August 23, 1974: "Wall-to-Wall Blood" After Safe, Legal Abortion

A Bride Embraced in a New Land

Supporters toast Dorothy and Henry at their wedding dinner

Henry Muzorewa of Zvyiambe, Rhodesia, was lavished with support from the First United Methodist Church of Kenosha, Wisconsin. They had brought him to the United States in 1968 and sponsored him as a student at the University of Wisconsin at Parkside.

When May of 1972 rolled around, it had been three years since he had seen his fiancée, Dorothy Ticharia Chiza, of Mrewa, Rhodesia. Henry decided it was time to bring Dorothy, a licensed practical nurse, to join him in the United States as his wife.

The church sprang into action to give the couple a beautiful wedding. They arranged everything but the rings with donations and their own money: a hand-made wedding gown for Dorothy, a rehearsal coffee, the church organist, a bridal shower, housing for the couple's family members who had travelled from various parts of the US for the celebration, and a wedding dinner after the June 3 service, which combined Christian and Rhodesian elements. 

After the wedding, the couple remained in Kenosha until Henry graduated. Then they relocated to Evanston, Illinois, near Chicago, so that Henry could attend the Garrett Theological Seminary. Dorothy and Henry, who had attended Christian missionary schools together in Rhodesia, planned to return to their homeland after Henry got his doctorate. 

It All Comes to an End

Just over two years later, Henry and Dorothy's dream of a life together came to an end.

Dorothy was 25 when she went to Women's Aid Clinic for a safe and legal abortion on June 15, 1974. The fetus didn't die, however, and Dorothy returned to the clinic on August 21 to report her symptoms. Staff told her to return the following day.

On August 22, Dorothy again returned to Women's Aid, bleeding and in pain. David Turow examined Dorothy, diagnosed an infection, and sent her home with prescriptions for tetracycline to control the infection and ergonovine to control the bleeding.

Henry told the a journalist that he awoke at around 6:00 on the morning of August 23 to find his wife bleeding profusely. Dorothy assured him that she was just menstruating, so Henry left for school. When he returned home, he was alarmed by Dorothy's bleeding and called an ambulance.

Dorothy was rushed to Chicago's Evanston Hospital, where she was pronounced dead on arrival shortly after noon. Only after her death did her husband Henry learn of the pregnancy and abortion.

A witness in Dorothy's apartment described the bedroom as "wall to wall blood." He found the fetus in a waste basket and put it in the refrigerator for safekeeping.

The couple's young daughter was sent back to Rhodesia to live with Dorothy's relatives, Dorothy's body was also repatriated to Rhodesia for burial. 

The coroner ruled Dorothy's death from hemorrhage accidental.

Sources:

• "Church Handles Student's Schooling ... and Wedding," Racine (WI) Sunday Bulletin, June 4, 1972
• "Wedding proves 'kindness of America,'" Kenosha (WI) News, June 6, 1972
• Death certificate
• "Rhodesian student's wife is dead," Kenosha (WI) News, August 24, 1974
• "12 dead after abortions in state's walk-in clinics," Chicago Sun-Times, November 19, 1978
• Kevin Sherlock's 1991 Abortion Death Log

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Veteran pro-life investigator Kevin Sherlock asks people of good will to help him have Planned Parenthood prosecuted for profiteering from the rapes and incests of underage girls many thousands of times each year.

Sherlock has  pulled the police records of hundreds of cities and has pulled the child protective services records of multiple states to prove Planned Parenthood staffers are violating mandated reporting laws designed to protect girl victims.   But there is more to be done. Sherlock will make sure more and more evidence gets to federal and state prosecutors who care about protecting girls from abusers and profiteers.

If you would like to help, please click the following link:

https://www.givesendgo.com/stop-pp-from-profiteering-from-the-rapes

Sherlock has talked to many girls and young women who trust him. Their stories and the forensic evidence shows most of them undergo pill abortions or humiliating invasive surgical abortions due to fear or ignorance or pressure or coercion. He treats the girls or women carrying children or devastated from their abortions as friends and neighbors in his home town, not afterthoughts.

Thank you for doing what you can to help girls and fight sexual predators and rape profiteers.