I missed two days

I've been so wrapped up in my research that I've totally forgotten to post for the past two days. There are no anniversaries in the Cemetery of Choice for today, the 24th, so I'll commemorate the women I missed blogging about on the 22nd and 23rd.

On January 22, 1900, Mrs. Barbara Shelgren, age 25, died at Augustana Hospital in Chicago of an abortion performed there that day. Paulina Bechtel, identified as a midwife, was arrested and held by Coroner's Jury and indicted of homicide by a grand jury, but the case was thrown out by Judge Holdom. Bechtel was implicated in the abortion death of Ida Henry in 1900, and went on to kill Mary Thorning in 1911.

On January 23, 1913, 33-year-old homemaker. Margaret Wagner died at Post Graduate Hospital in Chicago from an abortion perpetrated that day by midwife Caroline Orbach. Orbach was held by the Coroner on January 24. The case went to trial but Orbach was acquitted on November 25.

On January 23, 1914, 17-year-old Helen Kleich, who worked as a domestic, died in Chicago from sepsis, arising from an abortion performed that day by midwife Margared Wiedemann. Wiedemann was held by the Coroner for murder by abortion, but was acquitted.

On January 22, 1925, 17-year-old Jean Cohen, a Connecticut native, died at Chicago's Montrose Hospital from an abortion performed earlier that day. On January 31, Louise Hagenow was arrested in Jean's death. Louise Hagenow was an alias of Dr. Lucy Hagenow (pictured), whose known or suspected victims included Marie Hecht, May Putnam, Lola Madison, Annie Horvatich, Lottie Lowy, Nina H. Pierce, Bridget Masterson, Elizabeth Welter, and Mary Moorehead.

On January 23, 1925, 34-year-old Kate Radochouski died at Chicago's Lakeside Hospital from complications of an abortion performed that day. The Homicide in Chicago database says that she died at the scene of the crime, and that there was an arrest on February 11. But there is no name given for the person arrested.

On January 23, 1929, 22-year-old Edna Vargo died in Chicago from an abortion performed that day by Katherine Bajda. Bajda was identified as a homemaker. She was held by the Coroner on February 14. On March 15, she was indicted for felony murder in Edna's death.

On January 21, 1972, 26-year-old Kathryn Strong went to Civic Center Hospital in Oakland, California for a legal abortion that was to be performed by Dr. Harold Van Maren. During the procedure, her uterus was perforated. According to her medical records, she suffered extensive hemorrhage and shock. She died the following day, leaving a three-year-old son.

The January 22, 1980 death of Vanessa Preston stands out because, if you are willing to grant that Curtis Boyd (pictured) actually thought abortion was legitimate medical care, he can't be faulted at all for how he handled the case. Boyd was performing a second-trimester D&E on Vanessa when she suddenly went into cardiac arrest. He had emergency procedures in place, which he and his staff followed, managing to resuscitate Vanessa and have her promptly transported to a fully equipped hospital, where efforts to save her failed. She had developed a clotting disorder -- something that just happens sometimes in abortion or childbirth -- and bled to death from a small liver laceration that doctors at the hospital didn't realize had happened during CPR. The laceration was just one of those complications of CPR and not a sign that it was performed improperly. Boyd wrote up a case study for a medical journal to inform other abortionists of this tragedy and to alert them so that if these complications happened to their patients, perhaps those women could be saved.

Three Criminal Deaths

On January 21, 1919, 26-year-old Wanda Skrzypzak died at Chicago's St. Elizabeth's HospitalMichael Rozumski and Dr. John P. Wojtaleiwicz They were held by the Coroner for intentional manslaughter by abortion on January 22, and were indicted on February 15, but the case never went to trial. There were allegations of police corruption associated with the case.

On January 21 of 1926, 38-year-old homemaker Victoria Smith died in Chicago from a botched abortion, evidently performed at Jefferson Park Hospital. On January 26, the coroner pushed for the arrest of Peter Krakowski as the principal and Mary Sprochi as an accessory. Krakowski's profession is not given, though he might have been some sort of medical professional, since the abortion was performed at a hospital. On February 15, Krakowski was indicted for felony murder.

On January 21, 1961, Dr. Mandel M. Friedman contacted a Queens undertaker, asking him to arrange burial for 23-year-old Vivian Grant of New York. Friedman told the undertaker that Vivian, unmarried and working as a book editor, had died of a heart ailment. The undertaker notified authorities, who determined that although Vivian had not been pregnant, Friedman had attempted to perform an abortion on her, causing her death. Friedman was charged with homicide and falsifying a death certificate. While out on bail pending trial for Vivian's death, Friedman resurfaced, charged with homicide in the September 11, 1962 death of Barbara C. Covington, age 35, a Florida socialite. from an abortion perpetrated by Dr.

Five Equally Dead

I have very scanty information about the January 20, 1846 death of Mary Ackerly of White Plains, New York. Mary was the illiterate, uneducated daughter of a poor family. So it was only natural that she would be won by the charms of Harry Nelson, "a person of considerable wealth and influence" who lived near Sing Sing, and who brought her to a brothel in New York and forced her to undergo the fatal abortion at the hands of Dr. Shove.

On or around January 20, 1909, Florence Wright, a 34-year-old Black woman born in Kentucky, died in Chicago from complications of an illegal abortion performed on January 3. Midwife Louisa Achtenberg, a white woman, was held without bail for the crime of murder by abortion. She was indicted for murder but the source document doesn't indicate that there was a trial. Achtenberg was implicated in three other Chicago-area abortion deaths.

On January 20, 1910, homemaker Elizabeth Lambacher, age 27, died in Chicago from an abortion. A nurse or midwife named Mrs. Hopp was indicted by a grand jury. The source document does not indicate that the case ever went to trial.

According to Life Dynamics, "Andrea" Roe was 26 years old when she underwent a newly legalized abortion at a New York City abortion facility on January 12, 1971. After her abortion, Andrea contracted an infection. Her system was unable to fight the infection, and she died on January 20, 1971, leaving behind six children.

Linda Fondren, age 21, had a safe and legal abortion performed by Mohammad Pourtabib at Pre-Birth in Chicago on New Years Day, 1974. She suffered bleeding, but Pourtabib did not provide follow-up care. Linda was admitted to Cook County Hospital, where doctors performed an emergency hysterectomy and provided care until her death on January 20. She left behind a small child.

