Wednesday, July 09, 2025

July 9, 1986: The First of Three Direct Hachamovitch Victims

Black and white headshot of a middle aged man of Jewish descent with dark hair, a receeding hairline, large, dark 1980s style eyeglasses, and wearing a suit coat and tie

Luz Maria Rodriguez was 40 years old when she went to Moshe Hachamovitch's abortion clinic in the Bronx for a first-trimester abortion on July 5, 1986. She was between 8 and 10 weeks pregnant.

Luz bled heavily after the abortion. Just before she was to be discharged, she turned blue and stopped breathing. 

Staff performed CPR and summoned an ambulance, which took Luz to a hospital. Efforts to resuscitate her were successful, but she remained comatose. Four days later, July 9, she died. 

The autopsy found that she had suffered from an incomplete abortion.

Hachamovitch went on to have other dead patients to his discredit:

  • Christina Goesswein, who died of an amniotic fluid embolism on October 19, 1990 after an abortion performed by Hachamovitch.
  • Tanya Williamson, who died September 7, 1996 after Hachamovitch overdosed her on anesthesia then let her slip away unsupervised in the recovery room.

He spread the carnage by owning, and evidently very poorly supervising, other abortion facilities, leading to more deaths:

  •  Lisa Bardsley, who bled to death on February 17, 1985 after Dr. John Biskind discharged her from a Hachamovitch-owned clinic in Arizona.  
  • Jammie Garcia, whose long struggle to survive injuries suffered at a clinic Hachamovitch owned in Texas ended on March 2, 1994.
  • Lou Ann Herron, who bled to death on April 17, 1998 when Biskind ignored her pleas for help at that same Arizona clinic.
In spite of all this, Business Insider wrote a puff piece about Hachamovitch's clinic in 2024. Read my take on their enthusiasm for Hachamovitch here.

Source: "Abortion clinic owner no stranger to lawsuits," Lubbock Online, January 18, 1999


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July 9, 1916: An Unknown Chicago Perpetrator

On July 9, 1916, 27-year-old homemaker Mina Dryfus Mallett died at Chicago's Washington Park Hospital from complications of a abortion performed that day by an unknown perpetrator. Given the plethora of physicians and midwives practicing abortion in Chicago at the time, it's likely that she availed herself of one of them.

Mina had been born in Virginia on January 21, 1889 to Jacob Dryfus, a German immigrant, and his wife, Fannie H., nee Robinson.

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.

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July 9, 1913: Who Was Minnie Bernstein?

 On July 9, 1913, 33-year-old Russian immigrant Mary Goldstein, nee Solomon, died in Chicago from an abortion perpetrated by Minnie Bernstein. Bernstein is identified only as "abortion provider", so she might have been a lay abortionist, though given the proliferation of doctors and midwives practicing abortion in Chicago at the time, she might have been a trained medical professional.

Bernstein was held by the Coroner, and indicted by the Grand Jury for felony murder on September 1, but the case never went to trial.

The Homicide in Chicago Interactive Database incorrectly gives the date of death as July 4, but all other records note July 9.

Sources: 
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July 9, 1993: Chaos and Death for Immigrant at Fake Clinic

   A Desperate Young Mom

Guadalupe Negron
Guadalupe "Lupe" Negron, age 33, had come to the United States from Honduras with her husband in the late 1980s. They left their three young sons with Lupe's mother, planning to send for them as soon as they could earn enough money. Lupe and Herminio sold flowers and ice cream from a cart on a street corner.

The need to earn money became more urgent after Lupe's mother died. 

Lupe and Herminio continued to work hard. They welcomed the children's new little brother, Byron Callejas, into the world.

Time were tough for the divided little family that summer of 1993. On the 4th of July a passer-by had tossed a firecracker through a window into the family's apartment, starting a fire that destroyed everything they owned. Neighbors gave the family used clothing and furniture to help them set up a new home. They loved the big lady with the bigger smile who would sometimes give children treats for free.

Things seemed to be looking up when Lupe got the opportunity to work through Calvary Hospital as a home-care aide for a neighbor with cancer. There was only one problem: Lupe was five months pregnant. She feared that she would not be able to get certified as a caregiver if she was pregnant.

Metro Women's Center

The young mother must have felt terribly torn. "She didn't believe in abortion," her niece, Helena de Monzon said to Newsday. "She knew it was a sin, what she was doing. But she didn't want to lose a job. It was a necessity." 

Lupe didn't discuss the situation with Herminio because he knew she'd talk her out of aborting their baby, Helena said. Instead, she told Herminio that she was ill that day and would stay at home. Herminio took 4-year-old Byron with him to start another working day.

