September 18, 1958: An Unknown Perp in Oklahoma

Shortly after 1:00 in the morning on September 18, 1958, Frank Tarbet of Norman, Oklahoma, was awakened by a knock on the door. Outside he found "Bettina," the 12-year-old daughter of his neighbor, 31-year old "Glenda Coe" (named changed at request of family). The little girl said that her mother was "very cold." Tarbet went with Bettina to Glenda's bedroom, where he found her dead on her bed, dressed in street clothes except for shoes. Tabet notified the police at 1:18 a.m.

The police questioned Bettina, who said that at around 8:00 the previous evening she and her four younger sisters had gotten ready for bed. At around 8:30 Glenda had taken off her shoes and laid down on her bed. The girls retired for the night. Bettina woke at around 1:00 and been unable to awaken her mother. 

Tabet told police that he had seen a pickup truck leave Glenda's house at around 10:45 the previous evening. His daughter told police that she'd seen the pickup at around midnight, and somebody had carried a woman from the truck into the Coe home. Glenda's first husband, plumber James P. Morton, was picked up by the police and brought to the station at around 2:40 a.m. He owned a pickup truck matching the description of the truck the neighbors had seen at Glenda's house. The couple had been divorced for about a year. Glenda and her second husband, "Oscar Coe," had been married for about eight months but he and Glenda has separated and she had filed for divorce in July. Oscar was quickly dismissed by the police as not involved in Glenda's death.

There were no obvious signs of foul play. At first, authorities suspected either natural death or a suicide. However, Glenda's neck was slightly swollen and discolored and all evidence indicated that Glenda, a former waitress, had been in good health before her death. X-rays found no injuries. An autopsy found that Glenda had died due to air bubbles in her bloodstream, and that she had been pregnant at the time of her death. A more careful examination determined that Glenda had died from an abortion attempt.  

Morton was held for murder by the police but I have been unable to determine if or how the case proceeded.

Sources:

• "Mother of Four Found Dead Here," The Norman Transcript, September 18, 1958
• "1st Husband Held In Woman's Death," The Norman Transcript, September 19, 1958
• "Death Probe Continuing," The Norman Transcript, September 22, 1958

September 18, 1993: Safe and Legal in North Carolina

Thirty-six-year-old Kathy McKnight (pictured) of Charlotte, North Carolina underwent an abortion on September 17, 1993. Early the next morning, Kathy had trouble breathing. She was taken to University Memorial Hospital in Charlotte, North Carolina. Kathy died in the emergency room. Her autopsy revealed that she died of a pulmonary embolism.

Sources: 

• North Carolina Certificate of Death # 044550
• Chief Medical Examiner (Chapel Hill) Investigation Report # 93-1948

September 18, 1979: Happy Birthday, Joshua Vandervelden

Joshua Vandervelden

Linda Noie was between six and eight weeks pregnant when she went to Fox Valley Reproductive Health Care in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on January 10, 1979. She was accompanied by her baby's father, Brian Rusch. They met with a clinic counselor and went home.

The couple returned on the morning of January 12. Linda read and signed the consent forms. Several hours later, Dr. Benjamin Victoria (John Roe 740 in Lime 5) performed the abortion. 

Linda was discharged under the impression that the abortion had been successful. It had not. 

On September 18, Linda was in labor but there were signs of fetal distress so the baby that had survived the abortion attempt was delivered via C-section. He was named Joshua Vandervelden. 

Joshua was placed on a respirator and hospitalized for two weeks prior to discharge. He was left with brain damage and partial hearing lost.

Joshua was awarded $1,125,000 in damages against the doctor who had tried to kill him in the womb. Victoria appealed the verdict, and the US Supreme Court asserted that Joshua had no grounds to sue the doctor because his mother had consented to the abortion.

Linda went public with her story and became a prolife activist. 

Sources:

• "Survivor of abortion gets award for damages," Tampa Bay Times, September 26, 1992
• "High court denies appeal on failed-abortion award," The (Fox River Valley, WI) Post-Crescent, November 1, 1993
• "Court refuses to hear case; doctor's lawyers are pleased," The (Waukesha, WI) Freeman, November 2, 1993
• Vandervelden v. Victoria, 177 Wis. 2d 243 (1993) 502 N.W.2d 276

September 18, 2003: Falsified Documents at Prochoice Icon's Clinic

Dr. Alberto Hodari

According to this administrative complaint, Regina Johnson (Identified only by the initials R.J.) was 32 years old when she went to Womancare of Southfield, Michigan on September 17, 2003. The clinic was owned by Dr. Abraham Alberto Hodari, darling of Medical Students for Choice. Regina was pregnant for the fourth time, having given birth once, and either aborted or miscarried twice. Hodari, owner of Womancare, was not present at the time.

According to the Social Security Index, Regina Diane Johnson was a black woman born in Detroit.

A Falsified Signature Starts The Process

Nurse Cathy Litchtig performed an ultrasound, "even though there was no physician order for the study. She interpreted the study as showing a five week pregnancy and signed [Hodari's] name..." Dr. Milton Nathanson initialed  the ultrasound to confirm Lichtig's finding.

CRNA Barry Thompson did the anesthesia while Nathanson did the abortion. Regina was given 200 mg of Diprivan, 2 mg Fentanyl, .2mg Gylcopyrrolate, and Droperidol to anesthetize her for the abortion, which was charted as taking place from 9:55 to 10:05 a.m.

An Understaffed, Underequipped Recovery Room

Regina was then sent to the recovery room, along with five or six other patients under the care of Litchtig. Though clinic protocol required more than one staff person present when patients were in recovery, Lichtig was sometimes alone in caring for the patients.

Though Hodari's recovery room was equipped with a stethescope, oxygen bag/valve mask, and digital blood pressure cuff, it was not equipped with an EKG monitor, pulse oximeter, or automatic blood pressure/pulse monitor with alarm for monitoring patients, or with oxygen, a defibrillator, or other resuscitation equipment.

