Saturday, October 24, 2026

October 24, 1979: One Negative Pregnancy Test, Two Dead Teens

Summary: Delores Jean Smith was the second of two teens to die of nearly simultaneous injuries at a National Abortion Federation member clinic.

In the era of safe, legal abortion, we find a case of striking ineptitude. 

On June 2 of 1979. National Abortion Federation member Atlanta Women's Pavillion rose to new levels of incompetence when staff there managed to fatally injure two teenage abortion patients in less than an hour.

Recovery Room at Atlanta Women's Pavilion

Dr. Jacob Adams was a co-owner of the clinic, along with Dr. Otis Hammonds and Dr. Olly C. Duckett. Adams performed an abortion under general anesthesia on 19-year-old Angela Scott. He sent her to the recovery room then began performing an abortion on 14-year-old Delores Jean Smith.

Angela went into cardio-respiratory arrest in the recovery room due to what was reported as an "idiosyncratic reaction" to anesthesia. 

Nurse Teresa Stearns, who was not certified as an anesthetist, was administering anesthesia to Delores while Adams was performing her abortion. Stearns ran to assist in efforts to revive Angela, leaving Delores with her intravenous anesthesia drip still running while Adams continued with the abortion.

There was a 25-minute delay in getting an ambulance to the clinic because staff didn't tell the ambulance service that the call was for an emergency. 

After the staff had resuscitated Angela and loaded her into an ambulance, they returned their attention to Delores , who had gone into cardio-respiratory arrest. 

Dr. Jacob Adams

Adams had accompanied Angela to the Grady Memorial Hospital, and even though the ambulance could have transported both patients, staff refused to release Delores until the physician had returned to discharge her. This resulted in a 30-minute delay, during which the ambulance crew was unable to attend to Delores or begin transporting her.

Angela lingered for a week in a coma before dying at 2:35 a.m. on June 9. 

Delores remained comatose in an intensive-care unit at Grady.

Fulton County District Attorney Lewis Slaton launched an investigation. Atlanta homicide chief Lieutenant W. K. Perry said, "We've had everybody, including the CDC, calling to see what happened and why." 

State legislators held hearings about regulating abortion clinics. The medical board held formal hearings. The Food and Drug Administration examined the anesthesia drugs used on the patients.

Delores never regained consciousness. She was admitted to a nursing home in August, where she died of adult respiratory distress syndrome on October 24, 1979. Her 15th birthday had come and gone while she was in her coma. 

Delores's mother, Nancy Smith, filed a $12.3 million suit against the clinic after learning that her daughter's pregnancy test performed at the clinic had come up negative.

State legislators proposed a regulation to require that pregnancy tests be done at licensed laboratories prior to abortions to ensure that abortions would not be performed on women and girls who were not actually pregnant. However, Lynn Thorgensen and Lynne Randall, co-directors of Feminist Women's Health Center opposed the measure, saying that it would delay abortions and increase costs. 

Both young women were Black -- a fact that made them at higher risk of abortion death for reasons that, to my knowledge, have never been investigated.

Watch the YouTube video.

Other women who have died after abortions at National Abortion Federation members include: Leigh Ann Alford, Gloria Aponte, Keisha Marie Atkins, Deanna Bell, Diane Boyd, Chanelle Bryant, Patricia Chacon, Geneva Colton, Barbaralee Davis, Laniece Dorsey, "Kyla Ellis", Josefina Garcia, Christin Gilbert, Sheila Hebert, Regina Johnson, Sandra Kaiser, "Imelda Laurence", Maria Leho, Susan Levy, Dawn Mack, "Haley Mason", Sophie McCoy, Jennifer McKenna-Morbelli, Denise Montoya, Kimberly Neil, Joyce Ortenzio,Venus Ortiz, Mary Pena, Catherine Pierce, Vanessa Preston, Dawn Ravenelle, Maria Rodriguez, Tamiia Russell, Oriene Shevin, Christi Stile, Latachie Veal, Chivon Williams, Diamond Williams, and Nichole Williams.

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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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