1880: Scanty information on abortion death

At the very beginning of 1880, Mary McCarty, wife of C.H. McCarty of New Haven, was the "unsuspecting and unfortunate victim of the criminal or culpably stupid operation" that ended her life. She was approximately 30 years old.
Dr. Banks was arrested on Pine Island.

1912: Doc's Efforts Kill Chicago Homemaker

On January 17, 1912, 38-year-old homemaker Minnie Miller died from an abortion perpetrated that day by Dr. C.W. Klinetop. Klintop was identified by Coroner's Verdict on January 26, but the case never went to trial.

Note, please, that with overall public health issues such as doctors not using proper aseptic techniques, lack of access to blood transfusions and antibiotics, and overall poor health to begin with, there was likely little difference between the performance of a legal abortion and illegal practice, and the aftercare for either type of abortion was probably equally unlikely to do the woman much, if any, good.

In fact, due to improvements in addressing these problems, maternal mortality in general (and abortion mortality with it) fell dramatically in the 20th Century, decades before Roe vs. Wade legalized abortion across America.

For more information about early 20th Century abortion mortality, see Abortion Deaths 1910-1919.

Five Tragic Anniversaries

There are so many anniversaries today that I can only provide brief snippets. Click on each woman's name to learn more about how abortion was the last choice she ever made.

On January 16, 1901, Jennie Mallard died at Alexian Brothers Hospital in Chicago from an abortion performed that day. Mrs. Margaret Simmons, who was either a nurse, a midwife, or a physician, was arrested and held in the death.

Jennie Martin, a 28-year-old homemaker, died January 16, 1906 from complications of a criminal abortion. Dr. William F. Briney was held by the coroner's jury.

On December 23, 1941, Dr. Samuel Roth was sentenced to a year in prison after pleading guilty to manslaughter in the illegal abortion death of a woman I identify as Jane Roe of 1937. Roth, whose license was suspended at the time, performed the abortion in his office on January 16, 1937.

Former abortion entrepreneur Carol Everett, in Blood Money, tells of how the abortionist in one of her clinics sent a woman home to bleed to death over a pitcher of margaritas. Carol opens her book with the story of the woman she calls "Sheryl Mason." At Life Dynamics, we did some detective work and found 34-year-old Shary Graham, who died January 16, 1982 after an abortion at one of Carol's Dallas-area abortion mills.

Thirty-eight-year-old Pamela A. Wainwright was admitted to Shallowford Community Hospital in Dunwoody, Georgia on January 15, 1987, for an abortion and tubal ligation. Pamela was taken to the operating room for her surgery the next day. Dr. Wendell Phillips placed a needle into Pamela's abdomen to pump in carbon dioxide. He did not ensure proper placement of the needle. Instead of pumping carbon dioxide into her abdomen, he pumped it into her bloodstream. Pamela died almost immediately from cardiac arrest, due to vapor lock in her heart.

Three Equally Dead

On January 15, 1907, 24-year-old housekeeper Sarah M. Cushing died in Wesley Hospital in Chicago, from complications of a criminal abortion performed there that day. A midwife named Gertrude Plenz was arrested on January 24, and held by the coroner's jury. Mrs. Plenz was also arrested in the abortion death of Margaret McCarthy in 1904.

On January 15, 1915, 22-year-old Margaret Jenickes died in Chicago after an abortion perpetrated that day, presumably by Dr. C.A. Erickson. Joseph Martin was also held. Though Erickson was indicted on February 1, the case never went to trial because the me wee exonerated by a Grand Jury. No other suspect in Margaret's death is mentioned in my sources.

Eurice Agbagaa, a 26-year-old immigrant from Ghana, went to Abram Zelikman for a safe, legal abortion on January 7, 1989. After the abortion, Eurice bled so heavily that the receptionist, Yolanda Penalzer, became alarmed and asked Zelikman to do something. Zelikman told her that the bleeding was normal and that she should put an ice bag on the patient. He then left the facility, leaving Yolada to care for the patients in recovery. Yolanda tried repeatedly to reach Zelikman at his home, but couldn't contact him. Finally she called an ambulance. The ambulance crew found Yolanda performing CPR on Eurice, who was in shock from bleeding due to a perforated uterus and severed abdominal artery. Eurice remained in a coma until her death in the early morning of January 15.

Eurice isn't the only woman who ended up having an abortion far later in the pregnancy than she intended. read more about
**Unintended Late Abortions**.

Two More Beneficiaries of Safe, Legal Abortion

Today's anniversaries mark the benefits of safe, legal abortion to a teenage girl and a young woman.

Christella Marie Forte, age 16, screamed, convulsed, and went into cardiac arrest 27 hours after instillation of saline for an abortion. at New Centre Hospital in Detroit on January 14, 1986. She died without ever expelling the 23-week fetus.The concentrated salt solution that had been injected into Christella's uterus to kill the fetus got into her bloodstream, poisoning her and causing cardiac arrest. What is particularly disgusting about Christella's death is how utterly needless it was: saline abortions had been discredited as far too dangerous for over a decade. The documents surrounding her death do not explain why her abortionist chose an outdated, high-risk procedure for his young patient.

Twenty-two-year-old Chanelle Marion Bryant was given the drugs for a safe and legal chemical abortion at a Family Planning Associates Medical Group facility in California. She was instructed to use the prostaglandin as a suppository, rather than take an oral prostaglandin. This off-label use is being investigated by the CDC and FDA after Chanelle and four other US women died of infection after RU-486 abortions. Chanelle suffered terrible pain four days after self-administering the medication. She sought emergency care at Huntington Memorial Hospital, where she died during surgery. Chanelle had been perfectly healthy before her abortion, according to her mother, Lynn Bryant.

Chanelle joined the sad ranks of women known to have died after FPA abortions: Denise Holmes,Mary Pena, Josefina Garcia, Lanice Dorsey, Joyce Ortenzio, Tami Suematsu, Christina Mora, Susan Levy,Patricia Chacon, Kimberly Neil, and Deanna Bell. FPA is a member of the National Abortion Federation, an organization that ostensibly ensures that abortions are done safely.

Fruits of "Abortion Care" -- 1911, 1915, and 2005

On January 13, 1911, 27-year-old homemaker Rauha Wilen died at the scene of an abortion. Midwife Mary Rominel was arrested and indicted by a grand jury.