Lichtig recorded Regina's blood pressure and pulse manually upon admission to recovery, and at 10 - 15 minute intervals. At 10:05, Regina's blood pressure and pulse were a normal 116/72 and 82. At 10:15, they were 108/56 and 88. This fall in blood pressure and rise in pulse, especially in combination, are an early sign that a patient might be suffering complications such as blood loss. However, Lichtig reported that Regina's respiration was easy and unlabored.

The document notes that Lichtig was actually performing above the call of duty: Womancare protocol only required her to check a patient's vitals upon arrival in recovery, at 15 minues, and at discharge, usually after about an hour in recovery. Hodari's protocol also allowed for the nurse to discharge patients from the clinic. "There was no provision that the patient be seen by a physician once she was transferred to the recovery room."

Delay in Calling EMS

At 10:30, Lichtig was unable to rouse Regina, who still had a pulse and unlabored breathing. Lichtig tried for about ten minutes to awaken Regina. At about 10:40, she could no longer detect a pulse. She immediately told CRNA Thompson, who was then wheeling another patient into recovery. The two of them brought Regina back to the OR and began performing CPR. However, nobody called 911 until 11:00, twenty minutes after noting that Regina was pulseless. EMS arrived promptly, at 11:05.

EMS took Regina to Providence Hospital, where with continued CPR and got a pulse. Regina was put on life support, but was pronounced brain dead. She was taken off life support and declared dead on September 18. An autopsy determined that Regina had died from anoxic encephalopathy due to cardiac arrest. In other words, she died because her brain had been deprived of oxygen.

The Findings

The Administrative Complaint found Hodari to be negligent, incompetent, and lacking in good moral character. Hodari did not contest the findings, instead cooperating with bringing his facility up to standards to pass an inspection by an anesthesiologist in February of 2009. But in the mean time, he'd performed the fatal abortions on Tamiia Russell and Chivon Williams in 2004.

The state Attorney General's office fined Hodari $10,000 on March 4, 2009, for his part in the death.

The latest National Abortion Federation update no longer lists Womancare as a member, though they were recently. They certainly were in 2004, when Chivon and Tamiia died, which is the oldest page of Michigan NAF members that I can find on the Internet Archive. Womancare was also still a member in 2007, the most recent update on the Internet Archive. I'd be very interested in having NAF Annual Reports so I could look up what years Hodari and his mills were members.

The Abortion Lobby Got Their Corpse

Amber Nicole Thurman, age 28, was a medical assistant with dreams of going to nursing school. In the summer of 2022, she discovered that she was pregnant with twins. The single mother and her son had recently moved out of her family's home into a gated apartment complex with a pool. Adding twins to the mix would be a setback in Amber's plans. She decided to abort her unborn twins. 

Amber scheduled a 9-week surgical abortion at a North Carolina facility that is unnamed in coverage, but is described as being a four hour trip by car. Before sunrise on August 13, Amber and her friend Ricaria Baker headed off. However, they ran into heavy traffic and arrived late for the appointment. 

According to Baker, clinic staff told the women that Amber could either reschedule the surgical abortion or could opt for a chemical abortion. After talking to clinic staff and pondering the logistics of a second trip, Amber opted for chemical abortion and took the first pill of the two-step abortion.

Amber and her friend returned to Georgia. The following day, Amber took the second dose as directed.

Over the ensuing days, Amber had the severe cramping and bleeding that are common with these at-home abortions. The abortion clinic reportedly would have done a free follow-up D&C for her, but the four-hour drive was too far. Amber toughed it out.

On the evening of August 18, the symptoms went from fairly typical for a chemical abortion to alarming: Amber vomited blood and passed out. Her boyfriend called 911. Medics transported Amber to Piedmont Henry Hospital in Stockbridge, near Atlanta. They arrived at 6:51 p.m.

ProPublica reports that they obtained the summary narrative of Amber's hospital stay as was provided to the maternal mortality review committee. Upon admission, Amber's lower abdomen was tender. Her white blood count was high and her blood pressure low. On one occasion, Amber got up to use the bathroom and passed out, hitting her head. 

A pelvic exam noted a foul odor, and an ultrasound showed possible retained tissue in the uterus.

Note: The ultrasound did not show a living fetus. There was no heartbeat. Thus the Georgia "heartbeat law" did not and could not apply in Amber's case. What follows is currently inexplicable even though abortion advocates want you to believe that hospital staff were just being careful not to break the law that clearly did not apply in Amber's case because she was not pregnant with a viable fetus.

I give the hospital credit: They did start IV antibiotics at 9:38 pm. But rather than following up by removing the source of the infection, they discussed possibly doing a D&C the following day.

By 5:14 am, Amber was hemorrhaging. She was given more IV fluids and antibiotics, but still did not do what ProPublica falsely characterizes as "the newly criminalized procedure" which, again, was not criminalized because there was no live fetus involved. In fact, there didn't even seem to be a dead fetus involved.

Instead of doing a routine, perfectly legal D&C, they tested Amber for STDs and pneumonia. They administered Levophed, a drug to increase her falling blood pressure. 

At 6:45, due to her continued falling blood pressure, Amber was transferred to the ICU. Again, nobody took any steps to remove the source of the infection by performing a routine and completely legal D&C. They continued to drag their feet. At 7:14 they discussed doing the obvious -- performing the D&C -- but didn't.

Some time after around 9 am, lab work indicated that Amber's organs were failing. Still the doctors did nothing.

At 12:05 pm, somebody at the ICU notified the OB/GYN that Amber's condition was deteriorating.

Still nobody did anything.

It was 2 pm before they decided to go ahead with surgery. But by now, Amber was in such bad condition that they didn't just go in vaginally and do a routine D&C. They did open abdominal surgery. The surgeon noted that Amber's bowel was in bad shape but he or she didn't feel that Amber was stable enough to survive removing the bowel, so the surgeon just did a hysterectomy. During the surgery, Amber's heart stopped.

ProPublica flat-out claims that Georgia law forbids a D&C for a hemorrhaging woman in spite of the fact that the law is very clear: Doctors are allowed to take good-faith measures to protect women. Abortion is the deliberate killing of an embryo or fetus. If there is no live fetus to kill, then anything the doctor does is, by definition, not an abortion.

