March 21, 2008: Malpractice Kills Georgia Woman

SUMARY: Sherika Mayo, age 23, died March 21, 2008 after an abortion by Tyrone Malloy at Summit Medical Associates in Atlanta, GA.

On March 21, 2008, 23 year old Sherika Mayo went to Summit Medical Associates in Atlanta, Georgia for the elective abortion of her 25 week unborn child.

Sherika had sickle cell trait along with low levels of hemoglobin in her blood -- only 7.3 gms when a normal range for an adult woman is between 12 and 16. Abortionist Tyrone Malloy proceeded with the abortion anyway.

While in the recovery room, Sherika went into cardiac arrest and was transferred to Atlanta Medical Center while EMS workers continued CPR. Upon arrival, Sherika had a distended abdomen and vaginal bleeding, so ER workers called for a gynecology consult.

Emergency surgery was performed to remove Sherika's damaged uterus and repair an injured bowel. Malloy holds that her bowel was injured during this surgery, not during the abortion.

After surgery, Sherika showed symptoms of DIC (disseminated intravascular coagulopathy, a life-threatening clotting disorder sometimes caused by trauma or infection). She was treated with blood products but died in the I.C.U.

Dr. Tyrone Malloy

The Georgia State Medical Board reviewed the case and determined that abortionist, Tyrone Malloy, “failed to conform to minimal standards of acceptable and prevailing medical practice.” He failed to follow proper standards of care in the following ways:

1. Sherika's blood count was low; since this was an elective procedure, she should have been provided with a transfusion to bring her blood hemoglobin level up to at least 9 gm.

2. Blood clotting tests should have been performed prior to the abortion.

3. Malloy should have more accurately determined the gestational age of Sherika's pregnancy because the risk of amniotic fluid embolism (which can cause the clotting disorder that ultimately killed Sherika) increases with increased gestational age and additional "intrauterine manipulation."

Malloy was reprimanded. He was ordered to pay a $10,000.00 fine and to take continuing education classes. He was allowed to continue to practice medicine in general and abortions in particular. However, he was eventually sent to prison for Medicaid fraud. 

Watch Fatal Elective Abortion at 25 Weeks on YouTube.
Watch Fatal Elective Abortion at 25 Weeks on YouTube.

State of Georgia Docket No. 20090033

March 21, 1916: Midwife Implicated in Chicago

On March 21, 1916, 30-year-old Mrs. Anna Krauz died at her home on Union Avenue in Chicago from infection caused by a perforated uterus. An abortion had been perpetrated by midwife Anna Vidicas, who was held by the Coroner but acquitted on trial.

Anna, a native of Russia, worked in a rag shop.

Note, please, that with overall public health issues such as doctors not using proper aseptic techniques, lack of access to blood transfusions and antibiotics, and overall poor health to begin with, there was likely little difference between the performance of a legal abortion and illegal practice, and the aftercare for either type of abortion was probably equally unlikely to do the woman much, if any, good. 

Sources:

• Homicide in Chicago Interactive Database
• death certificate
• Chicago Day Book, Mar. 23, 1916

March 21, 1911: Another Lethal Chicago Midwife

On March 21, 1911, 33-year-old homemaker Katherine "Kate" Kammer died of septic peritonitis at German Hospital in Chicago from an abortion perpetrated by a "midwife" around 5 days earlier.

For reasons not given in the source document, there was never any prosecution for Kate's death.

Kate, who had immigrated from Hungary in1904, was the daughter of Mike Tomaski and the wife of Dammick Kammer, who worked as a bricklayer. She had two sons, an 8-year-old and a toddler.
.
Note, please, that with overall public health issues such as doctors not using proper aseptic techniques, lack of access to blood transfusions and antibiotics, and overall poor health to begin with, there was likely little difference between the performance of a legal abortion and illegal practice, and the aftercare for either type of abortion was probably equally unlikely to do the woman much, if any, good. 