Hoping to help her aunt through this difficult situation, Helena drove her to Metro Women's Center at 102-21 Roosevelt Avenue in Queens, New York on July 9, 1993. 

Though Lupe no doubt had concerns about her spiritual well-being, she was confident about her physical well-being. "She wasn't in any fear because they told her there wasn't any risk," Helena said.

Lupe might have felt differently had she known about the 56-year-old doctor who was about to take her life into his hands. Metro Women's Center, in fact, would not even tell Lupe and Helena the doctor's name.

Elyas Bonrouhi aka David Benjamin

The Iranian-born Dr. Elyas Bonrouhi had come to the United States in 1982. He had failed his certification test three times before he was able to be certified as an obstetrician-gynecologist. In 1986, while practicing under his original name in update New York, his license had been revoked for 47 incidents of misconduct including performing surgeries and deliveries in his office rather than a hospital and for performing an unnecessary hysterectomy. 

Bonrouhi insisted to the board, "Every patient I deal with, I deal like she is my sister." 

If this was true, Bonrouhi was cruel to his family.

One woman describing her ordeal at his hands to the medical board said, "He started cutting me after that and he just kept cutting me and taking pieces out of me and showing them to me and everything. The numbness wore off and I was screaming. Then he got scared because there was so much blood coming out ... he called the nurse ... so she got tissues and stuff and he just stuffed me with cloth on the inside and packed it in there. Then he sewed it right in me." She ended up hospitalized and required eight surgeries to repair the damage.

His fellow physicians testified against him. Dr. Anthony Dardano, who had been overseeing Bonrouhi's work as a stipulation for him getting provisional privileges at St. Elizabeth's Hospital in Utica, New York, testified, "It took me one weekend of watching his work to suspend him. .... I found him to be intellectually dishonest, poor in surgical technique, and poor in medical judgment." Dardano described having to step in to stop the hemorrhaging on a patient during a C-section Bonrouhi was performing.

In spite of the evidence against him, Bonrouhi challenged the revocation, getting it reduced to a three-month suspension, before changing his name to Dr. David Elyas Benjamin and relocating to Queens.  

Just two weeks before Lupe and her niece walked into Metro Women's Center, the medical board had revoked Benjamin's license for botching gynecological procedures. He was still practicing while appealing the case.

The First Signs of Trouble

Lupe paid $800 (c. $1,600 in 2020) for the abortion. Abortions at Lupe's stage of pregnancy were typically performed in a two-day procedure, in order to dilate the cervix sufficiently without tearing it. Benjamin decided to just perform the abortion as a one-day procedure. He also took no steps to address her high blood pressure.

A receptionist for the facility noted that after Dr. David Benjamin had performed Lupe 's abortion at 10AM, she was moved to the recovery room and left unattended and without monitoring equipment for over an hour. 

Meanwhile, Helena sat in the waiting room, hoping all was well with her aunt. While she waited, she tried to help another patient, a Mexican woman who had a 6-month old baby in a stroller and was waiting for aftercare. She'd suffered a massive infection from an abortion Benjamin had performed. She screamed in pain and begged for somebody to call her family. 

Some time after noon, still trying to comfort the Mexican woman, Helena saw Lupe -- pale, bleeding, spitting up blood, and clearly in pain -- wheeled out on a stretcher. Benjamin said there had been "complications" and wheeled the ailing woman into an exam room.

Shortly afterward, Benjamin's wife, Jackie, who acted as his assistant, came out of the exam room screaming "Oh my God! Oh my God!" and "Call the ambulance! Call the ambulance!" However, the ambulance was not summoned until 1:40 PM.

What the Medics Saw

When paramedics Freddie Noboa and Miguel Acvedo arrived, they were flabbergasted. Noboa said, "I saw the sign 'abortion clinic.' I was shocked. It was the back from of an office all the way in the back of the building, hot as hell and filthy." 

He and his partner found Lupe naked and bloody, still in the stirrups and without even a sheet to cover her. A woman dressed like a nurse was screaming, "Do something! Do something!" 

Noboa said, "She and the doctor are doing CPR on this female who's covered in blood and totally naked. Her feet are still in the stirrups." Noboa noted that "There was nothing under the patient, just this very thin piece of paper soaked with blood. There was blood all over the place, under her buttocks, on the floor, all over the instruments."

