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Saturday, April 11, 2026

April 11, 1984: Fatal Abortion by Doc Out on Bail

Abortionist Raymond E. Showery was out on bail appealing a murder conviction when he performed the safe, legal abortion that killed 28-year-old Mickey Jean Apodaca on April 11, 1984.

Mickey was a healthy young woman, about 5' 8" tall and 145 pounds. She had reddish blond hair and blue-green eyes. A divorced mother of four, she told her ex-husband, Gary, that she was pregnant around mid-March and asked for a loan to pay for the abortion. Gary said that she never discussed the details with him, nor why she had made the choice to abort this baby.

The couple had met when attending Ysleta High School. They had married in 1973 and divorced in 1980.

Mickey went to Showery's Southside Medical Center in El Paso on March 17 to look into arranging the abortion. The appointment was scheduled for April 11. The reason for the delay isn't mentioned.

Mickey arrived at 8:30 the day of the abortion. By that time, she was about 19 weeks pregnant. She wasn't brought back to the procedure room until 2 p.m. Showery spent 45 minutes to an hour performing the abortion. Typically a 19-week abortion would only take about 20 minutes.

During the abortion, Showery tore a 2 1/2 inch hole in Mickey's cervix and uterus and severed a uterine artery. However, Showery didn't detect the injury and sent Mickey to the recovery room. A nurse later noticed that Mickey was hemorrhaging. Showery took Mickey back to the procedure room and ordered a transfusion. He seemed to have attempted to treat the damage he had done; Mickey's uterus showed 4 sutures in place in the lower inch of the tear, but only about halfway through the cervix. The upper 1 1/2 inches of the tear were not sutured, nor was the torn artery. Mickey would have continued to hemorrhage internally. 

It wasn't until 5 pm, when Mickey had been bleeding uncontrollably for at least an hour, that anybody called an ambulance. The ambulance crew put MAST pants on the patient to compress her legs in an attempt to shunt as much blood as possible into the vital organs. She was transferred to Providence Memorial Hospital, where she died at around 9 p.m. during an emergency hysterectomy.

A grand jury handed down an indictment for involuntary manslaughter in Mickey's death. They determined that Showery had inadequately trained staff assisting him, had not properly repaired the hole he had torn in Mickey's uterus, and delayed transfer to a hospital.  

Otela Conn, who had been one of Mickey's neighbors for several years told the El Paso Herald Post, "She was such a sweet little girl. I really liked her. When she had [her youngest] baby, she was so happy and she was saying she thought she might like to have more. And she was good to those kids. She did the best she could for them. I just can't believe she'd have an abortion."

Showery was held pending $1 million dollars bail while awaiting trial in Mickey's death. While he was in prison, local pro-choicers rallied outside with signs asserting that Showery was "a good man" and that he "helps the poor." The fact that he helped Mickey Apodaca straight into an early grave was lost on them.

The charges relating to Mickey's death were dropped in 1987, though Showery remained incarcerated, serving a 15-year sentence for the murder of the baby.

Watch Mickey's Misplaced Trust on YouTube.

Sources:
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