On January 13, 1915, 23-year-old Mrs. Beulah Rehm died at Wesley Hospital after an abortion perpetrated at Dr. A.L. Blunt's Chicago practice. Blunt was held by the Coroner but the case never went to trial. He did, however, eventually end up in Leavenworth for drug dealing.

Moving forward in time to the safe, legal days of competent, compassionate abortion care, we have the case of Christin Gilbert (pictured), a 19-year-old woman with Down Syndrome pregnant through sexual abuse by an undetermined perpetrator. Christin's parents brought her to George Tiller's late-term abortion practice in Wichita, where they cared for her themselves in a motel room between visits to the facility for the various steps in achieving the death and expulsion of Christin's unborn baby. In spite of serious complications, Christin was not taken to the hospital until she stopped breathing in Tiller's clinic, under the care of that other hero doctor of legal abortion supporters, LeRoy Carhart. Clinic staff lied to 911 about Christin's condition, and when medics arrived Carhart was being so inept in his attempts at resuscitation that he was mistaken for a bystander. Christin was taken to a hospital but the damage was done and she died on January 13, 2005.

Four Victims of Abortionists

On January 12, 1900, Mrs. Ida Henry, age 26, died at the home she shared with Dr. Paulina Bechtel, from complications of an abortion Bechtel had performed on her there that day. Bechtel was held by the Coroner's Jury. Bechtel was also implicated in the death of Barbara Shelgren shortly thereafter, but was identified as a midwife in that case. According to Leslie Reagan, author of When Abortion Was a Crime, it was common for female physicians to be misidentified as midwives, particularly if they practiced obstetrics. Bechtel went on to kill Mary Thorning in 1911.

On January 12, 1912, 19-year-old Lottie Roeder died at St. Elizabeth's hospital from an abortion perpetrated on January 5 by a nurse/midwife referred to as "Mrs. Theodore Larson." Larson was held by the Coroner's Jury on January 12 and indicted, but the case never went to trial.

Shirley Williams was 30 years old when she underwent a safe and legal abortion in January of 1980. On January 12, she was pronounced dead, from hemorrhage.

Former criminal abortionist and prochoice hero Milan Vuitch (pictured) had been operating his clinic without a license for two years when 32-year-old Georgianna "Jeannie" English came to him for a safe and legal abortion on January 12, 1980. Vuitch administered general anesthesia for Jeannie, and she never woke up. She was transported to a nearby hospital where she died. Vuitch settled with Jeannie's family for $150,000. When Vuitch was investigated, it was discovered that he kept patients overnight in his home (an unlicensed facility) which he designated "The Annexe." Inspectors also noted repeated violations of medical standards regarding sanitation and anesthesia. Vuitch also admitted during another case that he had lacked hospital admitting privileges since 1963. Vuitch was also responsible for the 1974 abortion death of 17-year-old Wilma Harris.

Vuitch is one of three abortionists I know of who started out as criminal abortionists with clean records -- no patient deaths attributed to them -- who went on to kill two patient by performing the supposedly safer legal abortions. They are Jesse Ketchum (Margaret Smith and Carole Schaner) and Benjamin Munson (Linda Padfield and Yvonne Mesteth).

Two Equally Dead

Today's first death is one of the illegal kind the abortion lobby gets upset about. The second is of the safe and legal kind that are dismissed with, "All surgery has risks."

On January 9, 1918, 39-year-old Mary Cusack nee Kelly, a widowed homemaker, died at Chicago's West Side Hospital from an abortion perpetrated that day by Dr. William A. McFarlane. He was indicted on January 15, 1918, but the case never went to trial. Mary was an immigrant from Ireland.

Note, please, that with overall public health issues such as doctors not using proper aseptic techniques, lack of access to blood transfusions and antibiotics, and overall poor health to begin with, there was likely little difference between the performance of a legal abortion and illegal practice. In fact, due to improvements in addressing these problems, maternal mortality in general (and abortion mortality with it) fell dramatically in the 20th Century, decades before Roe vs. Wade legalized abortion across America.

For more information about early 20th Century abortion mortality, see Abortion Deaths 1910-1919.



For more on pre-legalization abortion, see The Bad Old Days of Abortion

Life Dynamics lists 17-year-old Sharon Davis on their "Blackmun Wall" of women killed by safe and legal abortions. Life Dynamics says that Sharon was a high school student, 14 weeks pregnant, when she submitted to an abortion at a hospital in Tucumcari, New Mexico on September 20, 1982. Her uterus and bowel were perforated, and she developed an infection.
For over three months, she was treated for her infection before she died on January 9, 1983.

Three Equally Dead

On January 8, 1918, 20-year-old homemaker Margaret Marie Balch, nee Farnsworth, died in a Chicago home from an abortion perpetrated by a person who was never identified.

With overall public health issues such as doctors not using proper aseptic techniques, lack of access to blood transfusions and antibiotics, and overall poor health to begin with, abortion, like any invasion of the body by outside instruments, was far more likely to cause death than it is today. In fact, due to improvements in addressing these problems, maternal mortality in general (and abortion mortality with it) fell dramatically in the 20th Century, decades before Roe vs. Wade legalized abortion across America.



And as you can see, even after legalization, women continue to die from abortions.

Twenty-five-year-old Rita G. Goncalves took ill after her safe and legal abortion in late 1983. At some point after her abortion, she was taken to Roger Williams General Hospital in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. There, she died on January 8, 1984, from abortion complications. So little information is available about her death that I can not conclude whether this was a case of malpractice or just an example of, as abortion advocates love to point out when confronted with safe, legal abortion deaths, "All surgery has risks."

