RealChoice: June 24, 1971: First Legal Abortion Death in Rockland County New York

Wednesday, June 24, 2026

June 24, 1971: First Legal Abortion Death in Rockland County New York

A Dubious Honor

Mrs. Edith L. Clark, age 29, traveled from her home in Newark, New Jersey to the Sparkhill, New York office of Dr. Robert Livingston to avail herself of the new law, for a first-trimester abortion on June 24, 1971.

Shortly after she was given an injection of Innovar for anesthesia, Edith went into cardiac arrest, and attempts to revive her failed. She left behind three children.

Edith was the first woman to die in New York's Rockland County from a newly legalized abortion. The second, 18-year-old Pamela Modugno, died in May of 1972 after an abortion in one of the many freestanding abortion facilities that opened immediately after New York decided to permit outpatient abortion-on-demand up to 24 weeks.

A Legalized "Back-Alley Butcher"

Livingston was a criminal abortionist and a hardcore advocate of legalization. During the 1960s he performed 100s of criminal abortionists in his office overlooking the Englewood Cliffs police station in New Jersey. Less than a year after Edith's death, he openly performed two abortions at his New Jersey office with the support of the ACLU in order to challenge the state's abortion law, which he claimed was unconstitutional.

Livingston had only opened his office in Sparkhill, he told reporters, in order to do abortions on "basically black indigents from the Newark area." It was set up in what was later described as "a converted jewelry store and hardware store."

Needless to say, he failed to mention that he had managed to kill a New Jersey woman less than a month after opening that office.

Livingston justified abortion with the rather unscientific excuse that since sperm are wriggling and alive when he sees them under a microscope, they are "just as alive as a fertilized egg" and therefore killing a human embryo or fetus is no different from letting sperm die. He said that what he removed from the uterus in performing an abortion to be "equivalent to a scab."

In his criminal practice he charged $400 for an abortion -- less than what he'd heard that other abortionists were charging -- so that he'd not be giving his patients a reason to coplain.

It's also telling to note that none of the positive press Livingston got for wanting to abort the babies of "basically black indigents" thought Edith's death worth mentioning either. No deaths were ever connected to his criminal practice.

Moving Along

After Roe v. Wade made Livingston's New Jersey practice legal, he opened Metropolitan Medical Associates in the Englewood area, operating it until around 1980, when he moved to Florida. Dr. Steven Berkman later perpetrated a fatal abortion on "Jane Doe of Newark" there, but by that time Livingston was no longer associated with the facility.

Other Dubious Beneficiaries of New York's Law

In addition to Edith and Pamela these are the women I know of who had the dubious benefit of dying from the newfangled safe-and-legal kind of abortion in pre-Roe New York:

Pearl Schwier, July, 1970, cardiac arrest during abortion
Carmen Rodriguez, July, 1970, salt solution intended to kill the fetus accidentally injected into her bloodstream
Barbara Riley, July, 1970, sickle-cell crisis triggered by abortion recommended by doctor due to her sickle cell disease
"Amanda" Roe, September, 1970, sent back to her home in Indiana with an untreated hole poked in her uterus
Maria Ortega, October, 1970, fetus shoved through her uterus into her pelvic cavity then left there
"Kimberly" Roe, December, 1970, cardiac arrest during abortion
"Amy" Roe, January, 1971, massive pulmonary embolism
"Andrea" Roe, January, 1971, overwhelming infection
"Sandra" Roe, April, 1971, committed suicide due to post-abortion remorse
"Anita" Roe, May, 1971, bled to death in her home during process of outpatient saline abortion
Margaret Smith, June 1971, hemorrhage from multiple lacerations during outpatient hysterotomy abortion
"Audrey" Roe, July, 1971, cardiac arrest during abortion
"Vicki" Roe, August, 1971, post-abortion infection
"April" Roe, August, 1971, injected with saline for outpatient abortion, went into shock and died
"Barbara" Roe, September, 1971, cardiac arrest after saline injection for abortion
"Tammy" Roe, October, 1971, massive post-abortion infection
Carole Schaner, October, 1971, hemorrhage from multiple lacerations during outpatient hysterotomy abortion
"Beth" Roe, December, 1971, saline injection meant to kill fetus accidentally injected into her bloodstream
"Roseann" Roe, February, 1971, vomiting with seizures causing pneumonia after saline abortion
"Connie" Roe, March, 1972, cardiac arrest during abortion
"Julie" Roe, April, 1972, holes torn in her uterus and bowel
"Robin" Roe, May, 1972, lingering abortion complications
"Roxanne" Roe, May, 1972, given overdose of abortion sedatives