Thursday, October 15, 2026

October 15, 1915: A Doctor's Fatal Efforts in Oregon

SUMMARY: Anna Anderson, age 25, died October 15, 1915 after an illegal abortion performed in Oregon by Dr. Andre August Ausplund.

Dr. Andrew August Ausplund was a Swedish immigrant. He had come to the United States around the 1890s, when roughly in his 20s. He got his medical degree from the University of Minnesota around 1898 and began practicing in Portland, Oregon around the mid-1890s. 

He made a bit of a splash in August of 1893 when he challenged another doctor to a duel and was originally expected to die from his injuries, and was prosecuted for federal mail crime for sending materials considered "indecent" at the time -- likely information about birth control or abortion. The fact that his ads indicated "a specialty of surgery and diseases of women" indicated a veiled willingness to commit abortions. 

The Investigation Begins

At around 3:00 on the afternoon of Friday, October 15, 1915, a patrolman was told that the body of a woman was being taken from Dr. A. A. Ausplund's office in the Lafayette Building at Sixth and Washington Streets. The patrolman went to the site and found Ausplund leaving the building with Deputy Coroner Smith. Ausplund told the patrolman that he was going to the morgue for the autopsy, but the patrolman detained him while a detective went into the office to collect evidence, including gynecological instruments, a bottle of chloroform, cotton pads soaked with chloroform, a blood-spotted sheet, and Ausplund's blood-spotted coat. The operating table appeared to have been recently cleaned.

Ausplund said that the young woman had come to his office some time around October 12, asking him to perform an abortion. He said that he had turned her away but she had returned on the 15th, saying that she had tried to perform the abortion on herself and asked him to help her because this abortion attempt had left her ailing. However, Ausplund said, the young woman died on the table before he could even complete an examination.

Ausplund and his brother, who was a dentist, shared a reception room. The receptionist, Birdie Welsh, gold police that she had no idea who the young woman was but she had indeed come to the office around the 12th and again on the 15th.

The woman's body was taken to the morgue.  Police struggled to identify the woman. She was about 25 years older or slightly older, dressed in a blue coat, dark skirt, and green silk petticoat. She had black hair and weighed about 145 pounds. There was nothing in her handbag to identify, her, and no markings on her handkerchief or clothing. However, the young woman had quite a bit of distinctive dental work done -- a full upper plate and several gold teeth in her lower jaw. She had a gold watch and $53.75 in gold and silver coin in her purse. That's just short of $1,725 in 2025.

An autopsy showed that the woman had been healthy. Her heart had been normal. The cause of death was an induced abortion.

The Woman Identified

Paul Wesinger, an employee of Portland Railway, Light & Power, was friends with Fred H. Green, identified in the news as a Portland "timberman." Fred H. Green had hired a young Swedish girl about a year earlier to work as a domestic servant. During his visits to Green's house, Paul frequently saw the young woman. Likely Paul read about the unidentified dead woman in the newspaper, for he went to the morgue and identified the dead woman as Green's servant, 27-year-old Anna Anderson. Before leaving the house the day of her death, she had told other servants that she was feeling ill and was anemic.

Anna's Decision

Anna had come to the United States around 1912, leaving her parents behind. At first she lived with her uncle, Andrew Bachstrom, but she moved into Green's home after securing employment with him. 

After realizing that she was pregnant that fall of 1915, Anna wrote letters to her fiancé, Alfred Lindbloom, who was living in a logging camp. Since Green was a "lumberman," it's likely that he either employed or knew Alfred, and that was how the young couple met.

Alfred destroyed the letters to keep the other men from reading them and learning about Anna's predicament. What Alfred wrote in response to those letters didn't make it into the newspapers.

Whatever Albert proposed about baby, Anna went to a doctor who confirmed that she was about three months pregnant. She asked this doctor to abort her baby, but the doctor refused.

Evidently Anna decided that she would not be deterred. On October 15, 1915, she went to the office of Dr. Andre A. Ausplund in Portland.

Ausplund's Story

Dr. Ausplund later said that Anna was ill upon her arrival at his office, and asked him to examine her. He attempted to do so, but she gasped in pain as soon as he'd inserted his fingers. He said he immediately saw that she was dying and went out for a stimulant, seeking help from Dr. Mary A MacLachlan, a physician practicing in the same building. They brought in another doctor, Otis F. Akin, to try to help. The three doctors together were unable to revive Anna.

The coroner and other witnessed testified that Anna was found with her skirts removed. They found a bloody sheet in Dr. Ausplund's office, as well as a bloody doctor's coat. Several medical instruments were noted, one of which appeared to have a portion of placenta on it. The floor in his operating room was wet, as well as a Kelly pad.

The autopsy found signs of recent pregnancy of about three months duration, as well as trauma to the interior of the uterus. It was estimated that the injuries were sustained about five to eight hours before death. The undertaker who embalmed Anna said that there was almost no blood in her body.

Ausplund was originally charged with second-degree murder, but the charge was reduced to manslaughter. He would face a sentence of between 1 and 15 years.

Ausplund was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to the indeterminate 1 to 15 years prison plus a $50 fine. Nine of the jurors filed an affidavit with the County Clerk saying that they had only voted to convict because they believed he would only be paroled, not incarcerated. He remained free on $3,500 cash bond so he could appeal the verdict on various technical grounds. He seemed to be stressed out during his appeal process -- he was arrested and fined $5 (about $160 in 2025) in early March of 1917 for blocking traffic and drunkenly speaking out against the war and mouthing off to city officials. 

Ausplund's appeal went the whole way to the U.S. Supreme court, but his conviction was upheld. He finally was incarcerated on March 18, 1921. Ausplund was paroled by Acting Governor Roy W. Ritner on January 21, 1922 on the condition that he return to his native Sweden under a $1,500 bond (nearly $50,000 in 2025). Nevertheless, he returned to Portland, where he owned quite a bit of valuable real estate, around Christmas of 1922 and resumed his practice. His full rights of citizenship were restored on the grounds that he remain law-abiding.

Dr. Ausplund actually redeemed himself. He died a hero in August of 1932, when he drowned trying to rescue his 20-year-old niece, Normal Saxwick, from the Columbia River.

Sources: 

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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:


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.

at 12:00 AM

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