The same can not be said about the January 8, 2004 death of 15-year-old Tamiia Russell (pictured), who was pregnant as a result of sexual exploitation by Stacy Glenn, a man nearly ten years her senior. Glenn's sister, Taish, hauled Tamiia around Detroit to one abortion facility after the other, looking for somebody willing to perform an abortion very late in the pregnancy. Tamiia's pregnancy was so far advanced, in fact, that one abortion facility offered her prenatal vitamins. Finally, National Abortion Federation member clinic Woman Care, run by Medical Students for Choice hero Abraham Alberto Hodari, agreed to abort Tamiia's six-month pregnancy, taking the proffered ID of an older teen, who looked nothing like Tamiia, to circumvent Michigan's parental consent law. Laminaria were inserted to dilate Tamiia's cervix, and she was sent home. Only then did her mother learn of the abortion-in-progress. She called Woman Care, wanting to have the laminaria removed and her unborn grandchild saved. Woman Care lied, telling her that Tamiia would die if the abortion was not completed. Tamiia's reluctant mother took her in for the procedure and took her bleeding daughter home. Woman Care dismissed calls reporting excessive bleeding, and instructed Tamiia's family not to take her to a hospital. They ignored these instructions and called an ambulance, but Tamiaa was dead on arrival from hemorrhage.

Two Doctors' Fatal Handiwork

On January 7, 1901, 21-year-old Juliet K. Pottinger (alt. Julia K. Pettinger) died in her home at 520 Wood St., Chicago, from an abortion performed there that day. Dr. Maggie Becker was arrested April 24, based on a coroner's verdict that day. Juliet had been a homemaker. Her husband, 23-year-old James A. Pottinger, was left to raise their toddler daughter. Becker was held to grand jury, tried, convicted, and sentenced to 14 years in Joilet Penitentiary. Julia's abortion was typical of criminal abortions in that it was performed by a physician.

Note, please, that with overall public health issues such as doctors not using proper aseptic techniques, lack of access to blood transfusions and antibiotics, and overall poor health to begin with, there was likely little difference between the performance of a legal abortion and illegal practice, and the aftercare for either type of abortion was probably equally unlikely to do the woman much, if any, good. For more about abortion and abortion deaths in the first years of the 20th century, see Abortion Deaths 1900-1909.

The January 7, 1922 death of Irene Michaelson of Philadelphia presents ground for head-scratching. Irene reportedly died of peritonitis at City Hospital in Atlantic City, New Jersey, after leaping from the second-story window of the Bricker Sanitarium, "in the heart of the most exclusive residential section of Atlantic City." Dr. William H. Bricker Jr., of Philadelphia and Atlantic City, was was captured in Philadelphia. At trial, he, was found guilty of performing the abortion that killed Irene and was sentenced to 10 to 15 years in prison, and fined $5,000. News coverage says, "Bricker collapsed when sentence was pronounced."



For more on pre-legalization abortion, see The Bad Old Days of Abortion

Two Chicago Deaths, Two Decades Apart

Twenty-eight-year-old Ida Vierow was found dead in a ditch near Dunning, Illinois. It was determined that she had died January 6, 1905, from an abortion performed in Chicago. Two midwives, Amella Maichrowicz and Anna Becker, were arrested, along with Maichrowicz's husband, Joseph.

On December 30, 1923, 26-year-old Helen Koss underwent an illegal abortion somewhere in Chicago. On January 6, 1924, she died at Norwegian American Hospital of complications. Midwife Mrs. Emma Morch was arrested, and indicted for homicide by a grand jury. Helen, the daughter of German immigrants Carl and Rose Koss, lived with her widowed mother and three grown siblings. She worked as a clerk in an office.

1930: Russian immigrant dies at unknown perp's hands

On January 5, 1930, bookkeeper Sonia Ragins, age 26, died from an illegal abortion performed at an unknown location by an unknown person. On January 6 the coroner recommended identification and arrest of the guilty party.

Two Criminal, Two Legal, All Lethal

Margaret Crowe, age 25, died from Dr. Anna Sorenson's dubious care at Chicago's Norwegian Deaconnes Hospital on January 2, 1918.

Mary Strugnall, age 17, died January 2, 1929 from an abortion performed that day by Dr. Joseph A. Harter. Harter was held by the coroner on February 28. His brother, a student named Irving Harter, and Vernon Keyser, the baby's father, were arrested as accessories.

"Amy" is one of the women Life Dynamics identifies on their "Blackmun Wall" as having been killed by a safe and legal abortion. Amy was 35 years old when she had a legal abortion December 24, 1970. She was 14 weeks pregnant. During the abortion, Amy suffered from a massive pulmonary embolism. Efforts to save her life finally failed, and she died on January 2, 1971, leaving behind two children.

Sherry Emry's friends were worried about her as 1977 rolled over into 1978. She'd been sick, unable to rise from bed, pale and sleeping fitfully, with chills and sweating. They came to check on her as the day started on January 2, and found her dead in her bed. The autopsy found that she had bled to death from an undiagnosed ectopic pregnancy. The coroner blamed Sherry's death on the fact that Arnold Bickham's Water Tower Reproductive Center in Chicago, where Sherry had submitted to an abortion on December 28, threw fetal remains away without a pathology analysis. The police found that Sherry had a receipt from Water Tower indicating a $50 discount. They hypothesized that staff might have noted the lack of a fetus in the aspirator, concluded that Sherry hadn't been pregnant, and given her a partial refund rather than provide her with the follow up care that would have saved her life.

Sherry wasn't the only woman to die after abortion in a Bickham facility. Sylvia Moore, age 18, died after Bickham (pictured) shoved her out the door of his clinic New Years Eve of 1986. Bickham was eventually drummed out of the medical profession, and became a high school principal. I'm still tracking down information about his less-than-stellar post-abortion career. But at least he stopped killing people for a living.

Is Only Today's First Anniversary the Outrageous Death?

On December 31, 1917, 40-year-old homemaker Victoria Chmileuski died in her Chicago home from an abortion perpetrated by Wilhemena Benn, whose profession is given only as "abortion provider". Benn was prosecuted, but acquitted on March 7, 1918.

Those who respond with sadness and outrage at Victoria's unsafe illegal abortion death might find it in their hearts to muster a bit of sadness, and a lot of outrage, over our safe and legal anniversary today.

Eighteen-year-old Sylvia Jane Moore underwent a safe and legal abortion at the hands of Arnold Bickham on New Year's Eve of 1986. She was in the second trimester of her pregnancy, but Bickham used a suction technique suitable for a first-trimester pregnancy. After the abortion, Bickham gave Sylvia repeated injections of Demerol because she was reporting severe abdominal cramps.

According to Sylvia's mother, Sylvia was bleeding, weak, and unable to walk. When Sylvia tried to get to her feet and collapsed, Bickham called her "lazy," put her in a wheelchair, and physically ejected her from his Chicago clinic.

