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