Thursday, February 06, 2025

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sources:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

February 6, 1952: An Airman's Grief

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Watch The Atypical Abortionist on YouTube.

Sources:

Wednesday, February 05, 2025

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Dade County Right to Life raised the money to cover funeral expenses and to help Jose to care for the children. 

By May of 1996, Maber Medical Center applied to re-open. Since it passed the abortion-lobby approved six-question "inspection," it was allowed to resume business.

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

Watch Access to Horror on YouTube.

Sources: 

Tuesday, February 04, 2025

February 4, 1939: Was Hattie's Abortion Really Self-Induced?

 All the information I have about Hattie Scott Johnson comes from New York death records.

Hattie was a 26-year-old Black homemaker who died on February 4, 1939 in Harlem Hospital. Her cause of death was sepsis from an abortion "said to have been self induced." 

I can't rule out the possibility that Hattie's abortion was written off as self-induced because, since she was Black, nobody thought it was worth the bother to investigate any further. 

Watch Was Hattie's Abortion Really Self-Induced? on YouTube.

Monday, February 03, 2025

February 3, 1929: Teen Spirited Away for Abortion Dies in Chicago Hospital

George Strugnall, a roofer and father of eight, told police the story of how his 16-year-old daughter Mary Strugnall lost her life:

[Twenty-two-year-old Vernon] Keyser met my daughter a year ago. She was only 15 then and just out of grammar school, so my wife and I did all we could to discourage his attentions. He worked in his father's machine shop a few doors from our house and used to stop and see Mary every night. Sometimes he took her out.
A week ago my youngest boy, Raymond, 9 years old, was run over by a truck and his leg broken. Last Tuesday [January 29] my wife and I went to the People's hospital to see him, leaving Mary alone. When we returned, Mary was gone.

Unbeknownst to her parents, Keyser had taken advantage of the situation to resolve his own problem. He told police:

About three months ago Mary said she was in trouble and asked me to help her. I didn't know what to do until a few weeks ago. I met Dr. [J. A.] Harter, who said he would take care of the case for $150 if I brought Mary to his office.
On Tuesday, when her parents were away, I took Mary to Dr. Harter's home. She was frightened and began to struggle, but the doctor's brother [Irving Harter] and I held her on a table while the operation was performed. Five hours later I took her to the home of a Mrs. Irma McMullen, 7037 Clarmont avenue.

Mary's condition deteriorated, so to avert any suspicion Keyser continued to stop at the Strugnell home daily asking after Mary.

On Friday, February 1, Harter told Keyser that he couldn't do anything more for Mary and suggested that he consult with Dr. J. A. Goodhart. Goodhart immediately ordered that Mary be admitted to the county hospital.

Per Harter's instructions as to "the simplest way out of it," Keyser persuaded Mary to lie and say that she had done the abortion herself. She died on February 3.

As Mary lay dying, her brother-in-law George Gherke, went to the hospital. Whatever she said to him was evidently profound. "She just lay there trying to tell me something. I knew what it was. When she died in a few minutes I was a new man."

George, who had been a troublesome drunk for ten years, stopped drinking and started taking care of his wife and their six children. The story of George's newfound sobriety actually got more press than Mary's death and the prosecution of the abortionist.

Dr. Harter was arrested after going on the run for three weeks. Vernon Keyser, age 22, and Dr. Harter's brother Irving, a medical student, were held as accessories. 

The only outcome of the case I can find is that the Homicide in Chicago Interactive Database says that Dr. Harter was acquitted.

Watch Teen's Abortion Death Sobers Up Brother-in-Law on YouTube.
Watch Teen's Abortion Death Sobers Up Brother-in-Law on Rumble.

Sources:

February 3, 2006: Death at the Good Kind of Fake Clinic

Like many abortion "clinics", Dr. Romeo Ferrer's private practice, Gynecare Center, would look to the untrained eye like an outpatient clinic. A patient making an appointment there would likely believe she was in a licensed clinic, not a doctor's office. (Their website, in fact, described the facility as "a modern, clean clinic designed to provide quality healthcare for women and girls of all ages in the Maryland area," even though, as the medical board noted, the facility was only a private doctor's office and not licensed as a clinic.)

Denise Crowe, 21 years old, dropped her 3-year-old son off with a babysitter and drove to Ferrer's clinic-looking office for an abortion on February 3, 2006. She had $800 to pay for the procedure. She was 16 weeks pregnant.