None of the normal equipment to address an emergency was there. "There was no blood pressure cuff, no EKG monitor. He had one tiny cylinder tank of oxygen about eight inches long. He said it had run out." The medics also noted that Benjamin had inserted a breathing tube into Lupe 's stomach instead of her trachea. Noboa said, "While they're doing CPR, all her abdominal fluids are going up through the tube into the mask down into her lungs. She's choking on her own fluids. Besides which she's in a semi-sitting position, which closes off the airway."

Noboa said that even if Lupe hadn't bled to death, she could have drowned in her own fluids due to the botched tube placement.

The paramedics also indicated that they were hindered in their attempts to save Lupe 's life because Benjamin lied to them about the nature of her problem. The emergency call itself had only been for a patient experiencing difficulty breathing.

"We got there within five minutes, but she was already dead on the table," Noboa said. "Her pupils were fully dilated." 

Both Benjamin and his wife appeared to be panic-stricken. "I told the doctor, 'Get out of here. You're doing everything wrong. Get out of the way." Meanwhile, "I could hear someone screaming in the background, which was the nurse. At first I thought it was a family member because of the way she was jumping up and down and screaming. I said, 'Ma'am, you have to get out of here."

The disgusted paramedic said that no anesthesiologist was present. "She was just given Demerol and Valium. .... He wasn't monitoring her vital signs." He refused to give his name or an incident report to take to the hospital and told the medics that the patient was unconscious due to "too much anesthesia." 

Noboa was also disgusted with the doctor's demeanor. "He was nervous for himself. He kept saying, 'Make sure you tell them I gave her the oxygen.'"

The paramedics removed the face mask and misplaced tube, properly intubated the patient, and transported her to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead an hour later.

Meanwhile, Back at the Not-a-Clinic

Once Lupe had been loaded into the ambulance and Helena had left for the hospital, Benjamin's receptionist, identified only as Maria, decided she'd had enough. Her boss called for his next patient -- the Mexican woman who was screaming in agony. Instead Maria hustled the woman and her baby out of the facility. Police eventually tracked her down to testify against the doctor. Fortunately for her, she had gotten her aftercare elsewhere. 

What Happened Next

Dr. Benjamin told Lupe's distraught family that she had died from a heart attack. The autopsy report found otherwise.

In trying to extract a 20-week fetus without having first properly dilated the cervix, Benjamin had lacerated Lupe's cervix and ripped a three-inch hole in her uterus. She hemorrhaged and went into shock and cardiac arrest. Authorities determined that Benjamin had initiated the risky procedure without having first examined the patient.

Dr. David Benjamin
Benjamin was indicted for second degree (depraved indifference) murder, second degree manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide, and tampering with evidence. Contrary to news coverage at the time, Benjamin was not the first case in New York history of a doctor being charged with murder for performing a legal procedure; that was Jesse Ketchum for performing a fatal abortion on Margaret Louise Smith in 1971. Slashing up a woman's insides then letting her bleed out, even if done safely and legally, can still be frowned upon.

Benjamin sobbed and pleaded during a hearing for his $750,000 (c. $1.5 million in 2022) to be lowered, but the judge instead raised it to $1 million. His family members screamed "Oh my God" and raised such an outcry that they were led from the courtroom.

He was offered a chance to plead guilty to second-degree manslaughter, which would have resulted in a sentence of three to nine years. He chose instead to go to court. He was convicted of murder and sentenced to 25 to life. His appeal was rejected on the grounds that being a doctor doesn't grant the right to treat patients with depraved indifference.

One of the paramedics told a reporter, "I wouldn't take my dog there (Benjamin's clinic)."

The Legal Status of Fake Clinics

After Lupe 's death, reporters from Newsday noted that the city of New York had all the regulations in place they needed to shut Metro Women's Center down. Shortly after abortion-on-demand had been legalized in New York in 1970, the city put regulations on the books to cover facilities that performed abortions, regardless of whether they were actually licensed clinics. Evidently officials did little in terms of enforcing the regulations. Not one abortion facility, as of 1993, had ever been closed by the city for substandard or dangerous conditions. Metro Women's Center, like the bulk of abortion facilities in New York City at the time, was not actually a licensed clinic and thus was not regulated by the state.

In the aftermath of Lupe 's death, instead of calling for the city to begin inspecting the facilities and closing down the dangerous ones, New York City Comptroller Elizabeth Holtzman instead demanded that the city's hospitals speed up the roughly three-week wait time for abortions on their premises.

Alexander Sanger, head of Planned Parenthood of New York, faulted the state not with failing to shut Benjamin and the fake clinic down but rather with failing to advertise that abortions were legal and the state would pay for them with taxpayer dollars.

