SUMMARY AND CONTEXT: Madeline Anderson, age 24, died May 6, 1924 after an abortion perpetrated in or near Chicago, reportedly by Dr. Louise Achtenberg. This story highlights a seldom-addressed reality: Most pre-legalization abortions were perpetrated physicians or trained medical professionals, not the woman or some amateur.
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.
Madelyn's Story
On May 6, 1924, 24-year-old Madelyn Anderson died at Chicago's Washington Park Hospital from a criminal abortion perpetrated that day.
According to public records, Madelyn was a native of Norway. She had worked as a manicurist at the Morrison Hotel.
On May 13, Dr. Louise Achtenberg was arrested for Madelyn's death. Achtenberg was indicted for felony murder on May 15.
Achtenberg already had a bad record as a criminal abortionist. In 1907, Dora Swan had died in a Chicago hospital after an abortion by Louise Achtenberg. "Louisa Achtenberg," identified as a midwife, had been implicated in the 1909 abortion death of Florence Wright. An abortionist identified only as Achtenberg was implicated in the 1921 abortion death of Violet McCormick.
It would seem that the same woman, Louise Achtenberg, was responsible for all four deaths. She was identified as a midwife in 1909 -- a term commonly used to describe obstetricians, particularly if they were female.
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