"She thought she'd just have it done and nobody would know," her mother, Stephanie White, later told the Baltimore Sun.

Ferrer started the abortion, a D&E abortion, at about 1:00 p.m., using ultrasound to help him visualize the baby as he dismembered it. Twenty-five minutes later, Ferrer was still pulling fetal parts out of his patient, and administered 20 units of pitocin via an IV solution. Five minutes later, he added 125 mg of Demerol and 5 mg of midazolam (Versed, a short-acting sedative and amnesia-producing medication). Because "pt. was still reacting to pain", Ferrer administered additional doses of Demerol and midazolam. It wasn't until 1:45 that Ferrer completed the abortion.

Denise was moved to the recovery room, where at 1:47 a "surgical assistant" noticed signs of cyanosis (blue coloring) in Denise's fingernails. A nurse assistant was unable to get a blood pressure or pulse reading on Denise, and told Ferrer. He gave a verbal order for 0.4 mg Narcan, which was administered by the nurse assistant. Narcan is a drug to counteract narcotics.

Romeo Ferrer
At 1:50, Ferrer began efforts to resuscitate Denise, including performing CPR, and having an assistant perform CPR while he administered intracardiac epinephrine. Staff called 911 while Ferrer continued resuscitation efforts, maintaining an open airway with the non-professional method of head tilt and chin lift. Ferrer did not use an airway or endotracheal tube, as is customary with professionally-administered CPR.

The medics arrived to find Denise still unresponsive and without a pulse. The medics used an oxygen mask and additional drugs as they transported Denise to Anne Arundel Medical Center. There, emergency room staff continued the attempts to resuscitate her, to no avail. She was pronounced dead at 2:57 p.m.

The autopsy found no underlying physical reason for Denise's heart to have stopped. The cause of death was given as "Meperidine intoxication" (an overdose of Demerol).


The National Abortion Federation defended Ferrer, with spokeswoman Melissa Fowler telling the Annapolis Capital that abortion is safe due to "specialized quality care provided by clinics like Gynecare Center." This indicates that Gynecare was a National Abortion Federation member.


Watch Ferrer's Fake Clinic on YouTube.

February 3, 1924: Abortion Victim's Body Dumped in River

On February 3, 1924, the nearly-nude body of a young woman was found in the Ohio River near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She was identified as Adeline Podvansik, age 24.

An autopsy found that Adeline, a sales clerk, had died from acute endocarditis and puerperal (related to pregnancy) sepsis.

Two brothers, Maurice and David Rapport, were freed on $5,000 bail each in connection with the death. Maurice had been Adeline's employer. Dr. S. M. Black of Carnegie, PA, described by the Lancaster (PA) Intelligencer Journal as "a prominent surgeon," was at large. 

His attorney offered to have Black turn himself in if Black could be released on $10,000 bond. Mrs. C. B. Morgan, alleged custodian of the "hospital" where the abortion was perpetrated, was arrested.

Watch Woman's Body Found in River on YouTube.


Sources:

Sunday, February 02, 2025

February 2, 1978: A Fatal Referral by Planned Parenthood

Elizabeth Tsuji, a 21-year-old Cal State student, underwent a safe and legal 8-week abortion at a local Planned Parenthood on November 11, 1977. She called the clinic in December to report that she was still not menstruating, but staff assured her that the abortion had been successful.

Inglewood Women's Hospital reopens as a clinic

On February 1, 1978, Elizabeth confirmed that she was indeed still pregnant, five months along. The Planned Parenthood clinic referred her to Inglewood General Hospital for a saline abortion.

In spite of its name and licensing status, Inglewood was actually an abortion hospital. And it already had problems. A young woman named Kathy Murphy had died in 1973 of sepsis from an abortion at Inglewood. Lynette Wallace died in 1975 after her doctor at Inglewood failed to diagnose her ectopic pregnancy and simply performed an abortion and discharged her. Still, this was only two dead women -- hardly enough to alarm anybody about a high-volume abortion facility. I don't know if the Planned Parenthood staff even knew about these deaths before they referred Elizabeth.

Trusting the referral, Elizabeth packed a nightgown and told her family she was going to spend the night at a friend's house. That was the last time they saw her alive.

Elizabeth underwent the abortion on February 2, and died that day. Two autopsies were performed, neither of which could find a definitive cause of the young woman's death.