Sylvia's mother took her to a nearby hospital, where staff tried in vain to save Sylvia, who had arrived with no pulse and no blood pressure. An emergency hysterectomy was done to remove her lacerated uterus, which still had a plastic instrument embedded in it. The instrument was embedded in a 6.5 cm laceration, and Sylvia also had a 2.2 cm laceration of her vagina. Sylvia bled to death.

Bickham claimed that he "didn't think there was anything wrong" with Sylvia, and said that he'd merely been helping her with the wheelchair. He blamed Sylvia's death on the hospital, saying, "They were successful in repairing the damage done in the abortion, but in doing that, they perforated an artery causing there to be blood loss in the chest cavity. That was something she was not able to survive." The autopsy report, however, noted the chest tube incision but noted "lungs are well expanded and the pleural cavities are free of fluid and adhesions." An attorney with the Department of Professional Regulation said, "This patient would never have been allowed to leave Bickham's clinic with her mother.

The postmortum report said: "The circumstances of injury, review of the Medical records, the findings at autopsy examination, and subsequent investigation of the circumstances of the case provide evidence of gross negligence and abandonment on the part of the original treating physician. In consideration of the above, the manner of death is determined to be Homicide." However, no charges were pressed against Bickham.

The suit filed by Sylvia's survivors noted that Bickahm had failed to perform an ultrasound, and failed to have adequate staff or equipment. The specimen of abortion tissue sent from clinic contained segments of placental tissue, umbilical cord, and fetal intestinal parts and liver.

Today's Anniversary Calls For More Research

On December 29, 1907, 19-year-old Marcie Mayer died in St. Elizabeth's hospital in Chicago from complications of a criminal abortion. Mary Bing, a midwife, was arrested, tried, and sentenced to Joliet. A man named John Mansfield was also held by the coroner's jury, but acquitted by the judge. Marcie's abortion was atypical in that it was not performed by a physician.

A search for more details on Marcie's death has led only to a mystery: The Coroner's Inquest Database lists a Mamie Meyer, rather than a Marcie Mayer, as having died on that date, with the inquest on the same date that Mary Bing was held by the coroner. It's getting to the point where I'm juggling my finances, wondering how and when I'm going to be able to get to Chicago and slog through the 75 coroner's inquests I've identified as holding more information I need.

When I do research like this, I'm struck with the contrast between my own work and the "research" done by abortion advocacy organizations on criminal abortion deaths. If you click women's names in my blog, you'll be taken to the women's pages on my Cemetery of Choice wiki. There, I cite my sources. When you go to prochoice pages that belabor illegal abortion deaths, you'll notice what's missing: sources. They simply assert their stories and leave it at that.

What really puzzles me about the whole thing is how many verifiable cases there are. And it's not like their own researchers haven't found them. Leslie Reagan did extensive and meticulous research for When Abortion Was a Crime. (Follow the link and read at least some of it.) Why do abortion advocacy organizations instead fuel their fires with unverified stories? That is a mystery deeper than Marcie/Mamie Mayor/Meyer's name.

1921: Mystery Abortionist Kills Immigrants' Daughter

On December 28, 1921, Belle Keehn died at the Chicago Lying-In Hospital from an abortion perpetrated by an unknown doctor on or about November 27. Documents are unclear as to how it was determined that the perpetrator was a doctor. The hospital was a reputable facility, not a seedy abortionarium, so Belle would have received superior care as doctors tried to save her life.

Belle, a native of Wisconsin, was married to Max Keehn and worked as a housekeeper. She was the daughter of immigrants -- Frank Luzenski of Poland, and Mary (Weir) Luzenski of Germany.

Keep in mind that things that things we take for granted, like antibiotics and blood banks, were still in the future. For more about abortion in this era, see Abortion in the 1920s.


For more on pre-legalization abortion, see The Bad Old Days of Abortion

1919: Unidentified perp leaves Pennsylvania woman dead

On December 26, 1919, Rose Kulamer, a 33-year-old homemaker who had emigrated from Hungary, died at Columbia Hospital in Wilkensberg, Pennsylvania. The coroner found that she had died of septicemia from an abortion, and recommended that the person responsible be identified and arrested.

Note, please, that with overall public health issues such as doctors not using proper aseptic techniques, lack of access to blood transfusions and antibiotics, and overall poor health to begin with, there was likely little difference between the performance of a legal abortion and illegal practice, and the aftercare for either type of abortion was probably equally unlikely to do the woman much, if any, good. For more information about early 20th Century abortion mortality, see Abortion Deaths 1910-1919.

Two Holiday Tragedies

On December 23, 1885, Dr. Truman Sawdy's 21-year-old daughter, Sylvia, was in Grand Rapids, Michigan, ostensibly visiting the mother of Harry McDowell, the young man who had been courting her. Sylvia had left her home in Howard City by train to make the 40-mile trip on December 10. Dr. Sawdy hadn't heard of or from her since she'd left. And he was never going to hear from her again. On the morning of Christmas Eve, Harry's father came to the house and said that he'd heard from Harry. Sylvia had taken ill and wanted her mother, Cornelia, to go to her. The following day, Christmas day, Dr. Sawdy opened his newspaper and read that his daughter was dead. It came out in the trial that in November, Sylvia had consulted with Drs. Bodle, Hake, and Bradish, indicating that she was pregnant. Evidence indicated that McDowell had performed an abortion on Sylvia on December 23, and that she died that day. McDowell was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to 15 years.

"Kimberly" was 25 years old and 18 weeks pregnant when she underwent a safe, legal pre-Roe abortion in New York City on December 23, 1970. During the abortion, she went into cardiac arrest and died, leaving behind two children.

Three Pre-Roe Anniversaries

On December 21, 1915, 34-year-old Anna Hunt died at Chicago's Rhodes Avenue Hospital from complications of an abortion perpetrated that day by an unknown person.

On December 21, 1926, fifteen-year-old Emily Mueller died from a criminal abortion performed December 11 somewhere in Chicago. Midwife Magdelane Stegeman, alias Motzny, was indicted for felony murder by the Grand Jury on February 15, 1927. According to the Cook County Death Index, Emily was the daughter of William and Josephine (Krajecki) Meuller and, in spite of her youth, worked as a stenographer.

