autopsy Report No. A1994-13; Georgia Certificate of Death # 023154