Sources: 

• Homicide in Chicago Interactive Database
• Death certificate

March 21, 1927: Doctor and Midwife Implicated Together

On March 21, 1927, 25-year-old Nancy Dawson, an immigrant from England, died on-site from a criminal abortion performed that day. Dr. J.F. Peck and midwife Christine Sedwig were indicted for felony murder on April 1.

The fact that both a doctor and a midwife were involved suggests that the abortion, as was common in Chicago in that era, was perpetrated by a midwife who called in a physician when her patient became ill.

Nancy worked in a factory, and was the wife of George Dawson and daughter of Joseph Smith of Leeds, England.

Nancy's abortion was typical of illegal abortions in that it was performed by a physician.

Source: Homicide in Chicago Interactive

March 20, 1906: Lover Commits Fatal Abortion

SUMMARY: Anna Gosch died on March 20, 1906 from an abortion perpetrated by her lover in a Kearney, Nebraska hotel.

Nebraska in 1906 wasn't like it is today. It wasn't a time and place where sexual activity was a right, with contraceptives expected to be provided for free by the government. Women and girls were expected to be chaste, if not until marriage, at least until they were engaged to a man who would marry them and provide a home for any child they conceived.

It was that world that Anna Gosch lived in.

Anna's boyfriend, Mr. Edwards, admitted that he knew Anna, that they'd had a sexual relationship, and that she had called him to tell him that her period was late. He admitted that he went to the town of Kearney, and got a hotel room with the intent of perpetrating an abortion.

Such were the morals of the day that a bellboy objected to the presence of a young woman in the man's hotel room.

Edwards wouldn't say what happened in the hotel room. He did say that the next day he took her to her home, and using a speculum he tried to insert a catheter into her uterus, which at the time was a method often used by doctors to cause an abortion. Edwards, however, couldn't get the catheter inserted.

He said that Anna went upstairs and returned with a catheter with a wire in it, which would stiffen it for insertion. He said that the wire did its job in allowing him to get the catheter inserted. He then bent the wire and threw it away.

A witness in the later trial, however, said that Edwards denied having done the abortion himself. He said that Anna had gone upstairs, then come down and told him that she thought "she had done it." Physical evidence suggested otherwise: a speculum and three catheters were in Edwards' valise when he was arrested.

A physician, Dr. Cameron, was called on Thursday, March 15, to care for Anna. He saw her twice a day until the Monday before her death. During that time he consulted with another physician and concluded that Anna was going to die.

Dr. Cameron testified, "I asked her what had been done to make her sick, and she said there had been a man had passed an instrument into her with a wire in it, rubber with a wire in it. I asked her when that had been done, and she said Monday; she thought it was Monday night." When asked about who the man was, "She said he was a man who traveled for rubber goods or instruments of some kind, said he was a traveling man."

Anna Gosch died on Tuesday, March 20, 1906, at 6:10 PM.

Edwards was convicted of homicide.

Anna's death is similar to the death of "Daisy" Roe, a systems analyst who died in 1990 after allowing her boyfriend to attempt to perform an abortion on her with a piece of aquarium tubing.

It was also unusual in that it was performed by an amateur, rather than by a doctor, as was the case with perhaps 90% of criminal abortions.

Note, please, that with issues such as doctors not using proper aseptic techniques, lack of access to blood transfusions and antibiotics, and overall poor health to begin with, there was likely little difference between the performance of a legal abortion and illegal practice, and the aftercare for either type of abortion was probably equally unlikely to do the woman much, if any, good. For more about abortion and abortion deaths in the first years of the 20th century, see Abortion Deaths 1900-1909.

For more on pre-legalization abortion, see The Bad Old Days of Abortion

Source: 79 Neb. 251, 112 N.W. 611; Supreme Court of Nebraska. EDWARDS v. STATE. No. 14, 988. June 7, 1907.