Denise J. Holmes, a 24-year-old Australian woman living in Texas, decided to undergo a safe and legal abortion at Avalon Hospital in Los Angeles, California, on her way home for Christmas of 1970. Denise checked into Avalon Hospital (an abortion facility owned by Edward Campbell Allred) on December 21. She suffered an amniotic fluid embolism that carried pieces of fetal bone marrow into her lungs. She was pronounced dead by Edward Allred at Avalon at 5pm.

Denise is the first confirmed abortion death at an Allred facility. She was just the first to die before the National Abortion Federation was founded, with Allred's Family Planning Associates Medical Group as a member. Others known to have died after abortion at Allred's facilities include Patricia Chacon, Mary Pena, Josefina Garcia, Laniece Dorsey, Joyce Ortenzio, Tami Suematsu, Susan Levy, Deanna Bell, Christina Mora, Kimberly Neil, and Chanelle Bryant.

A Death from the Dark Ages and one from Our Enlightened Age

On December 13, 1926, 23-year-old Chicago native Mary Paradowski underwent a criminal abortion. She died on December 20 at Chicago Hospital. On January 15, 1927, midwife Josephine Petrova was indicted for felony murder in Mary's death.


Keep in mind that things that things we take for granted, like antibiotics and blood banks, were still in the future. For more about abortion in this era, see Abortion in the 1920s. For more on pre-legalization abortion, see The Bad Old Days of Abortion.

Fast forward to our more enlightened and woman-loving era. Jennifer M. Halner, 27 years old, died in Maryland on December 21, 1997, after a purportedly safe, legal abortion at Potomac Family Planning for a safe, legal abortion. She was given Versed (for sedation and memory impairment), Sublimaze (a short-acting narcotic used for short-duration pain control), Propofol (a sedative for anesthesia), with Lidocaine, a local anesthetic. She was taken off the monitor in recovery even though she was already showing signs of a possible life-threatening complication. A nurse noticed and asked a doctor for some medication -- on two different occasions, because the first drug the nurse asked for didn't help -- but no doctor went to evaluation Jennifer's condition. Only when the nurse noticed that Jennifer had no pulse or respiration was she able to get a doctor do help. He started resuscitation, using the wrong equipment.Only after numerous clumsy attempts to revive the patient themselves did staff do what they should have done at the first sign of life-threatening trouble: call 911. The medics arrived and started actually providing appropriate emergency care, and took Jennifer to a hospital. Hospital staff managed to stabilize her, but only temporarily since the damage had already been done.

1921: Oklahoma-born Woman Dies in Chicago

On December 19, 1921, 18-year-old Marie Pickle died in Chicago after an abortion perpetrated by Clarence Shoere, who was identified as a nurse or midwife. Shoere was held by the coroner but not tried.

Marie, a native of Howe, Oklahoma, was a single Black woman whose occupation was listed as "Housework, general." SHe was the daughter of Robert and Bertha (Walters) Pickle.

Keep in mind that things that things we take for granted, like antibiotics and blood banks, were still in the future. For more about abortion in this era, see Abortion in the 1920s.

external image Illegals.png

For more on pre-legalization abortion, see The Bad Old Days of Abortion

Three Illegal Abortion Deaths -- The Last With a Twist

On December 28, 1871, a Coroner's Jury was called to investigate the death of Mrs. Amanda McCoy. Amanda had died at the home of Dr. Fahlbusch, a German woman practicing as a midwife and described as "of good reputation." She was cleared of any suspicion in Amanda's death. The Coroner's Jury concluded that Amanda had undergone her fatal abortion before coming into the city.

On December 18, 1923, 40-year-old Sophia Hartozinski died at Chicago's County Hospital due to a criminal abortion performed there that day. The coroner identified midwife Mary Roback as having been responsible for Sophia's death.

News articles indicate Myrta Baptiste, age 26, had a safe and legal abortion of her 10 week pregnancy performed by Orlando Zaldivar at Woman's Care Clinic December 18, 1982. Myrta arrived at the hospital in critical condition due to delay of transfer by the clinic staff. She bled to death from two uterine perforations. Zaldivar could not be reached for seven hours while hospital staff were struggling to save his patient's life. Since Zaldivar's license was inactive at the time he performed Myrta's abortion, the CDC classified her death as being due to illegal abortion rather than legal abortion. The other deaths at that facility -- Ruth Montero, Shirley Payne, and Maura Morales -- were counted as legal abortion deaths.

1914: Unknown Perp Leaves Three Children Motherless

On December 17, 1914, 24-year-old Emma Fertig, wife of Edward Fertig, died at Chicago's West Side Hospital from an abortion performed by an unknown perpetrator. She left behind three children: Howard (1910), Evalyn (1912), and George (1913).

Note, please, that with overall public health issues such as doctors not using proper aseptic techniques, lack of access to blood transfusions and antibiotics, and overall poor health to begin with, there was likely little difference between the performance of a legal abortion and illegal practice, and the aftercare for either type of abortion was probably equally unlikely to do the woman much, if any, good.

In fact, due to improvements in addressing these problems, maternal mortality in general (and abortion mortality with it) fell dramatically in the 20th Century, decades before Roe vs. Wade legalized abortion across America.

For more information about early 20th Century abortion mortality, see Abortion Deaths 1910-1919.

For more on pre-legalization abortion, see The Bad Old Days of Abortion

Legal and Illegal, Six Anniversaries

Today marks many tragic anniversaries. Click on each woman's name to learn more about her.

"How Mrs. Seifred was Killed by Female Quacks -- The Verdict of a Jury" reads the subhead on a December 29, 1874 edition of The Brooklyn Eagle. The paper was covering the coroner's inquest into the December 16 death of Christine Seifred. Christine had been unfaithful to her husband when he was away in Europe, and when he returned and learned of the pregnancy, he left her. Christine went to a midwife, Mrs. Johanna White, "whose den is at No. 99 Station street, when an operation was performed, from the effects of which both the woman and the child died."

On December 11, 1911, 34-year-old homemaker Mary Thorning underwent an abortion performed by Paulina Bechtel. The Homicide in Chicago Interactive Database indicates that Mary died at the scene that day, but her memorial at Find-a-Grave indicates that she actually died on December 16, leaving behind her husband, John, and daughter, Ruth. (If you leave a message at Find-a-Grave, keep in mind that Mary's daughter and grandchildren are likely still alive. Show discretion.)

