August 12, 1970: One of Six Dead at California Abortion Hospital

Sara Lint, a 22-year-old coed, submitted to a safe and legal abortion at San Vicente Hospital in Los Angeles, California, on August 11, 1970. She went into ventricular fibrillation soon after the abortion was initiated.

The technique being used on Sara, hysterotomy, was one with a known high maternal mortality rate. It was, in fact, surgery similar to a C-section but with the intention of allowing the baby to die of prematurity. (Click here for a photo of a hysterotomy being performed at 24 weeks.)

San Vicente staff treated Sara for an hour before transferring her to Midway Hospital down the street, where she died at 4:57am on August 12. The autopsy found yellow fluid in Sara's heart, frothy tan fluid in her lungs, and a seven-inch male fetus in her uterus.

San Vicente was where five other women underwent their fatal abortions: Natalie Meyers (1972), Mary Pena (1984), Laniece Dorsey (1986), Joyce Ortenzio (1988), and Oriane Shevin (2005). 

At some point I've been unable to precisely determine, most likely late 1984, San Vicente was bought out by Family Planning Associates Medical Group, the largest chain of for-profit abortion clinics in the world. Some of the San Vicente Deaths are thus also FPA deaths. 

Watch "First of Six (Known)" on YouTube.