But the abortion lobby wants us to believe that this is some sort of impenetrable grey zone. They want abortion-on-demand for all nine months of pregnancy, with no obligation to save babies that emerge alive and viable during abortions. 

Clearly they're willing to allow women like Amber to die needlessly to achieve this goal.

Amber's relatives should be going after the hospital for allowing her to die, but they will probably get swept up by the abortion lobby. 

Watch A Win for Abortion Enthusiasts on YouTube.

Sources:

• "Abortion Bans Have Delayed Emergency Medical Care. In Georgia, Experts Say This Mother’s Death Was Preventable.," ProPublica, September 16, 2024

September 17, 2003: Planned Parenthood "Medication Abortion" Kills Teen

With abortion, as with anything else, it seems, you need a cute blue-eyed blonde to get the MSM's attention. Thus they noticed when Holly died. 

Holly Patterson, age 18, was a high-achiever. She graduated from Granada High School in Livermore, California in only three years.

When she got pregnant in the early fall of 2003, she only told one person: her boyfriend, Ehsan Bashi. He accompanied her to a Planned Parenthood in Hayward, California on September 10. There, Holly was diagnosed as 7-weeks pregnant and administered the first drug for her abortion: mifepristone. She was sent home with pain medications and the second drug: misoprostol. She was told to self-administer the misoprostol at home the next day and return in a week ton confirm that the abortion had been successful.

The FDA recommended regimen calls for the second drug to be administered between the cheek and gums. However, this can cause nausea and vomiting, so Planned Parenthood instructed women to administer the drug vaginally. 

Three days later, Holly called Planned Parenthood and reported severe abdominal cramping. The person she spoke to told her that this was normal and to take her painkillers. If the symptoms didn't improve, she was told, then she should go to the emergency room.

The following day Holly was still in severe pain and was bleeding heavily. She went to the emergency room at Valley Care Medical Center and told the doctor there about the abortion. That doctor injected her with narcotic pain medications and sent her home.

The narcotics didn't help. On the morning of September 17 -- weak, vomiting, and unable to walk -- Holly returned to the hospital. They admitted her shortly after 9 a.m. and called her father, Monty Patterson, telling him to hurry because his daughter was intensive care. 

This was the first Monty knew about the pregnancy and abortion.

He rushed to the hospital. "Holly was intubated, and I went and held her and said, 'I don't know what happened but I'm here to help, to get you well.' The look in her eyes said, 'Dad, save me.'"

She died shortly before 2 pm, with her father at her side. The cause of death was septic shock from Clostridium sordelli.

Monty told the San Francisco Chronicle, "The medical community treats this as a simple pill you take, as if you're getting rid of a headache. The procedure, the follow-ups, it's all too lackadaisical. The girl gets a pill. Then she's sent home to do the rest on her own. There are just too many things that can go wrong."

Monty wanted to know why Planned Parenthood didn't follow the FDA-recommended regimen. He wanted to know why they sent her to the emergency room instead of to a specially trained doctor who would know how to treat abortion pill complications. He wanted to know why Holly and other women like her weren't given enough information to understand what is and isn't cause for concern in these kinds of abortions. 

Three other women were identified as having died of infection deaths after RU-486 abortions in the Los Angeles area: Chanelle Bryant, Oriane Shevin, and Vivian Tran. Like Holly, Chanelle got her abortion drugs at a Planned Parenthood, as did Vivian. Oriane got hers at a National Abortion Federation member clinic.

Watch Planned Parenthood's Fatal Abortion Pills on YouTube.

Sources:

• "Teen dies after taking abortion pill," NBC News, September 22, 2003
• "Family, friends pay tribute / Woman who died after taking abortion pill buried in Livermore," SFGate, September 25, 2003
• "Taker of abortion pill died due to infection," SFGate, November 1, 2003
• "One dad's questions about pill / RU-486 proven safe, yet a daughter died," SFGate, September 26, 2004
• "Safety Of Abortion Pill Questioned," CBS News, November 16, 2004
• "Abortion Pill Investigated in Four California Deaths," Los Angeles Times, August 15, 2005
• "Man Blames Daughter's Death on Abortion Pill," ABC News, May 17, 2006
• "Monty Patterson learns about RU-486 the hard way," SFGate, December 5, 2011
• Patient Safety Movement: Holly Patterson

September 17, 1937: Doctor Implicated in Schoolgirl's Death

 SUMMARY: Phyllis Brown, a 16-year-old Riverside High schoolgirl, died at Grant Hospital in Chicago on September 17, 1937 after an abortion performed by Dr. C. Harold Edmunds (pictured, right).

While looking for clippings about Dr. Emil Gleitsmann, I found mention of him at the end of an article about an abortion death that was new to me.

On June 17, 1937, 16-year-old Riverside High schoolgirl Phyllis Brown was attacked and raped by an acquaintance near Villa Park in Chicago. She kept the assault a secret from her parents even after learning of the resulting pregnancy. Instead, she confided in her friend, 17-year-old Lillian Pernicka. 

Lillian (pictured, left) told Phyllis that she herself had undergone an abortion on March 8 at the hands of Dr. Clarence Harold Edmunds in Oak Park. The girls went to Edmunds's office in Oak Park on September 1. There, Edmunds performed an abortion. 

When Phyllis took ill afterwards, her parents summoned Dr. S. A. Sugar. He examined her on September 13 and admitted her to Grant Hospital. He believed that she might be suffering from abortion complications so he notified the police.

On September 18, Edmunds, age 48, and his secretary, Marie Trampush, age 27, were arrested. Edwards was released on $25,000 bond and Trampush on $3,000.

Phyllis's father, Samuel, put all the blame on the boy who had raped his daughter. "You don't need police to run down the boy," he said at the inquest. "He murdered my daughter and wherever he is, I'll find him and take care of him in my own way."

Both Edmunds and Trampush (pictured, right) denied having any knowledge of an abortion performed on Phyllis.

Edwards was originally licensed in Saskatchewan, Canada, in 1913. He moved to North Dakota and practiced there before relocating first to Florida and then to Oak Park, where he set up practice in 1931.