March 20, 1926: Another Chicago Doctor's Fatal Work

SUMARY: Alice Annalora, age 19, died March 20, 1926 after an abortion performed in Chicago by Dr. Wilford Vine.

On March 20, 1926, 19-year-old Alice Annalora died at the County Hospital in Chicago from complications of an abortion performed that day.

Dr. Wilford Vine was booked for Alice's death, as was her husband, Joseph Annalora. Vine was indicted for felony murder. 

Ultimately, the coroner was unable to determine the legal status of the abortion that killed Alice, so Dr. Vine and Mr. Annalora were released.

Alice's abortion was typical of criminal abortions in that it was performed by a physician.

Keep in mind that things that things we take for granted, like antibiotics and blood banks, were still in the future. For more about abortion in this era, see Abortion in the 1920s.

For more on pre-legalization abortion, see The Bad Old Days of Abortion.

Watch Ambiguous Legal Status Frees Abortionist on YouTube.
Watch Ambiguous Legal Status Frees Abortionist on Rumble.

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Source:

• Homicide in Chicago Interactive

March 20, 1916: Midwife Implicated in Chicago Abortion

Mrs. Caroline Repritis of Lime Street, Chicago, died in Chicago's Englewood Hospital on March 20, 1916 from complications of an attempted abortion.

Midwife Pauline Urbanos was held by the coroner.

Source:

• "Midwife Held for Illegal Operation," Chicago Daily Tribune, Mar. 22, 1916

March 20, 1916: Ailing Doctor Not Prosecuted

On March 20, 1916, 19-year-old housemaid Bertha Carlson died at South Park Hospital in Chicago from septic infection as a result of a criminal abortion.

On her deathbed, Bertha identified Dr. A. F. Butler as her abortionist. At the time of Bertha's death he was suffering from some sort of paralysis that kept him from testifying at an investigation into her death.

Note, please, that with issues such as doctors not using proper aseptic techniques, lack of access to blood transfusions and antibiotics, and overall poor health to begin with, there was likely little difference between the performance of a legal abortion and illegal practice, and the aftercare for either type of abortion was probably equally unlikely to do the woman much, if any, good. 

During the first two thirds of the 20th Century, while abortion was still illegal, there was a massive drop in maternal mortality, including mortality from abortion. Most researches attribute this plunge to improvements in public health and hygiene, the development of blood transfusion techniques, and the introduction of antibiotics. 

Sources:

• Homicide in Chicago Interactive Database
• "Doctor, Accused by Girl, Ill," Chicago Tribune, Mar. 22, 1916
• death certificate

March 19, 1972: Mystery Abortion in Alabama

To my knowledge, this is a death where the family never went public, so I will call this woman "Marjel Holloway." She was a 21-year-old married Alabama native, 15 weeks pregnant, when she arranged an abortion in March of 1972. 

The only information I have is from her death certificate, which indicates that she had undergone an abortion at 15 weeks into her pregnancy. No autopsy was performed, and she had the same doctor attending her from March 15 until her death.  

The date and the location of the abortion are not noted, but there is a timeline of her final illness.

Marjel developed hyponatremia, which is pathologically low sodium levels in the blood, some time on March 17. This caused swelling of the brain, noticed about 18 hours after she was diagnosed with hyponatremia. From this, she suffered a hemorrhage under the membrane surrounding her brain, resulting in her death at shortly after 9 pm on March 19.

According to the Montgomery Advertiser, abortion in Alabama had been reduced from a felony to a misdemeanor in September of 1951, with fines ranging from $100 to $1,000 and a maximum prison sentence of one year. By 1971, The University of Alabama Medical Center was performing abortions on unmarried teenagers, divorcees, widows with other children, and women who had contracted rubella, and evidently doing so openly. No additional health issues were noted on her death certificate, so Marjel likely had not suffered any health problem that would have justified a "therapeutic" abortion on maternal medical grounds. Thus she might have been exposed to rubella, meaning the abortion was done on fetal indications grounds, or she or her doctor might have lied on her paperwork about her marital status.