Abortionist Morton Barke was somehow involved, although documents aren't clear what his role was in her death. Barke also worked at the unsavory San Vicente Hospital. He is known to have been a partner at Inglewood and to have been connected with the deaths of Yvonne Tanner and Lynette Wallace. His involvement might have been that he served in a supervisory role.

Elizabeth was the third woman to die after an abortion at Inglewood. It took two more deaths -- Cora Mae Lewis and Belinda Byrd -- for the state to finally take action and close the hospital down.

Watch Third of Five at Abortion Hospital on YouTube.
Watch Third of Five at Abortion Hospital on Rumble.

Sources: California Death Certificate 78-063811; Los Angeles County Autopsy Report No. 78-1763

February 2, 1916: Denver Doc's First Known Death

On February 2, 1916, Ruth Camp died in Mercy Hospital in Denver from complications of an illegal abortion that had been perpetrated in the Panama Hotel on January 27. 

It's a mystery as to why Ruth was in Denver. She and her husband, Louis, lived in Medicine Bow, Wyoming, where Louis worked as a stockman.

Dr. Bennett Graff was arrested and charged with murder.

While out on bail awaiting trial in Ruth's death, another woman, Beulah Hatch, also died at Mercy Hospital, and blame was placed on Graff for that death as well. 

Graff was found guilty of murder in Ruth's death on June 16. It took the jury little time to deliberate. They were sent off to deliberate at 6 pm, when to supper, returned to deliberate, and returned the verdict in less than an hour. He was sentenced to 11 - 13 years in prison. At his sentencing he indicated that "other physicians caused the death and ... he was paying the penalty of their bunglesome work." 

Graff won a new trial when a witness came forward and placed the responsibility for the abortion on a lay practitioner, rather than another doctor, and asserted that Graff was merely attempting life-saving aftercare for Ruth.

I haven't been able to find out if he was prosecuted for Beulah's death, but he did lose his license. It was reinstated in February of 1919 due to the shortage of physicians during the Spanish flu outbreak. While practicing in De Beque, Colorado, that year he sued a woman named Lucile Myers and accused Judge Black of the district court of accepting a bribe for assessing a fine against him. Mrs. Myers had made statements that Graff was an abortionist, would willingly perpetrate abortions on unmarried women, and had "killed" her father. 

Sources:

Saturday, February 01, 2025

February 1, 1995: Eleventh of Seventeen?

When 24-year-old Ta Tanisha Wesson went to Family Planning Associates Medical Group on January 26, 1995 for a safe, legal abortion, she brought a friend with her, Ms. Mickey Gaton.

Mickey had been sitting in the waiting room for several hours when she saw an ambulance approach. Though staff knew that Mickey had come with Ta Tanisha, she said, they didn't tell her anything about complications.

Somehow Mickey found out that it was her friend being loaded into the ambulance. She called Ta Tanisha's parents, Lin and Nicole Wesson, who rushed to the facility. There, Ta Tanisha's father said, they were unable to get any information about their daughter from the staff. "Everything was done in secrecy," he said.

Ta Tanisha was taken to the hospital, never regaining consciousness. She died on February 1, leaving behind a five-year-old son, David, motherless.

Her parents sued, saying that Ta Tanisha was given too much anesthetic. Their attorney said, "This death definitely could have been avoided. ... Ta Tanisha Wesson was given too much anesthesia, which caused her to vomit and choke. We are claiming negligence by the clinic staff who were not present when she began vomiting and ultimately delayed 20-25 minutes before calling for emergency help."

At a rally outside the clinic, a family spokesperson gestured to little David and said, "All my words could never speak as eloquently as the expression on this little boy's face who will never see his mother again."

I know of 16 other women who died from abortions perpetrated at Family Planning Associates:

Edward Allred
I believe that there are even more because I will sometimes stumble across a case years after the woman's death.

FPA founder Edward Campbell "Fast Eddie" Allred held that processing many abortion patients through as quickly as possible was his duty. "When a sullen black woman of 17 or 18 can decide to have a baby and get welfare and food stamps and become a burden to all of us, it's time to stop. In parts of South Los Angeles having babies for welfare is the only industry the people have." The supporters gathered for Ta Tanisha's family speculated that racism might have played a role in the substandard care the young woman received.

Family Planning Associates is a member of the National Abortion Federation.