On December 16, 1925, 22-year-old factory worker Bridget Masterson died in her Chicago home from a botched abortion. Police were able to question Bridget prior to her death, but she refused to implicate anybody. John O'Malley, a boarder and the father of Bridget's baby, committed suicide by gas after learning of Bridget's death. He left a note implicating "a lady doctor at 310 W. North Ave." This was the address of notorious Chicago quack abortionist Dr. Lucy Hagenow.

Barbara Auerbach was 38 years old when she went to a New York hospital for a safe, legal abortion and tubal ligation, performed December 11, 1982. The autopsy showed that Barbara died on December 16 from an obstruction of her small bowel, which caused massive infection

Mary Pena underwent a safe and legal abortion at San Vincente Hospital in Los Angeles. During the procedure, Mary sustained two cervical lacerations, and because she was bleeding heavily, a hysterectomy was performed in an effort to save her life. The surgery was not successful, and at 1:50 am on December 16, 1984, she died while on the operating table. Mary was 43 years old and the mother of five. Abortion entrepreneur Dr. Edward Allred slipped Mary through the morgue without an autopsy, but Kern County Health Department found the death certificate fishy and ordered the autopsy that revealed the malpractice that had killed her.

Venus Ortiz died in a nursing home on December 16, 1998, of lingering complications of a botched abortion she underwent at age 23 in 1993 at National Abortion Federation member Eastern Women's Center. Venus had remained in a permanent vegetative state for the remainder of her life. Two other patients, Dawn Ravenelle and Dawn Mack, also died of complications of abortions done at Eastern Women's Center.
throughout her body.

Two Beneficiaries of Safety and Legality

Twenty-year-old LaSandra Russ, from Berkley, California, went to Los Angeles to have an abortion on December 13, 1971. She was six weeks pregnant. The abortion was performed at Memorial Hospital of Hawthorne the next day, December 14. LaSandra went into cardiac arrest almost immediately after the abortion. Attempts were made to revive her, but she was finally pronounced dead on December 15, 1971.

Abortionist Andre Nehorayoff was disciplined over the abortion death of a patient identified by the medical board as "Patient F." Since other accounts of her death refer to her as "Faye Roe," I will use this pseudonym as well.

Faye was 19 years old when she went to Nehorayoff's office for a safe and legal abortion on December 15, 1979, for an abortion. Nehorayoff failed to record an adequate history or medical exam for Faye. Nehorayoff left Faye in a recovery room at 2:25 p.m., without any monitoring. When somebody finally checked on her an hour later, she was cyanotic (blue) and had no pulse. She was pronounced dead at a hospital. Nehorayoff was also disciplined regarding Patient E, an 18-year-old patient who bled to death after Nehorayoff sent her home in 1983 with a fetal leg still in her uterus. Nehorayoff's other cases are described here.

How Lead Leads to Lead and Reveals More on Abortion Death

My original research on the November 18, 1942 abortion death of 26-year-old Madeline McGeehan was based on New York Times articles.

Recently I started doing one of my periodic prowls through Find-a-Grave, looking for leads to additional information about the Cemetery of Choice women and I found a memorial for Madlyon McGeehan.

At first I did bad math and calculated the Luzurne County Madlyon as being 36 years old, became bewildered, and decided to do a little more investigating. It seemed unlikely that two women with different spellings of the same name both died in the Bronx on the same day. How could I reconcile a 10-year age difference?

Well, thank God for bad math, because otherwise I'd not have gone delving for more, and I'd not have learned more about Madlyon's life and tragic death.

This AP story published in a Texas paper on November 27, 1942, reveals that 58-year-old Dr. Joseph Nisonoff, the abortionist, was held on $150,000 bail on a charge of homicide in connection with Madlyon's peritonitis death. Nisonoff's nurse, Camille Ewald, was held on $50,000 bail, and the "friend," Henry Elters, was held on $15,000 as a material witness.

Elters reportedly told Assistant District Attorney James Carney that he had known Madlyon
for about seven years, and that they had gone to Nisonoff's office in Queens on an unspecified date, and gave Ewald $600. She told Elters to "take a walk." He returned to find Madlyon resting on a couch. On November 15, Elters was told that Madlyon needed a blood transfusion. She was admitted to Prospect Hospital as Betty McGee. After her death there, she was correctly identified by her sister, Mary, who had come came from the family home at Hazleton, PA, to claim Madlyon's body.

During six hours of questioning, Nisonoff himself denied any connection with Madlyon's death.

Madlyon was an OPA employee who had been living in Washington DC.

Sharon's Death: Your Tax Dollars at Work

First, a little background.

In one session of a National Abortion Federation Risk Management Seminar, a participant indicated that when he pulled bowel (extracted part of a patient's bowel through a perforation in her uterus), his preferred method of treatment (if you can call it that) was to stuff the bowel back through the perforation, administer medications to make the uterus contract and control bleeding, monitor the woman more carefully in recovery, and if she seemed okay, send her home none the wiser.

The moderator was appalled. He pointed out that even if there was no obvious injury to the bowel, it might be bruised and damaged. The recommended procedure is to admit the patient to the hospital and examine her bowel, and observe her for signs of further injury. The moderator then asked how many of the other participants followed this method of stuffing the bowel back in and hoping for the best. Six participants raised their hands to be counted.

I knew it was only a matter of time before one of these bowel-stuffing abortionists killed somebody. That's where the unwitting Sharon Hamptlon (left) stepped into the picture. She went to Bruce Steir (rhymes with fear) at A Lady's Choice Women's Medical Center for a safe, legal abortion on December 13, 1996. She was 20 weeks pregnant.

Steir remained at the facility for about an hour after Sharon's abortion. She was still in the recovery room when he left.