The case had originally been struck off because there were legal issues with Phyllis's dying declaration. The charges were filed again and both Edmunds and Trampush were indicted. However, in January of 1938 the charges were dropped for reasons I've been unable to determine.

Sources:

• "Doctor Charged With Murder in Abortion Death," Chicago Daily Tribune, September 18, 1937
• "Chicago Physician is Held in Death of School Girl," Journal Gazette, September 18, 1937
• "Woman Charged With Murder in Abortion Death," Chicago Tribune, September 19, 1937
• "Charge Doctor with Murder," Cicero (IL) Life, October 10, 1937
• "Abortion Death is Reconsidered; Doctor Indicted," Chicago Tribune, October 30, 1937
• "Arraign Doctor and His Secretary After Death by Abortion," Chicago Daily Tribune, November 9, 1937
• "Free Doctor, Aide in Death Of Girl, 16," Berwyn Life, January 12, 1938

September 16, 1988: Shameful Exploitation of a Bereaved Family

To this day, abortion advocates and other left-leaning sources claim that Rebecca Suzanne "Becky" Bell died from an illegal abortion on September 16, 1988. Abortion advocates schlepped her distraught parents all over the country, using their family tragedy to fight against parental involvement laws and thus to endanger other teens, purportedly in the name of protecting them.

Becky was a pretty girl -- blonde hair, blue eyes, looking every inch a cheerleader. After a pregnancy scare, her parents told her that if she ever did that to them again, they'd throw her out of the house. So when 17-year-old Becky learned that she really was pregnant in 1988, she told the baby's father and he abandoned her, breaking off all contact in mid-July.

No doubt feeling utterly lost and alone, Becky turned to her best friend Heather Clark for help. Together they explored her options. If Becky were to get an abortion in Indiana, she would have to tell her parents. After being threatened with being thrown out of the family home, Becky rejected that option. Perhaps Becky could drive to Kentucky for an abortion. Perhaps she could go to a home for unwed mothers in California. Becky seemed undecided.

Perhaps it was the stress of the pregnancy that knocked Becky off the wagon. She had been through hospitalization from mid-February through April of 1988 for substance abuse struggles. The treatment was clearly unsuccessful. Becky went to a party the weekend of September 10 and 11, to forget her troubles, and to be with the people she thought were her friends. Becky couldn't even remember what drugs she did at the party. She passed out in her own vomit. 

That can't have done her immune system any favors -- an immune system that could well have been damaged by the previous substance abuse. 

On September 13 she was feverish and ill and stayed home from school. She seemed to improve, but when her father came home at around noon on September 16 he found her gravely ill. Her parents rushed her to St. Vincent Hospital in Indianapolis. After the doctor had been working on Becky for a while, he told her mother he wasn't sure if he could save the baby. Karen, Becky's mother, recalled that she told the doctor, "Never mind that baby! Save my baby!"

Becky was pronounced dead at 11:29 pm. Her body was sent for an autopsy, performed by Jesse C. Giles with the Forensic Division of the Indiana University School of Medicine.

I have abstracted thousands of abortion malpractice cases and over a hundred autopsy reports on women and girls who have died from abortion complications. Becky's autopsy report, which I have also read, clearly shows no signs whatsoever of post-abortion infection. There was no evidence of inflammation or infection in any of her reproductive organs. There were no signs of instrumentation of her uterus or cervix. There was on evidence of infected or septic pregnancy tissue.

So what does Becky's autopsy show? What it shows is  pneumonia, the same strain that killed Muppets creator Jim Henson. 

For some obscure reason, someone in the coroner's office put "septic abortion" on the cover sheet of Becky's autopsy report instead of the pneumonia that actually killed her.

Bill and Karen Bell unwittingly endangering other teens

Desperate to find some meaning in their daughter's death, the parents latched onto the term, "septic abortion." Perhaps, like most laymen, they didn't realize that a miscarriage is a form of abortion -- what's called a "spontaneous abortion." That still leaves the mystery of where the word "septic" came from, since Becky's reproductive tract was healthy and free of injury or infection. But however the idea arose, Becky's family decided that Becky must have sought an illegal abortion. Abortion advocates caught wind of the story and recruited the parents as spokesmen against parental involvement laws.

Over the years, the story has become more and more sanitized. Becky's drug use, her previous pregnancy scare, the fact that her parents had threatened her, fell aside. In the pro-choice version, Becky was the carefree, happy child who never gave her parents any worries. Becky sought an abortion to avoid disappointing her parents, but was stymied by parental involvement laws. Becky procured any one of a variety of amateur abortions. (Here the story gets fuzzy, and different organizations tell different tales -- attempts to cause a miscarriage with drugs, a criminal abortionist, Becky's own hand wielding a coat hanger -- none of which had any evidence to support them.) The abortion, they claim, started an infection in her uterus. The infection traveled to Becky's lungs and killed her -- while mysteriously vacating her uterus entirely and leaving it healthy and infection-free. 

"She died because of a law," pro-choicers chant. But Becky's death wasn't an abortion death.  Her death was an exploited for an utterly unrelated cause. Simply because of two words on the cover of a coroner report, and the desperation of an abortion industry that was losing the lucrative teen market, her death has been used to promote unsafe abortions for underage girls.

The cheerleaders for abortion continue to ignore teens who died of secret abortions. Dawn Ravenelle was 13 years old when her mother got a call to come to St. Luke's hospital, where Dawn was "fighting for her life." Dawn lost that fight. Erica Richardson's aunt arranged a secret abortion that left the girl dead from an embolism. Jammie Garcia probably would have survived the complications of her abortion had she not kept it a secret, thus delaying medical care until it was too late. Sandra Kaiser went into a terrible depression after her clandestine abortion and ended up committing suicide by throwing herself off an overpass into traffic. Tamiia Russell was brought for a secret abortion by the sister of the 24-year-old man who had been sexually abusing her. Why are these girls' deaths not newsworthy? Because they do not further the narrative that legal abortion is inherently safe and that anything that delays an abortion by even a day is inherently dangerous.

Watch The Abortion Death That Wasn't on YouTube.

