RealChoice: April 14, 1932: Third of Eight Deaths in only Two Months

Tuesday, April 14, 2026

April 14, 1932: Third of Eight Deaths in only Two Months

SUMMARY AND CONTEXT: Isabelle Ferguson, age 21, was the third abortion death attributed to Oklahoma City physicians in just two months. This story highlights a seldom-addressed reality: Most pre-legalization abortions were perpetrated physicians or trained medical professionals, not the woman or some amateur.

Mary Calderone

As then-Planned Parenthood Federation medical director Mary Calderone estimated in the July, 1960 American Journal of Public Health, "90 per cent of all illegal abortions are presently being done by physicians." Another researcher, Nancy Howell Lee, estimated in The Search for an Abortionist (1969) that 89% of illegal abortions were being done by physicians. These estimates are the result of independent research. Calderone was basing her estimates on Planned Parenthood's 1955 conference "Abortion in America," in which physicians, public health officials, and even one criminal abortionist worked together to draw as accurate picture as possible. Lee based her estimates on an extensive survey of women who had sought out abortions prior to legalization.

Isabelle's Death

Isabelle Ferguson

On April 14, 1932, 21-year-old Isabelle Ferguson died of suspected abortion complications. Two physicians in the University of Oklahoma area, J. W. Eisiminger and Richard E. Thacker, were suspected in the case.

Though both doctors were suspected, only Thacker was charged with murder. Isabelle's widower, Samuel Ferguson, sued Thacker for $10,000. The couple's first wedding anniversary had been on April 6, between the abortion and Isabelle's death.

Samuel held that Thacker, assisted by his wife, Ida, perpetrated the abortion in their office in the Terminal Building in Oklahoma City on March 25. Mr. Ferguson said that after the Thackers had injured Isabelle, they had taken her to their home and "refused her the right to go to a hospital when she became dangerously ill."

Isabelle left behind a six-month-old daughter.

Dr. Richard Thacker

Both Thackers, husband and wife, fled the city and were sought by police. They were eventually apprehended, but as far as I can tell there was no prosecution in Isabelle's death. This is likely because Thacker was already in hot legal water for another abortion deaths.

Thacker and Eisiminger were not ordinary doctors who just did abortions on a few patients. They were abortionists, and quack abortionists at that. Singly or as a pair they were implicated in a string of deaths:

February 26, 1929: Marie Epperson
March 19, 1932: Geraldine Easley (undetermined)
April 3, 1932: Ethel Hestland
April 14, 1932: Isabelle Ferguson (Thacker)
April 15, 1932: Ruth Hall (Thacker)
April 23, 1932: Robbie Lou Thompson (undetermined)
April 24, 1932: Virginia Lee Wyckoff (Eisiminger) and Lennis May Roach (Thacker)
April 25, 1932: Nancy Joe Lee (Thacker)

Thacker was sentenced to life in prison for Ruth Hall's death. His attorney announced an immediate motion for an appeal, on the grounds that Thacker's other abortions should not have been admitted as testimony. The appeal failed. Thacker died in prison on April 1, 1937 from a heart attack.

Context in Closing:

The idea that legalizing abortion magically eliminated tragic deaths is false. The major decline in maternal mortality — including deaths from illegal abortion — occurred decades before Roe v. Wade (1973), driven primarily by sulfa drugs (1930s), penicillin and other antibiotics (1940s), improved blood transfusions, and advances in obstetric care. Legalization simply shifted many abortions from one set of physicians to another. In some cases it led those "back alley" physicians to move onto main street and start killing women with a carelessness they never would have dared before legalization, as exemplified by Milan Vuitch, Jesse Ketchum, and Benjamin Munson. All three had no criminal abortions deaths to their discredit but each went on to kill two patients with appalling malpractice after legalization. Legalization did not eliminate the human cost or the incentives for providers to cut corners. Claims of dramatically improved “safety” still rest on voluntary self-reporting from the facilities and physicians performing the procedures, a system with documented cases of falsified records and gaps in accountability.