As a leukemia patient, “Selena” was already facing a battle for her life. She didn’t know that her cancer wouldn’t kill her, but a “safe and legal” first-trimester abortion would.
Selena suffered from poorly differentiated lymphocytic leukemia and was discovered to be pregnant sometime between 1972 and 1978. She was likely scared and may have also feared the effects of cancer medications on her child. At the time, it was not uncommon for pregnant cancer patients to be told to have an abortion, so she probably thought she had no choice. At eight weeks pregnant, she was put through a suction abortion and surgically sterilized to prevent her from becoming pregnant again.
Leukemia weakens the immune system, making post-abortion infection more hazardous for Selena than it would have been for a healthy client. Instead of improving her prognosis, the abortion made her sicker. She contracted an infection, developed sepsis and did not survive.
Ironically, research later found that surgical abortion for pregnant cancer patients is not associated with higher chances of maternal survival at all. Today, well-established treatments exist for pregnant cancer patients and doctors are usually able to save babies while still effectively treating the cancer patient.
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