It's very difficult to find accurate information about Becky Bell from mainstream sources because the accurate information doesn't fit the narrative. But that doesn't mean that there is no information:

• Pro-Choice “Facts”: The Story of Becky Bell
• The Truth About Becky Bell
• "Abortion Debate Shifting," Cleveland Plain Dealer, September 9, 1990

September 15 of 1925 and 1926: Fatal Chicago Abortions

An Unknown Chicago Abortionist, 1925

On September 15, 1925, Mary Williams, a 25-year-old Black woman born in Mississippi, died at Chicago's County Hospital from an abortion performed on her that day at an undisclosed location. The person responsible for Mary's death was never identified, so it's impossible to know if she availed herself of one of the plethora of doctors and midwives practicing abortion in Chicago.

A Chicago Midwife, 1926

On September 15, 1926, 23-year-old Mary Bailek, a native of Poland, died at Chicago's Lutheran Deaconnes Hospital from complications of a criminal abortion performed at her home that day. Rozalia Ossowska, alias Olszewski, was arrested for the death on October 7. Her profession is not given but according to the 1930 Census she was a midwife. She was born around 1888 in Germany and immigrated to the US in 1906. On March 15, 1927, she was indicted for felony murder by a grand jury.

September 15, 1971: Teen Sent Home With Mangled Fetus in Womb

Eighteen-year-old Janice Marilyn Foster (previously identified as Janet Foster) underwent an abortion at the hands of 37-year-old Dr. Richard Neal at Valley Doctors; Hospital in North Hollywood, California on September 11, 1971. Janet's abortion had been a "therapeutic" abortion approved by the hospital committee, as was required at the time. Neal reported that he'd estimated the pregnancy at 12 weeks and performed what he thought was an uneventful suction abortion. 

Janet's brother-in-law reported that she was very weak and sleepy when he picked her up at the hospital. After returning home, Janet suffered abdominal pain, and called Neal on September 14. He told her he'd see her the next day. Janet felt ill, so she went to bed early. 

At around 2 a.m., Janet experienced hot and cold flashes for about twenty minutes, then went into convulsions. Her brother-in-law called for emergency services. Police and paramedics found Janet lying in bed with what appeared to be pus in her vaginal area. On the way to the hospital medics attempted attempted to revive her, to no avail; Janet was pronounced dead on arrival at 3:55 am. 

The autopsy found that Janet's heart and lung sacs contained serous fluid, and there was frothy tan fluid in her respiratory track. Her uterus was boggy and the placenta was still attached. Janet's uterus also contained "approximately 20 cc. of red-brown purulent and foul-smelling liquid with similar odor and color to an exudate on the endometrial surface."

Also in Janet's uterus was a "macerated, lacerated and purulent male fetus of about 19 weeks gestation. This fetus measures 14.5 cm. in crown-rump length, shows lacerations in the shoulder area, evisceration of the bowel through an abdominal laceration, and destruction of the skull and facial structures."  

Janet's death attributed to septicemia due to "incomplete abortion, therapeutic, septic." 

An LA County grand jury indicted Neal on a felony manslaughter charge in Janet's death. His first trial ended in a hung jury on March 24, 1976 after the four days of deliberation. The second trial ended in a hung jury on November 1, 1976 on the fifth day of deliberations.

Watch Teen Sent Home to Die on YouTube.

Sources: 

• LA County Coroner Case No. 71-9846
• LA County Superior Court Case No A310874 and Case No C34424
• "Mistrial declared in malpractice case," (Van Nuys, CA) Valley News, November 2, 1976
• "Southland," Los Angeles Times, December 2, 1976

September 15, 1902: New York Midwife is a Repeat Offender

Lena Schott

On September 15, 1902, Mrs. Henrietta Appel, age 31, died in New York from an abortion perpetrated by midwife Lena Schott (pictured). The police had been notified about the abortion by Henrietta's husband, Samuel, while she was on her deathbed. Henrietta admitted the abortion to the authorities and indicated that her husband had not known about it in advance.

When police went to arrest Schott, they had to break into the home, and found Schott in the basement. She attacked the arresting officer, Captain Elbert O. Smith, nearly tearing off his uniform and pinning him on the floor until other officers could restrain her. After her arrest, Schott admitted that she had treated Henrietta.

Schott had previously been implicated in the abortion deaths of Mary Gibson, Mary Ryan, Nellie Monohan, and Emily Binney.

Source: "Woman Fights Police Captain," The (New York) World, September 16, 1902

September 14, 1928: A "Massaguer" Implicated in Abortion Death

On September 14, 1928, 20-year-old Stella Wallenberg, a bindery worker, died from a criminal abortion performed in Chicago. Loretta Rybicki, identified as a "massaguer", was held by the coroner for murder by abortion. Dr. Nicholas Kalinowski was held as an accessory. Rybicki was indicted for felony murder on November 15.

It was not unusual for a lay abortionist to have a physician as an accomplice. Such physicians would do things such as train the lay abortionist, supply instruments and drugs, and provide aftercare if a woman suffered complications.

Source: Homicide in Chicago Interactive Database

September 14, 1992: A Lingering Death in Philadelphia

Rhonda Rollinson underwent a safe, legal abortion by Dr. Jay I. Levin at Malcom Polis's Philadelphia Women's Center September 3, 1992. The abortion attempt was unsuccessful. Rhonda was then sent home, with instructions to return on September 12 to try again.

Rhonda experienced such severe pain, dizziness, fever, and discharge that on September 10 she sought emergency care at a hospital. She was suffering "severe non-cardiogenic pulmonary edema consistent with adult respiratory distress syndrome."

Doctors did a laparoscopy, dilation and evacuation, abdominal hysterectomy, and splenectomy, to no avail. Rhonda died on September 14. The autopsy revealed a perforation from her vagina into the uterine cavity, sepsis, disseminated intravascular coagulopathy (a severe and often fatal clotting disorder), non-bacterial thrombotic endocarditis, pulmonary infarctions, and dysplastic kidney.

The suit filed by Rhonda's survivors also charged the facility and Polis with hiring Levin despite his lack of competence, failure to properly supervise his work, violation of applicable laws and regulations, lack of informed consent, failure to give proper post-operative instructions, and failure "to respond to the requests of [Rhonda] and her family for post-operative medical advice."