I have been unable to find any abortion technique known to cause hyponatremia as a complication. Saline abortions, popular in the late second and into the third trimester, are associated with too much sodium, rather than too little, in the blood. According to Grok, a prostaglandin instillation abortion could cause this complication, as it did in a 1973 case. Prostaglandin instillation abortions were common in hospitals in the United States at that time. 

March 19, 1867: A Fatal Doctor in New York

SUMMARY: Mary Noble, age 38, died March 19, 1867 after an abortion perpetrated in New York by Dr. William F. J. Thiers.

Mrs. Mary E. Noble, age 38, died at her home at No. 54 Dominick Street in New York's 28th Precinct on March 19, 1867.

She had been separated from her husband, Ayers Noble of Tarrytown, for a year or two. He testified that the split had been due to her being "too intimate with [George Wait] Carson (the seducer)." 

Carson testified that he'd known Mary for about three years. He had met her when she was still living in Jersey City with son and daughter, since her husband was at that time away in the war.

Mary had moved to New York after discovering she was pregnant, to keep the pregnancy a secret. She took her son, W. D. Noble, with her. It was not clear if her daughter also accompanied her to New York.

Mary had, Carson said, spoken with him prior to the move "about getting rid of the effects of their criminality." Carson had arranged with a doctor, who he knew as Dubois, to make a $10 down payment and pay another $15 after the abortion.

Carson said that Mary reported that the first abortion attempt, done by attaching a battery to her body with leads, and using some sort of instrument internally, had no effect. A second attempt was made using some sort of internal injection of water. Carson saw Mary for the last time on February 21, when she was suffering chills. Carson fetched the doctor, who looked in on her for about five minutes.

On February 24, Mary expelled the fetus, which Carson put in a jar. He kept the fetus for about a week before he "boxed it up and threw it in the water-closet."

Mary had chest pain on the 29th. Carson again went looking for the doctor, but couldn't find him. He left a note indicating that Mrs. Noble needed him. "Dr. Dubois" attended to Mary several more times, but after a while refused any further care. It was at that point that Mary summoned Dr. McClelland, who was given all the facts and who in turn summoned Dr. Wood. Their efforts, of course, were to no avail; Mary died at 2:20 p.m.

W. D. testified that he'd not known about the pregnancy until his mother took ill. His mother had asked him not to tell any relatives she was sick. It's not clear then, who told his father and uncle of Mary's illness. W.D. testified that he first learned of the abortion when he read about it in the newspaper.

Ayers was notified that she was sick with neuralgia -- which she was prone to -- and that he'd headed to the city to see to her, only to arrive too late. He said he learned of the real cause of her death -- an abortion -- from the coroner.

Leander See, who was married to Mary's sister Emma, had received a telegram on Thursday that Mary was ill. He went to her, and she "told him she could not live, and that she had had an abortion produced."

Police Captain John F. Dickson learned of the death on Sunday, and arrested the guilty parties. He went to 627 Third-avenue with the coroner and found abortion instruments in a bureau drawer there.

Dr. John McClelland testified that he'd been called to care for Mary in her final sickness. Her pulse had been 130-140. He testified that Mary told him "that a miscarriage had been brought on by an eclectic physician, and that he had used instruments."

Listing in 1867 City Directory

The coroner's jury concluded that Mary had died from pyemia, "resulting from an abortion produced by the prisoner, Wm. F.J. Thiers, alias Dr. Dubois. They further hold Amelia Armstrong, alias Madame Dubois, as accessory before the fact." Carson was tracked to New Jersey and arrested as well.

When the police went to arrest Thiers, they found his home "sumptuously and comfortably fitted up." There were four women there who admitted that they were there for abortions.

