December 5, 1975: Black Teen Newlywed Dies During Hospital Abortion

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"Lottie Prince," an 18-year-old sewing factory worker, was a newlywed with a child at home when she checked into a small-town North Carolina hospital for a legal abortion in December of 1975.

Lottie suddenly went into cardiac arrest and died while her abortion was in progress. As a Black teen, she had a drastically higher risk of death from legal abortion than a white patient.

The medical examiner stated that she had a vasovagal attack and had gone into cardiac arrest during the abortion.

This condition (also known as vasovagal syncope) happens when the vagus nerve is very overstimulated, leading to loss of consciousness, temporary drop in heart rate and a temporary drop in blood pressure. However, a single occurrence of vasovagal syncope alone has not been known to directly cause death, and typically patients recover from it with no lingering effects. It is possible that Lottie had been given some form of anesthetic that made a usually temporary drop in blood pressure or heart rate a fatal event.

There are also cardiac conditions that predispose patients to vasovagal syncope events, which might have been what the coroner meant by “vasovagal attack” and might have explained why the abortion was listed as “therapeutic” (although that term is commonly used as a euphemism for any legal abortion). The medical examiner may have considered the condition too directly related to her death to be “contributing to death but unrelated to the main cause of death” and may have filled out the certificate this way for that reason.

The possible triggers of an vasovagal attack in a healthy person or in someone who had a chronic history like this include excruciating pain, blood loss and extreme trauma at the time of the event. 

Sources: Death Certificate, public records