September 27, 1975: One of 6 Deaths at Inglewood Women's Hospital

Inglewood Women's Hospital reopens as a clinic

On September 13, 1975, 22-year-old Lynette Wallace underwent a safe and legal abortion at Inglewood Women's Hospital in Los Angeles County. According to death and Social Security records, Lynette was a black woman born in Maryland.

Early on the morning of September 27, Lynette went to the emergency room reporting abdominal pain. Staff reported that she became agitated and "difficult to handle." They put her in restraints, and she was pronounced dead of cardiopulmonary arrest at 10:53 AM.

The autopsy revealed what the abortionist should have detected -- the pregnancy had not been in Lynette's uterus but in her fallopian tube. The tube had ruptured, spilling blood and a 10-week fetus into Lynette's abdomen.

Women who seek abortion should be less likely to die of ruptured ectopic pregnancies than women who do not seek abortion. After all, the abortionist is supposed to perform an examination verifying the size of the uterus, and is supposed to visually examine the abortion tissue to be sure that the entire fetus and placenta are present. Also, a pathology examination is supposed to be done on the uterine contents to verify the presence of the entire fetal/placental unit. However, women who seek abortion are actually more likely to die of ruptured ectopic pregnancies than women who do not seek abortion. The pain and nausea associated with an ectopic pregnancy are often mistaken for ordinary post-abortion symptoms, and are ignored until the tube ruptures and the woman's life is in danger.

Lynette is one of many deaths currently attributed to Inglewood Women's Hospital (aka Inglewood Women's Clinic) in Los Angeles County:

• Kathy Murphy, age 17, had died in 1973.
• Elizabeth Tsuji died from a saline abortion in 1978.
• Cora Mae Lewis, age 23, died following abortion under general anesthesia  in 1983.
• Yvonne Tanner, a 22-year-old mother of one, died in 1984.
• Belinda Ann Byrd, a 37-year-old mother of three, died a lingering death in 1987.

Watch One of Six at California Abortion Business on YouTube.

Source: LA County Coroner Report 75-11665