Monday, April 06, 2026

April 6, 1880: Body Dumped After Fatal Abortion

SUMMARY AND CONTEXT: Anna Clemens, age 26, died April 6, 1880 after an abortion perpetrated in or near Detroit, reportedly by Dr. William G. Cox. 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.

A Grisly Discovery

On April 7, 1880, a woman's bloody cloak, with clumps of hair clinging to it, was found hanging from a spike protruding from a bridge over the River Rough, just south of the Village of Delray, Michigan, near Detroit.

After two days of dragging the river, the body of a woman was found. She was dressed in black, bound and gagged. A stone had been tied to the clothesline which had been used to tie her hands behind her back.

The Body Identified

Grok AI illustration

From a description of the dead woman in the newspaper, Mr. Clemens suspected that she was his sister, 26-year-old Annie M. Clemens of Bay City, Michigan. Anna, a housekeeper, had last been seen alive in Detroit on April 2.

Mr. Clemens, accompanied by unidentified "companions," went to Detroit, where the police took him to the undertaker's parlor where the body was being kept. He had brought "a piece of the dress worn by his sister on the day of her departure" to Norris, in Wayne County, on March 31. She had left home "in excellent spirits" and good health.

He was shown a skirt and garters that the undertaker had removed from the body and identified them as belonging to his sister. Clemens and his companions were then shown the face of the dead woman, and though her face was "greatly swollen and discolored" they were able to identify her as Anna. He also noted that the dead woman had the same gold fillings in her teeth that Anna had had. He showed police a photograph of Anna and they concurred on the identification.

An Abortion Uncovered

Mr. Clemens told police that Anna had been engaged to marry Thomas Merritt, who ran the G.D. Edwards & Co. clothing business. They'd been keeping company for about four years.

"The dead girl was considered chaste and modest, and she was never mixed up in any scandal or sensation. the theory is that, having stooped to folly, and being upon the eve of childbirth, she counseled with her seducer, whoever he was, and it was decided that she should come to Detroit" for an abortion which had proved fatal, resulting in her death on April 6.

The Supposed Abortionist Identified

An investigation revealed the suspected abortionist to be Dr. William G. Cox, who had a drug store at the corner of Cass and Grand River in Detroit. Henry w. Weaver, "an aged furniture repairer," was also arrested, charged with disposing of Anna's body. Mrs. Hattie Snyder, who owned the house where police concluded that the abortion had been perpetrated, "suddenly turned up missing" but was later located and arraigned.

The Trial

On July 4, 1880, after deliberating for only one hour, the jury reached a verdict of not guilty. His accomplice was not tried. The Detroit Free Press expressed outrage on behalf of the community:

Her Inhmanman Murderer Must be Hunted Down and Brought to Justice.
The People of the Community Will Not be Satisfied With Less.
And They Will Second the Agents of the Law to the Last Extremity.
THIS NOTORIOUS IMPUNITY OF ABORTIONISTS MUST COME TO AN END.

A little less than two years later, Cox was arrested for the abortion death of Martha Whitla.

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.