Source: Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas Case No. 291, 1994

September 14, 1742 and 1925

1925: More of Lucy Hagenow's handiwork

Elizabeth Welter moved from Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin to Chicago in the fall of 1924. On September 14, 1925, the 19-year-old clerk died at John B. Murphy Hospital from complications of an abortion perpetrated about a week earlier. 

Mrs. Alta Vail told the deputy coroner, "Elizabeth roomed at 658 Roscoe street. A week ago she came to me and said she was very sick. I told her to stay at my home until she was better. Little by little she told me her story. She had obtained a position as a clerk in a store. Some months ago she began going out with a man. This man, she said, was responsible for her condition. She did not even know his name, she told me."

Lawrence Vail -- who according to 1930 census records was Alta's husband --  was identified by the coroner as responsible for the pregnancy, and the coroner recommended his arrest, along with the arrest of known abortionist Dr. Lucy Hagenow.

Hagenow was held to the grand jury on $20,000 bond (nearly $150,000 in 2020 dollars). However, because Vail refused to give a statement, police were unable to gather enough evidence to prosecute. Elizabeth was the 17th of 18 abortion deaths that have been connected to Hagenow. (See newly-added sources below.)

A tragic case from Colonial America

The oldest case I have in the Cemetery of Choice is the 1742 death of 19-year-old Sarah Grosvenor. Her story is recounted extensively in public records, but begins, predictably, with a lover who didn't love her enough to marry her once she was pregnant with his child. Sarah's family rallied around her, trying to save both her life and her reputation, but by the time they realized that she was pregnant and in the middle of an herbal abortion, the die was cast. Though Dr. John Hallowell shut himself in the room with Sarah on several occasions to provide some sort of care, Sarah breathed her last on September 14.

Her death-dealing abortionist had always been a marginal practitioner who lived a lot of his life on the wrong side of the law. Her faithless lover had been a high-standing member of the community. Sarah was buried, and life in the little town went on.

Suddenly, about a year after Sarah's death, warrants were issued for the arrests of the culpable parties and a hearing was held, determining that Hallowell was guilty of murder, and that Sarah's lover, Amasa Sessions, was an accessory. This was a preliminary finding, and called for prosecution. At first the case -- against Hallowell, at least -- was pushed vigorously. Hallowell was found guilty and sentenced to be shamed, whipped, and imprisoned. He escaped before this sentence could be carried out, and vanished from public view. Nobody went to any trouble to find him.

As for Amassa Sessions, he regained his fine standing in the community, married, and fathered a house full of children before dying at a ripe old age. Reading the laudatory inscription on his headstone, one can almost hear the weeping of the mourners, the family and distinguished persons of the town, as they lay Amasa Sessions, pillar of the community, to rest. Less than 25 feet away lay Sarah Grosvenor, nearly 50 years dead -- evidently forgotten.

Watch A Colonial Era Death and Another Victim of Lucy Hagenow on YouTube.

NEWLY ADDED SOURCES

Elizabeth Welter:

• "Girl's Brief Fling With City Night Life," Mattoon (IL) Journal Gazette, September 14, 1925
• "Woman Surgeon Sought Following Girl's Death," Chicago Tribune, September 15, 1925
• "Lucy Hagenow, Midwife, Held in Death of Girl," Chicago Tribune, September 16, 1925

September 13, 2007: Out of the blue - Laura Hope Smith

 

• 
  It was 7pm, we had just finished dinner and settled down to watch the evening news. My husband's cell phone rang with Laura's name on the ID. We always loved hearing from her. Laura was so full of life, your spirits were lifted just by talking to her. Except this time it wasn't her voice. There was guttural screaming and sobbing on the other end by a voice I did not immediately recognize. I heard the words "Laura", "Hospital" and the worst one, "Not Breathing," and then "abortion". My brain tilted, my heart sank, and life as I knew it ceased. It was Laura's friend Karen on the phone. She told me what happened, that Laura was having an abortion and something went terribly wrong. Karen was at the ER and the Doctor needed to talk to me. What Karen didn't know was that Laura had arrived at the ER already deceased. The EMT's found her this way at the abortion mill. The hospital was looking for next of kin to give the news to first, and Karen wasn't kin. "Laura's gone" the doctor told me. I wanted to hear "50-50 chance"...I would even accept "90-10 chance." But the word "chance" was not in the doctor's statement. All hope was gone, along with my daughter.

That call came on September 13, 2007 to Eileen and Tom Smith. Laura had died on a Hyannis, Massachusetts abortion table. 

The bewildered couple hadn't even known that their daughter was pregnant. 

Karen and Laura had arrived at Women Health Center in the morning for preparatory steps to abort Laura's 13-week baby. The two young women were to return in the afternoon for the actual procedure. Laura wasn't supposed to drive, so Karen drove and the two ran errands. Because Laura wasn't supposed to eat, Karen fasted with her friend.

They returned to the facility at about 4 in the afternoon and waited. Laura was called in at about 5, back to where Dr. Rapin Osathanondh and his instruments waited for her. Karen stepped out briefly, expecting her friend to be out of surgery in about fifteen minutes. But Laura didn't emerge from the bowels of the clinic. A worried Karen grew increasingly distressed.

"And then all of a sudden [an assistant] comes out and says she's not breathing. And I was like, what do you mean she's not breathing," Karen told the Cape Cod Times.

Fire department rescuers were dispatched to the clinic at 5:49 p.m., and found an unresponsive patient. They initiated CPR and took her to the hospital. Karen followed, but was not permitted to see her friend. She asked about Laura's condition. "It doesn't look good," she was told. Because next of kin hadn't been notified yet, the doctor couldn't tell Karen the truth: Laura was already dead on arrival. It was 6:22 p.m.