Source:

February 1, 1936: The Last of FIVE Deaths of Dr. Justin Mitchell

Dr. Justin L. Mitchell, age 57, of Palos Park, Illinois, had been identified as the abortionist responsible for the 1935 abortion death of 32-year-old Mary Nowalowski. For some reason, though, he was free in January of 1936. On a date I've yet to be able to determine, he performed the abortion that resulted in the February 1, 1936 abortion death of 20-year-old homemaker and mother-of-two Alice Haggin.

On February 12, just 11 days after Alice's death, Mitchell was convicted of manslaughter in Mary's death. 

It took until March 10 for the Grand Jury to indict him for Alice's death. 

Mary hadn't been the first abortion death attributed to Mitchell, either. As I was looking for more information about Alice's death I learned that Harold Vaughan signed a complaint against Mitchell in December of 1931 stating that Mitchell had perpetrated a fatal abortion on Harold's wife, Ethel.

I also learned Mitchell had also been arrested in 1933 after the abortion death of Florence Jordan. Mitchell was then implicated in the 1934 abortion death of Mary Schwartz. 

Thus we have Ethel, Florence, Mary Schwartz, and Mary Nowalowski all dead at his hands before the unfortunate Alice entrusted her life to Mitchell.

And stay tuned: I found other dirt on the illustrious Dr. Mitchell, including allegations that he killed live-born infants, groped a student nurse, and ran a slipshod facility. I'll write it all up for you when I get the chance.

Watch Abortion Doctor's Fifth Dead Patient on YouTube.

February 1, 1977: Happy Birthday, Cecelia's Baby!

Dr. Joseph Rucker launched straight into abortion practice after Roe vs. Wade was handed down in 1973. He set up an abortion clinic, Snowden Medical Associates, on W. McNichols Street in Detroit. His staff included an ex-convict, Eugene Ralph Marra, who has no medical training but called himself "Dr. Mike Morrison" and allegedly perpetrated abortions at the clinic. 

A Busy Year

The malpractice cases started rolling in. In 1974, Rucker performed an abortion on 21-year-old Corrine. He managed to shove the head of her five or six month fetus through a 4-inch hole in her uterus then sent his hemorrhaging patient to Garden City Osteopathic Hospital, 23 miles away, in spite of the presence of properly equipped hospitals less than a mile from the clinic. Corrine required an emergency hysterectomy.

The Detroit Free Press investigated Rucker. He examined a female reporter who had never been pregnant, diagnosed her as 12 weeks pregnant, and tried to sell her an abortion. When asked how he could be so sure about his diagnosis, Rucker told the reporter, "If I said you were 12 weeks pregnant, you were 12 weeks pregnant. My fingers never make a mistake."

Detroit Free Press reporters spoke to some of Rucker's patients. One had paid a referral agency $75 to provide Rucker's name and address. She paid $425 for a saline abortion performed by "Dr. Mike Morrison," actually Ralph Marra, the ex-con who had served prison time for breaking and entering, abortion, and conspiracy to commit abortion. A second woman told reporters that Marra had performed a D&C abortion on her. Rucker insisted that "Dr. Mike" only performed pelvic exams but never abortions, and that the women were too doped up on Valium and Demerol to know who was working on them. The Detroit Free Press also noted that Marra had an outstanding warrant in Texas for practicing medicine without a license by doing abortions at a Dallas clinic in September in 1973.

The Department of Health ordered Rucker to clean up his act. They noted that women undergoing saline abortions performed by "Dr. Mike" stayed overnight at the unlicensed clinic, in violation of state law prohibiting overnight medical stays outside of hospitals. The clinic was also cited for "minor plumbing and linen storage problems, overcrowding, and the absence of written medical policies." 

In October, 21-year-old Nancy went to Rucker's clinic after two other Chicago doctors said they could not perform an abortion outside a hospital because she was nearly six months pregnant. Rucker performed the abortion and left the fetal head lodged in a tear in Nancy's uterus. Rucker sent her to Garden City Osteopathic Hospital, 23 miles away, even though there was two large, fully-equipped hospital within a mile of his clinic. Surgeons removed the fetal head and repaired the tear.

The Authorities Take Notice

Marra was charged with practicing medicine without a license on February 5, 1975.  