"An examination of the premises resulted in the discovery of an immense collection of letters ... in relation to malpractices." Thiers also kept a receipt book indicating his patients, all of which police hoped would prove criminal intent in performing the abortion on Mary.

For more on this era, see Abortion Deaths in the 19th Century.

For more on pre-legalization abortion, see The Bad Old Days of Abortion

Watch A Doctor's Fatal Work in 1867 on YouTube.
Watch A Doctor's Fatal Work in 1867 on Rumble.

Sources:

• "The Noble Malpractice Case", The New York Times, Apr. 1, 1867
• "Another Malpractice Case", The New York Times, Mar. 26, 1867
• "Another Death from Malpractice -- A Married Woman the Victim," New York World, Mar. 26, 1867
• "War Among the Health Officers," New York Herald, Mar. 27, 1867
• "The Noble Abortion Case -- Testimony of One of the Victims," New York Herald Tribune, Mar. 29, 1867

March 19, 1907: Death at a Chicago Doctor's Office

At about 4:00 p.m. on March 19, 1907, homemaker Bessie F. Simmons, age 30, died at her Chicago home from infection caused by a criminal abortion perpetrated on February 22 at the office of Dr. Charles D. Hughes, who was arrested in the death.

According to her obituary, Bessie was the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Emerson J. Ruby. She had married Lambert G. Simmons in October of 1896, when she was 21 and Lambert was 23. The couple had lost a child, Dorothy. Lambert, a railroad engineer, was left to raise their two surviving children.

Bessie's abortion was typical in that it was performed by a physician.

Note, please, that with general public health issues such as doctors not using proper aseptic techniques, lack of access to blood transfusions and antibiotics, and overall poor health to begin with, there was likely little difference between the performance of a legal abortion and illegal practice, and the aftercare for either type of abortion was probably equally unlikely to do the woman much, if any, good.

Source: Death Certificate

March 19, 1916: Fatal Abortion by Chicago Midwife

On March 19, 1916, 30-year-old Carolina Petritz died at the Chicago office of midwife Paulina Erlomus, who had perpetrated the fatal abortion there that day. Erlomus was held by the Coroner but the case never went to trial.

Note, please, that with overall public health issues such as doctors not using proper aseptic techniques, lack of access to blood transfusions and antibiotics, and overall poor health to begin with, there was likely little difference between the performance of a legal abortion and illegal practice, and the aftercare for either type of abortion was probably equally unlikely to do the woman much, if any, good. 

Source: Homicide in Chicago Interactive Database

March 19, 1932: One of a String of Oklahoma Abortion Death

Dr. J. W. Eisiminger

Geraldine Easley, age 19, admitted before her death on March 19, 1932, that she had undergone a criminal abortion. Since Dr. James W. Eisiminger and Dr. Richard E. Thacker had been responsible for a string of other criminal abortion deaths in the Oklahoma City area, suspicion in Geraldine's death naturally leaned toward the two known quack abortionists.[1] However, to my knowledge the specific perpetrator was not identified.

Geraldine was the second in a sudden string of criminal abortion deaths to Oklahoma City, attributed to Thacker and Eisiminger either singly or as a pair:

• 

  Dr. Richard Thacker

  March 18: Margaret Ann Kuenkel  (Thacker)
• March 19: Geraldine Easley (undetermined)
• April 3:  Ethel Hestand (Thacker)
• April 14:  Isobel Ferguson (Eisiminger and Thacker)
• April 15: Ruth Hall (Eisiminger and Thacker)
• April 20:  Robbie Lou Thompson (Thacker)
• April 23: Virginia Lee Wyckoff  (Eisiminger)
• April 23: Lennis May Roach (Eisiminger and Thacker)
• April 24: Nancy Joe Lee (Thacker)

Sources:

• "Investigation of Many Suspected Cases Under Way," Oshkosh Daily Northwestern, Apr. 29, 1932
• "Investigate Epidemic Of Illegal Operations," Sheboygan (WI) Press, April 29, 1932

1996: Endocarditis, infarcts, bacteremia and coronary artery embolism

In 1996, a report was submitted to a medical journal on a maternal abortion death. The unidentified woman referred to here as “Anne Roe” was 32 and pregnant with her sixth baby. She had already had two births with no noted complications and three abortions. There were no significant conditions in her medical history.