• I met with the doctor who aborted my grandchild, and who saw my daughter take her last breath. He would only meet me in a public place, without my husband. We talked for an hour and a half. Based on that meeting I believe I know what happened to Laura. He denies doing anything that caused her death. When we were done talking about Laura, I prayed, and asked God if there was anything He would have me say to the doctor. This is what I said next.... "The blood of my daughter is on your hands; the blood of my grandchild is on your hands; the blood of every life you have ever taken is on your hands," and I went on from there. He was silent with his head hung low. When I was ready to leave, I asked him if he would think about my daughter, and consider not doing any more abortions”he said he would think about it. When I left there I was praying, and said to God, "Can You stop this man from doing abortions? Is this what You have in mind, that he might even stop doing them?" I was thinking too small. I thought if one girl changed her mind [about having an abortion], I could find some comfort. I then realized that the Lord had much bigger plans. I have never experienced in my life, such tragedy, nor such grace.

OR also reports that Eileen Smith said she was "appalled and sickened" by her daughter's death, but can not give more details due to a pending lawsuit against the abortionist. What has come out afterward is just what prolifers have come to expect from abortionists: an untrained "hand holder" was assisting with general anesthesia, nobody in the clinic knew CPR, and there was no emergency resuscitation equipment. Osathanondh had been playing Russian roulette with his patients' lives. Laura paid for his callous carelessness with her life.

"My daughter was 22, healthy, and alive when she walked into that clinic," OR quotes Eileen Smith. "She didn't even have a cold. There is no reason for her to be dead."

OR says, "Laura was born into abject poverty in Hondurus on May 25, 1985, and was abandoned at an orphanage. An American couple that adopted Laura abused her terribly and gave her up. Laura was then adopted by Tom and Eileen Smith, a Christian family that lovingly raised Laura in the Cape Cod community of Sandwich." She graduated from Upper Cape Tech in 2004, trained as a cosmetologist, but she left that field to work in retail management.

It's particularly sad to me that Laura resorted to abortion despite being a Christian active in her local church. Her mother also reported that Laura was strongly opposed to abortion. Which goes to show that anybody can panic, and our churches need to be teaching young women how to get past the panic that too often leads to the abortion table. Laura's mother has now devoted her life to that mission.

OR reports that over 600 people attended Laura's funeral, and at least one young woman decided to reject abortion after learning of Laura's needless death. National Catholic Register reports that the young woman was being pressured by her parents to abort, and was about to capitulate when she learned of Laura's fate.

• I know that God is going to bring good out of my daughter's death. What a horrible thing; for my daughter to be associated with abortion. But, if God's going to use it for good and for His glory, then so be it. We're going very public with a very shameful, private thing because I believe God wants to use it to save lives. I believe the truth will come out, and the light of God will shine on this. Laura's death has had tremendous impact around the country, and even into Canada, without the local news mentioning it. It just came out in the secular media this week, 5 weeks after Laura's death. I now believe it is my calling to keep telling Laura's story to the Church, and the world. I naively believed that abortion was not a choice for a Christian girl. A Pastor had even apologized to me and the Lord, for not speaking about this from his pulpit. We both had false assumptions. This is a problem in the Church, and one that needs to be spoken about from the pulpits. We have to take the "A" word out of the closet, put it out in the open, and discuss it. And maybe, possibly, hopefully, we'll even become active against it. Please keep our family in your prayers, and please tell someone Laura's story.

Watch Pro-Life Woman's Abortion Death on YouTube.

Sources:

• "Doctor indicted in Cape abortion death," Cape Cod Times, July 16, 2008
• "Doctor gets 6 months in abortion patient death," NBC News, September 14, 2010
• "Ten Years Later, the Abortion Death of Laura Hope Smith Still Hurts," Operation Rescue, September 14, 2017
• "Mother speaks for life after daughter’s death during abortion," Baptist Press, February 26, 2008
• Blog: The Laura Hope Smith Story

California Post-Birth Abortions

The "moderators" in the Trump/Harris debate claimed that it's not legal in California to kill abortion survivors. The text of the law begs to differ:

"Assembly Bill No. 2223 CHAPTER 629 SEC. 7. (a) Notwithstanding any other law, a person shall not be subject to civil or criminal liability or penalty, or otherwise deprived of their rights under this article, based on their actions or omissions with respect to their pregnancy or actual, potential, or alleged pregnancy outcome, including miscarriage, stillbirth, or abortion, or perinatal death due to causes that occurred in utero."

This makes it legal to do anything you want to a baby that survives an abortion attempt. So as long as you START the abortion before the baby comes out, you're allowed to finish it afterwards.

September 11, 1962: The Death of a Socialite

Barbara Covington

Gynecologist Mandel M. Friedman, age 53, was out on bail for the January 21, 1961 abortion death of Vivian Greczka aka Vivian Grant when he was charged with homicide in the September 11, 1962 death of Barbara Clarke Covington.

Barbara, age 35, was a Florida socialite and Chi Omega Sorority sister. 

A 31-year-old Madison Avenue advertising executive, Franklin Charles Beck, was offered immunity. He gave a 10-page statement in which he admitted to securing the $1,000 abortion fee (over $8,500 in 2020 dollars) and driving Barbara to Friedman's office at 3:00 pm. on September 10 for a consultation. They returned the next day for the abortion. He told police, "I loved her. I wanted to marry her. I did not want her to go through with this thing." He waited for about an hour while Friedman operated, only to have the doctor come out and announce, "She's gone."

Beck said that he told Friedman that he was going to call the police, but Friedman said, "Don't. You'll get us both in trouble. You'll ruin us. Think it over." He told Beck to say that Barbara had gone into convulsions and died of a heart attack.  

Friedman contacted Abbey Funeral Home to arrange for the removal of Barbara's body. The undertaker requested the necessary permission from the Board of Health and was told to contact the medical examiner's office. The medical examiner reported the case to authorities, who immediately recognized Friedman's name due to Vivian Grant's death. Their suspicions aroused, they had Barbara's body taken to the morgue at Queens General Hospital for autopsy. She had suffocated when her larynx had swollen shut during anesthesia. Her brother, State Senator D. D. Covington Jr., claimed her body and took it home to Dade City, Florida, for burial.

