RealChoice: June 9, 1971: Mystery Abortion in North Carolina

Tuesday, June 09, 2026

June 9, 1971: Mystery Abortion in North Carolina

Rhonda Gale Ingram, nee Little

Rhonda Gale Little was very active and promising young woman that summer of 1971. Of mixed Black and Native American descent, Rhonda had been born in Pensacola, Florida on March 1, 1952 to Perry Philemon and Mildred Harris Little. The family had moved to High Point, North Carolina when Rhonda was very young. She had two sisters, Judith and Melanie, and a brother, Perry Jr.

Rhonda graduated in June of 1970 from High Point, NC High School. She had been a very active and involved student. She was a member of the Beta Club for students with high GPAs her junior and senior years, reporter for the Future Homemakers of America (FHA) her junior year and FHA secretary her senior year, active in the French Club her junior and senior years, and on the Social Committee and office staff her senior year..

After high school, Rhonda enrolled at North Carolina Central University at Durham, an historic black university. With her smoothly-coiffed hair, she stood out from among the more currently fashionable Afro styles. She was still going by her maiden name when the university yearbook was published.

She was a member of High Point First Baptist Church, where she served as Sunday school pianist and sang in the Junior Choir.

A Proud and Reputable Family

Rhonda's father was frequently mentioned in local news for his civic activities, particularly on the High Point School Board. His dental practice was profitable, having brought in $37,283 (over $300,000 in 2026 dollars) in Medicaid payments alone in the first 16 months of the program. That would mean in Medicaid patients alone his practice was bringing in nearly $28,000 a year (around $229,000 in 2026 dollars). He reported that Medicaid patients made up about half of his practice. Medicaid payment was about 75% of the normal charge for a patient, meaning that the other half of his practice was bringing in about $36,400 from his other patients, for a total of roughly $64,400 annually (over $526,000 in 2026). Overhead costs were just a bit under 50%, so Dr. Little was taking home the equivalent of over a quarter of a million dollars every year to support his family of 5.

I can't find any public records to indicate when Rhonda married Linwood Ingram, but she must have still been a newlywed when she discovered that she was pregnant in the spring of 1971. Given her parents' prosperity and community prominence, the lack of a wedding announcement hints that the young couple might have married quietly when they learned that Rhonda was pregnant.

Dr. and Mrs. Little apparently didn't approve. According to a lawsuit later filed by her widowed husband, Perry Little and his wife coerced Rhonda into an abortion, which was perpetrated by Dr. Albert Perry on April 24.

A Lingering Death

During the abortion, Perry mangled the fetus and put a hole though Rhonda's uterus and into her small intestines. I have found no record of how long it took for anybody to notice that something was wrong. For weeks, Rhonda fought for her life. She was pronounced dead at 8:30 pm on Wednesday, June 6, 1971 at North Carolina Memorial Hospital in Chapel Hill from septic shock.

No Visible Fallout

Dr. Perry, around 50 years of age, was an official with the local NAACP as well as a known abortionist with several arrests for this practice. He had been convicted in an abortion case in 1958 and spent 11 months in prison. His license was restored in 1961 on the condition that he practice only in Mecklenburg County. Two months later he reopened his practice in Charlotte. He was charged for abortion in May of 1964, August of 1970, and November of 1971, but all of those charges were dismissed.

I've been unable to find any evidence that he was charged in Rhonda's death. The worst consequence he seemed to suffer was being named in the lawsuit by Rhonda's bereaved husband. Linwood sued Perry and his former in-laws for $500,000 in damages and $250,000 in punitive damages over Rhonda's death. I've been unable to determine the outcome of the suit. Any criminal and civil cases might have fallen by the wayside since Perry died in May of 1972. It's possible that Perry had been able to get two other doctors to sign off on the abortion as medically necessary, per the 1967 North Carolina law, and do the abortion in a hospital, which would explain why he had been prosecuted for so many other abortions but not for this fatal one.

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