February 12, 1974: Was Bonnie's Death Actually Due to an Abortion?

Bonnie Fix, a 38-year-old mother of four, was admitted to Fresno Community Hospital on February 7, 1974. Doctors there performed an abortion via abdominal hysterectomy on Bonnie. Codes used at the state registrar's office indicate that an abortion had been induced on Bonnie for medical reasons. 

Several days after her hysterectomy, Bonnie began to suffer bowel and lung problems. She suffered cardiac arrest and was pronounced dead on February 12.

In the post-Dobbs era, it's important to look at the surgery that resulted in Bonnie's death to determine if it actually was an abortion. The answer to this goes to the intent of the surgery.

If the intent was to end the life of Bonnie's unborn baby, and they chose a hysterectomy because it would also benefit her in other ways, then surgery was an abortion. This would not have been a legal option in states with abortion restrictions because the death of the baby was the goal of the surgery.

If the intent was to save Bonnie's life, perhaps because of uterine cancer that would have been treated with a hysterectomy even if Bonnie had not been pregnant, then this was not an abortion but was obstetric care that, sadly, also resulted in the death of the baby.

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Sources: California Certificate of Death, 74-016613; Fresno County (CA) Superior Court, Case 168185