A few weeks before her own death, Anne underwent her fourth and final abortion. No complications were noted at the time, but Anne soon went to her usual doctor because of a fever, chills, yellow discharge and other symptoms. She hadn’t told the doctor about her recent abortion, possibly believing that she didn’t need to. She was given antibiotics and told to return in a week for follow-up, but she only became worse. Only 2 weeks after the abortion, she was in the emergency room.

At the ER, Anne was still suffering from all of the earlier symptoms and now leg pain. Various tests were performed, but doctors were having trouble finding the location of the infection. After examination and IV treatments, she was admitted to the ward service. At the time she was awake, aware and alert.

Grok AI illustration

Only 2 hours later, Anne’s condition massively deteriorated. She was found in severe respiratory distress. A CPR team rushed to treat her, but by the time they arrived she had no pulse and was unresponsive. She was put on life support and resuscitation was attempted for 67 minutes, but she was declared dead.

Her autopsy identified the cause of death. In an unusual case, Anne had died of bacterial endocarditis from a septic coronary artery embolism. She also had embolic infarcts in her right kidney and her spleen. It was concluded that the abortion resulted in group B streptococcus bacteremia and the subsequent development of endocarditis.

The study noted that after elective abortion, “complications of endocarditis are common.” The only unusual part of Anne’s case was the septic embolism of a coronary artery. Although septic infections, embolisms and endocarditis are common among maternal deaths from abortion, this specific combination of the three was not.

Source: "Fatal Myocardial Infarction Resulting From Coronary Artery Septic Embolism After Abortion: Unusual Cause and Complications of Endocarditis," (page 1, page 2, page 3), Annals of Emergency Medicine, January 1997

March 18, 1946: Fatal Abortion in a Seattle Sanitarium

SUMMARY: Mary Johnston, age 29, died March 18, 1946 after an abortion perpetrated at a sanitarium operated by Marjorie Folsom in Seattle.

"When Abortion was Illegal (and Deadly): Seattle's Maternal Death Toll," Seattle Civil Rights & Labor History Project, has the following summary regarding the abortion death of Mary Johnson:

Margaret Folsum

One month after her husband, Roy, was discharged from the military, Mary Johnson told him she wanted to end their four year marriage. A week later he returned to the couple's Capitol Hill apartment to find her gravely ill. She told him had had an abortion at a north Seattle sanitarium run by Margaret Folsom. She died that night in the hospital. The husband may have tried to blackmail Folsom. He was later charged with extortion. Three days later Folsom and nurse Ada Wrench were arrested and charged with manslaughter and abortion. Police claimed that the sanitarium, located in a four bedroom house at was "part of a widespread abortion racket." Folsom and Wrench soon faced charges in a second fatality (Irene Timmons). Sentenced to twenty years in prison, their convictions were overturned by the State Supreme Court in 1947. In a second trial Folsom was convicted only on an abortion charge and sentenced to ten months in County jail.

The Project cites articles from the Seattle Times dated Mar. 21 and 22, Apr. 2 & 22, May 17, Sept. 17, and Nov. 11, 1946, Jul. 17, 1947, and Jun. 19, 1948 and includes a clipping, "Women, Held in Operation Case, Free on $10,000 Bail," from the Mar. 22, 1946 Seattle Times.

I have found court documents regarding the case, along with Mary's death certificate, which provide additional information. I also found Folsom's criminal record, which indicates that her first name was Marjorie, not Margaret. 

Mary's surname was Johnston, rather than Johnson. She told her husband she wanted a divorce because she had fallen in love with another man.