Excerpts from Doris's statement to the medical board can be found at ...And So I Could Hold You and You Could Go to Sleep. I'll let her tell the story:

Maybe around 3:00 pm I took Curtis inside to use the bathroom. I saw a grey haired man dressed in green surgical clothes sitting at a desk. He said, "You know she is far along." I said, "No. I didn't know because she didn't tell me." Then I saw Sharon in the recovery room about 3:30 or 4:00 pm. She looked so bad that I felt scared. She was laying on a lazyboy style chair with an IV in her left arm and a blood pressure cuff on the other. She looked very pale. Her eyes were partially open and I could see only the whites of her eyes as if she were in shock. She was not speaking and her whole body was shaking real hard in big shivers. Her legs were especially bad. The doctor said, "She doesn't react to drugs well." .... A woman came in and said that Sharon didn't need the blankets that were on her already and pulled the blankets off. Other girls in the recovery room were vomiting and the attendant woman told the girls to keep vomiting, that vomiting was good for them at this time. I went back to the waiting room and a Spanish lady came out and said that Sharon would be ready in a few minutes as soon as the IV finished.

Sharon was in the recovery for only about 45 minutes, because at 5:00 pm they came out and said she was ready to leave. I heard someone say that the doctor was real busy and he had to rush out like he was going to the airport, something about him having to go to Sacramento or San Francisco. I saw two women struggling to place Sharon in a wheelchair. Sharon could not walk at all and she was not speaking. She looked very, very pale now.

....On the way home to Barstow, I stopped at Wendy's to get a sandwich for little Curtis. I tried to wake Sharon but all she said was "Huh, Huh." Then Curtis said, "Mamma, I love you. Do you need anything? Are you okay?" And Sharon said, "Okay. I'll take a drink." Sharon was lying in the backseat of the car and said to Curtis, "Come on back with me Curtis. I love you and so I could hold you and you could go to sleep." She was silent for about one hour. Near Victorville, she said, "I'm so hot. Please let the window down." I opened the window a bit. After that, Sharon was silent forever.

We got home to Barstow and I saw that Sharon, still laying in the back seat was naked from the waist up, having removed her shirt, shoes and socks. I started yelling, "Sharon. Sharon. Wake up," but she didn't and my husband, Ben Hamptlon, said, "Call 911."

According to Nancy Myles, an untrasound technician who was assisting Steir during Sharon's abortion, Steir was having trouble locating and extracting the fetal skull. She said that he looked at her strangely and said, "I think I pulled bowel."

Steir was already on probation with the medical board at the time of Sharon's abortion; he had a history of botching abortions, including causing uterine perforations. He'd been found negligent in six abortion cases, including three in which the woman had to undergo a hysterectomy. One woman had to have a fetal skull removed from a tear in her uterus. Steir surrendered his licence in 1997, in the wake of the fallout surrounding Sharon's death.

Pro-choice organizations, including the national leadership of NOW, and the National Abortion Federation and the California Abortion and Reproduction Rights League, rallied around Steir. One supporter stood outside the courthouse with a sign reading, "Abortion doctors are heroes, defend Dr. Bruce Steir." The Feminist Women's Health Center in Chico, with whom he once was affiliated, set up a "defense committee" and raised funds for his legal expenses.

Joseph Durante, who owned the facility, was also on probation with the medical board at the time of Sharon's fatal abortion. He had attempted a late abortion which resulted in the birth of a live but injured infant.

Sharon was a single mother who worked part-time at Burger King while attending community college. Sharon's mother said that she wanted to go off welfare and become a nurse. California taxpayers ffunded the fatal abortion through Medi-Cal.

Steir eventually plea bargained. He was sentenced to a year in prison, with six months of the sentence suspended in leiu of community service. He was also given five years' probation. At the sentencing hearing, four years after Sharon's death, Sharon's father said he still often pulled his car to the side of the road, looked at his daughter's picture, and wept.

Steir was released after serving only four months of his sentence.
Again, from Doris Hamplton's statement:

I don't know how she heard about Dr. Durante's offices. I think he was recommended by the people at San Bernardino County Social Services or by Dr. Krider. Sharon was on Medi-Cal and had Pacific Care as the Medi-Cal managed care agent. I understand that because Dr. Durante and Dr. Steir were on probation they were not entitled to Medi-Cal payment, but they got it anyway. I understand that their office was not accredited as an ambulatory surgical office, and that it was supposed to be accredited to comply with the law. I had no idea that Dr. Durante and Dr. Steir were on probation with the Medical Board for incompetence and negligence against women patients. I am sure that Sharon did not know either. If I had known, I would never have taken Sharon to such a bad place with such bad doctors. I learned about their records in the newspaper articles.

....I cry every day for the terrible loss of my daughter, and I am overwhelmed that 3 year old Curtis had his mother taken away forever. My husband, Ben Hamptlon, (father of Sharon), is sick with grief, has terrible head pain, is under the care of a doctor for this and has been taking strong pain medicine since Sharon's death. My prayer is that these doctors be stopped immediately so that no other girl will be killed and that no other family will have to suffer as we have.

Two Anniversaries, Criminal and Legal

On December 12, 1930, 22-year-old Jeanette Reder died from complications of a criminal abortion performed at the Chicago office of Dr. Emil Gleitsman. Gleitsman was indicted by a grand jury for homicide, but was acquitted on June 15, 1931. The source does not clarify why there was enough evidence to indict Gleitsman, but not enough to convict him. Gleitsman, a rather dogged abortionist, was also implicated in the deaths of 22-year-old Lucille van Iderstine and 21-year-old Mary Colbert. Click on Jeanette's name to learn more about her and the man who killed her.

Thirty-year-old Sandra Williams was 11 weeks pregnant when whe underwent an abortion on December 12, 1984. She went home following the abortion. Less than twelve hours later, she was dead. Her death certificate noted that she died from a pulmonary embolism.

1914: Unknown Perpetrator Kills Young Teen

On December 10, 1914, 13-year-old Ida Kaufman died in a Chicago home after an abortion performed by an unknown perpetrator. I've been unable to learn any more details, such as who was responsible for Ida's pregnancy or who arranged the fatal abortion.

Note, please, that with overall public health issues such as doctors not using proper aseptic techniques, lack of access to blood transfusions and antibiotics, and overall poor health to begin with, there was likely little difference between the performance of a legal abortion and illegal practice, and the aftercare for either type of abortion was probably equally unlikely to do the woman much, if any, good.

In fact, due to improvements in addressing these problems, maternal mortality in general (and abortion mortality with it) fell dramatically in the 20th Century, decades before Roe vs. Wade legalized abortion across America.

For more information about early 20th Century abortion mortality, see Abortion Deaths 1910-1919.



For more on pre-legalization abortion, see The Bad Old Days of Abortion