Friedman was questioned by authorities and released on $10,000 bail shortly after midnight, pending completion of the autopsy. He was scheduled to surrender to the Queens District Attorney's Office. Instead he fled, leading to a 13-state manhunt that ended quickly. Friedman surrendered, accompanied by his attorney and refusing to give any statement other than his name, age, address, and occupation. His original bail bondsman dropped him as a client, leaving Friedman behind bars.

After legal wrangling, Friedman entered a plea bargain, getting a manslaughter charge dropped and being sentenced to only two to four years at Sing-Sing on abortion charges.

As an aside, Friedman had two charges on his record for indecent exposure in 1939 and 1940.

Sources: 

• "13-State Alarm Is Out For MD in Abort Death," New York Daily News, September 13, 1962
• "Frazzled Doc Surrenders In Divorcee Abort Death," New York Daily News, September 14, 1962
• "Term in Abortions," Kansas City Times, December 12, 1963

September 11, 1976: Death Uncovered by Journalists

 Diane Smith, age 23, was one of the women mentioned in the Chicago Sun-Times expose, "The Abortion Profiteers." 

According to the report and her death certificate, Diane was admitted to Englewood Hospital in Chicago due to hemorrhaging. She told staff that she'd had a legal abortion in a Chicago-area clinic. 

Diane was treated for a perforated uterus and sepsis, to no avail. She died on September 11, 1976.

Watch Investigation Uncovers Abortion Death on YouTube.

September 11, 1970: Choosing The Riskier Alternative

William Day, a 21-year-old microbiology student at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, was given a five-year suspended sentence at Walpole State Prison after pleading guilty to charges relating to the death of his girlfriend, 21-year-old community college student Nancy Kierzek. 

Day, who intended to become a doctor, had studied the information he could find about abortion methods, then perpetrated the abortion in his apartment using a catheter on September 10, 1970. 

Nancy bled heavily so Day rushed her in his car to Holyoke Hospital. The young woman was unconscious on arrival. Hospital staff notified the police, who arrested Day at around 7:30 that evening at the hospital. 

Nancy, who had been about four months into her pregnancy, died of blood poisoning just after midnight on September 11, 1970, a few hours after her admission. 

Abortion-rights advocates such as D. P. Kline made the claim that "pregnant women in Western Massachusetts faced two choices: to continue the pregnancy to term (and either keep the child or put it up for adoption) or to seek an illegal abortion. However, abortion had been legalized in New York, and hospitals in Boston were loosening their guidelines for "therapeutic" abortions. Why Nancy would submit to an illegal abortion when she was within less than 2 hours driving distance of a legal abortion remains a mystery.

Sources: 

• "UMass Student Charged With Abortion," (Pittsfield MA) Berkshire Eagle, September 11, 1970
• "UM Student's Abortion Case Delayed," Greenfield (MA) Recorder, October 27, 1970
• "Bound Over In Abortion Death Case," Holyoke (MA) Daily Transcript, November 19, 1970
• "Do-It-Yourself Abortionist Sentenced," (Pittsfield MA) Berkshire Eagle, February 2, 1971
• D. P. Kline, Creating Choice, Palgrave Macmillan, New York, 2006

September 11, 1918: Obstetrician Arrested After Chicago Death

On the evening of September 11, 1918, 35-year-old homemaker Gertrude Mathieson Harrington died in Chicago's Wesley Hospital. She had been admitted by Dr. John J. Gill, who noted evidence of an abortion when treating her. 

Dr. Helen Dugdale, an obstetrician, was arrested. She went on trial in June of 1920 but I haven't been able to determine if this was for Gertrude's death or for the death of another woman.  Dugdale had been implicated the previous year in the abortion death of Marie Benzing.

Sources:

• "Suspect Illegal Operation Caused Death of Woman," Chicago Tribune, September 12, 1918
• "Sixteen More Face Trial as Slayers Today," Chicago Tribune, June 1, 1920

September 10, 1915: Fatal Abortion on Non-Pregnant Teen

Emma Alby, age 15, was an immigrant from Hungary who lived in Chicago with her mother, who was also named Emma, and her father, Frank.

According to Mrs. Alby, Emma "complained of nervousness on July 7," 1915. Her parents suspected that "the child had been misbehaving" and took her to see Dr. Charles R. W. Windmueller on Belmont Avenue. 

Windmueller told Mr. and Mrs. Alby that Emma was pregnant over Emma's protests that she was "innocent." He recommended an abortion. In When Abortion Was a Crime, Leslie Reagan cites documentation of the inquest into Emma's death and says that Emma's father expressed reservations after having read many accounts in newspapers of midwives perpetrating abortions that proved fatal to the patients. Windmueller reported assured Mr. Alby, "Don't you be afraid. It is no danger at all."

The parents' fears were assuaged, and Windmueller attempted an abortion. According to Reagan's book, Windmueller perforated Emma's uterus and pulled out some of her intestines -- an injury that continues to end women's lives in safe and legal abortions. 

Emma's family evidently sought care from a different doctor, because Emma was admitted to Norwegian Lutheran Deaconess Hospital the following day by Dr. J. V. Fowler rather than by Windmueller. 

Emma died on September 10. An autopsy found that Emma had been telling the truth: She had not been pregnant.

According to census records, Windmueller was about 35 years old, a naturalized citizen from Germany. According to Regan, he was also a graduate of the University of Illinois College of Medicine in Chicago and a member of the American Medical Association.

Windmueller was indicted for felony murder in Emma's death. However, I can find no evidence that the case was actually prosecuted, and the fact that he was still living and practicing in Chicago at the time of the 1920 census would indicate that he suffered no long-term repercussions from Emma's death. Reagan merely notes that the response to the botched abortion failed to include a public crusade against physician-abortionists on a par with the contemporary crusade against midwife-abortionists.

Watch She Wasn't Pregnant After All on YouTube.

Sources:

• "Investigate Girl's Death," Chicago Sunday Tribune, September 12, 1915
• "Coroner's Jury Holds Doctor in Girl's Death," Chicago Daily Tribune, October 14, 1915
• Cook County Death Index
• Census records
• Reagan, Leslie J. When Abortion Was a Crime: Women, Medicine, and Law in the United States, 1867-1973. Berkeley:  University of California Press,  c1997 1997
• Homicide in Chicago Interactive Database