Folsom and Wrench evidently made repeated abortion attempts from March 11th through 15th. Mary and the man who had gotten her pregnant went to Folsom's sanitarium, referred to in court documents as a "hospital," where the man paid $350 to Wrench.

Mary was reportedly in good health when she arrived, but was very sick the following day. Her condition continued to grow worse. On March 17, Mary's lover took her from the sanitarium and settled her in her Seattle apartment.

Ada Pearl Wrench

On March 18, Mary's husband took her back to the sanitarium. From there she was taken to Columbus Hospital, where she died during emergency surgery.

Mary's brother took her body home to Yakima for burial.

Folsom argued that Mary's abortion had been perpetrated elsewhere by a man in the office of a Dr. Patee before she'd come to the sanitarium. There was some weighing of evidence regarding how long Mary had been pregnant and how long before her death she had suffered the injuries that ultimately took her life. The prosecution asserted that Folsom rented Patee's office and committed abortions there.

Mary's husband was arrested on a charge of extorting $10,000 from Folsum in exchange for his silence about the abortion. The evidence was two $5,000 cashier's checks. The March 21, 1946 Seattle Star said that the usual price for an abortion was $350, which is roughly $5700 in 2025. 

Folsom was sentenced to 20 years in prison. Wrench, as her accomplice, was sentenced to a fine and a jail sentence. Folsom was able to successfully appeal her conviction. 

Watch Abortion Advocates Provided Sources on YouTube. 
Watch Abortion Advocates Provided Sources on Rumble. 

Additional sources: 

• "Ex-resident In Death Case," The (Vancouver, WA) Columbian, March 21, 1946
• "Illegal Surgery Probe Spurred," The Seattle Star, March 21, 1946
• "Arrest Nurse For Abortion," The Bremerton (WA) Sun, March 21, 1946
• "2 Charged in Woman's Death," The Seattle Star, March 22, 1946
• "Seattle Pair Posts Abortion Case Bond," The Daily Olympian, March 22, 1946
• "Women, Held in Operation Case, Free on $10,000 Bail," Seattle Times, March 22, 1946
• "Extortion-Case Evidence Found," Seattle Star, March 30, 1946
• "Extortion Laid to Husband in Alleged Illegal-Surgery Death," Seattle Star, March 29, 1946
• "Woman Posts Bail In Abortion Charge," The Bremerton (WA) Sun, May 18, 1946
• "2 Deny Accusation Of Illegal Surgery," Seattle Star, May 21, 1946
• "Illegal Surgery Brings 20 Years," Seattle Star, November 30, 1946
• "Sentence Passed on Two Women," Spokane Daily Chronicle, November 30, 1946
• "Conviction in Abortion Ordered Reversed," The  (Vancouver, WA) Columbian, July 17, 1947

March 18, 1914: Another Unknown Chicago Perp

On March 18, 1914, 28-year-old dressmaker Irene Ridgeway died at Garfield Park Hospital in Chicago from an abortion performed by an unknown perpetrator.

Note, please, that with overall public health issues such as doctors not using proper aseptic techniques, lack of access to blood transfusions and antibiotics, and overall poor health to begin with, there was likely little difference between the performance of a legal abortion and illegal practice, and the aftercare for either type of abortion was probably equally unlikely to do the woman much, if any, good.

In fact, due to improvements in addressing these problems, maternal mortality in general (and abortion mortality with it) fell dramatically in the 20th Century, decades before Roe vs. Wade legalized abortion across America.

For more on pre-legalization abortion, see The Bad Old Days of Abortion
Source: Homicide in Chicago Interactive Database

March 18, 1888: Doctor Implicated in Norwich

Miss Hattie Myers of Wichita, Kansas, died March 18, 1888 after an abortion she attributed to Dr. J. W. Pollard of Norwich.

Sources:

• untitled snippet, Daily Commonwealth, Mar. 21, 1888