In June of 1976, the medical board charged Rucker with having performed substandard medicine on Nancy, Corrinne, and three other women who were hospitalized after he had performed abortions on them. Later that month Marra was acquitted of practicing medicine without a license because all the prosecution had was the statements of the women; Rucker and his staff insisted that the women were too doped up to realize who had treated them and clinic documentation did not show Marra as the "doctor."

Into This Mess Steps Cecelia

14 vs 28 week fetus size comparison:
14.7 cm vs. 37.6 cm
Rucker reportedly examined 14-year-old Cecelia G., estimated her pregnancy as 14 weeks, and tried to perform a suction abortion on her on January 26, 1977 at Women's Counseling Center in Detroit. 

Cecelia began to hemorrhage. Rather than call an ambulance, Rucker, age 54, had her transported to Sinai Hospital by car. There, a doctor examined her, and discovered she was actually 7 months pregnant. 

After getting the bleeding under control, the doctor sent Cecelia home, but she returned days later in early labor. On February 1, Cecelia gave birth to a 2 pound, 11 ounce baby girl with a 2-inch piece of her scalp missing.

A spokesperson from the Women's Counseling Center told the Detroit Free Press that Rucker was immediately fired after the incident. Rucker was charged with performing an illegal abortion under a pre-Roe law forbidding elective abortions after three months. Rucker waived his right to a jury trial and had the case held before a judge. Rucker asserted that the law was unconstitutional, since Roe determined that abortion was an unfettered right and could only be regulated after 24 weeks. Rucker's defense also asserted that since he quit the procedure after determining that Cecelia was further advanced in her pregnancy than he'd originally thought, he did not actually perpetrate an abortion. This is an interesting assertion after Rucker had told a reporter that "my fingers never lie" and therefore he can never be wrong in diagnosing a pregnancy or determining gestational age.

The court agreed that the law had been struck down under Roe, and thus there was no need to determine whether or not Rucker had attempted an abortion since it would have been legal for him to have done so as long as he didn't think Cecelia's baby had passed the point of viability. She had certainly been very close, if not past, since she was born alive less than a week later.

 Cecelia attended the trial with her baby and told the Detroit Free Press that her little girl, then 9 months old, was still suffering ill effects from the attempted abortion. "She's going blind in one eye," Cecelia said, "and I have to take her for therapy once a week on her leg."

As for Rucker, he was disciplined by the medical board, ordered to take 50 hours of instruction in obstetrics and gynecology. The action related not just to Cecelia's abortion but to substandard care Rucker had provided to five other women in 1973 and 1974, causing infections and injuries. Rucker's attorney challenged the action, but in the mean time Rucker had continued to commit malpractice, leading the board to revoke his license. Rucker and the board went back and forth for years. He filed for bankruptcy in 1984 and vanished from the news.

As for Cecilia's baby, she vanished from the news in 1977. Today is her 48th birthday.

Watch His Fingers That Never Make a Mistake on YouTube.
Watch His Fingers That Never Make a Mistake on Rumble.

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Wednesday, January 29, 2025

January 29, 1936: Citizens' Calls Lead to Exhumation and Discovery

Rose Lipner, age 32, a homemaker and mother of 2, died at Riverdale Hospital on January 29, 1936. Rose was buried the next day at Mount Judah Cemetery in Cypress Hills, New York. Dr. Maxwell C. Katz, who owned and lived at Riverdale (maternity) Hospital, which he operated, signed a death certificate indicating that Rose had been operated on there for a tumor

After the funeral, several people, including an anonymous caller, notified police and the District Attorney's office that the death was suspicious, and Rose was exhumed for an autopsy. The medical examiner determined that Rose had died from caused by an abortion. 

Katz was arraigned for second-degree manslaughter. 

During his trial, his defense brought forth a large number of character witnesses testifying to his 25 years as a physician and his good reputation. There are many articles in local newspapers about Katz's work and travels, including taking his wife and daughters with him to Europe to study with various surgeons there.

Katz did admit to performing an abortion on Rose, but said that it was in an attempt to save her life. This is a dubious claim, since he could have checked Rose into a hospital and done the abortion openly if he had considered it essential to save her life. He insisted that he had only lied on the death certificate to protect Rose's reputation -- again, a step that would not have been necessary if she had died from surgery intended to save her life.

Dr. Maxwell C. Katz

In spite of his dubious claims, the defense was successful, and he was acquitted. 

Watch Dr. Katz's Dilemma on YouTube.

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