Guadalupe's brother and youngest son
Lupe's husband, Herminio , lay abed in shock after being informed of his wife's death. Friends and family gathered to support the grieving widower. The neighbors who had contributed furniture and clothing to help Herminio rebuild his home were raising money so that he could send his wife's body back to Honduras for burial. 

"All I want is justice," he told Newsday. "And I need help to get my kids here [from Honduras]."

Three weeks later Herminio filed suit against the doctor and the clinic, as well as against the state for not having shut the clinic down after determining that his practice constituted a risk to the public. The appellate court ruled that the medical board had acted within the scope of their duties.

Watch "Death at a Fake Clinic" on YouTube.

Sources:


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Tuesday, July 08, 2025

July 9, 2016: Sent Home to Bleed to Death

Snapshot of the face of a young Hispanic woman giving the camera a Mona Lisa smile.
Jamie Lee Morales
On July 9, 2016, 30-year-old Jamie Lee Morales of Buffalo, New York, had her sister drive her to Liberty Women's Health in Flushing, Queens, for a an abortion. The doctor, 53-year-old gynecologist Robert Rho, specialized in "vaginal rejuvenation" but also did what his attorney described as "difficult" abortions.

Jamie signed in under her sister's name, Thaycha Ruiz, and underwent the procedure. Rho admitted to investigators that he he knew Jamie was using somebody else's identity, but "there was an issue with payment for the procedure which was handled by the receptionist." It's unclear if the clinic knowingly let Jamie fraudulently use her sister's insurance to pay for the $6,000 abortion.

It's unclear how Jamie found Rho, who was willing to abort a viable fetus of about 25 weeks of gestation after Planned Parenthood and another Queens abortion facility had turned her away. He was also willing to do it fast -- in only one day, rather than spending multiple days gently dilating the cervix, which was how his website described the procedures he did past 20 weeks.

Jamie reportedly was aborting her baby so late in the pregnancy because she had only recently realized that she was pregnant.

According to later testimony, Rho both performed the abortion and administered the anesthesia himself rather than having a qualified professional to properly monitor his patient.

The procedure was started at 1:40 pm. In the recovery room, Jamie was bleeding heavily. Rho performed another procedure that was intended to stop the bleeding.

Though Jamie was weak and woozy, and at one point collapsed in the bathroom, Rho discharged her in the care of her sister with instructions to go to a hospital if the bleeding resumed. She was discharged about 6:30 pm.

Jamie was riding in the back seat on the way to her sister's home in the Bronx when she lost consciousness, falling to the floor. Her sister took her to a hospital, where, in spite of being transfused with six units of blood, she died that night. It turned out that during the abortion, Rho had lacerated her cervix, put a hole in the wall of her uterus, and cut into her uterine aorta. 

A middle-aged Korean man with eyeglasses and a mustache
Dr. Robert Rho
Rho was charged with second-degree manslaughter in Jamie's death because he injured her so severely and then failed to provide necessary life-saving care. Adding to the unprofessionalism of the case is the fact that Rho disposed of Jamie's fetus in a black plastic trash bag outside the door of his clinic. He blamed his patient's death on the fact that she hadn't told him that she had lupus, which could affect her body's ability to stop bleeding.

Pending trial, Rho was freed on $400,000 bail. He was required to surrender his passport and was not to practice medicine until the case was resolved. His attorney said that Rho was "devastated" by Jamie's death and immediately and voluntarily closed his clinic.

During the three-week trial, the prosecution alleged that Rho took risks to save time and money, and rushed Jamie out of the office to make room for other patients. Witnesses noted that Rho had been investigated in the past for hiring staff without adequate training. 

At one point Rho almost caused a mistrial by approaching a juror near courthouse security to try to sway her.

After learning that the jury had reached a verdict, Rho surprised the court by changing his plea to guilty of felony negligent homicide. Troy Newman of Operation Rescue commented, "I suspect Rho took the plea deal once he realized the jury was about to convict him [of second degree manslaughter]." This charge could have resulted in up to 15 years in prison, while the guilty plea would result in a much lower sentence of 16 months to 4 years.

Newman added, "We have great sympathy for the Morales family for the loss they have suffered. Their grief was only compounded by Rho's selfish and erratic behavior that first denied them the life of a loved one, then denied them the closure a verdict would have brought."  As Operation Rescue's press release about the plea deal noted, "The Morales family was upset that they had endured a full three weeks of trial where the reputation of their daughter was attacked, only to be denied a jury verdict."

This last comment makes me think that Rho's attorney tried to use what's dubbed "the slut defense" -- dragging up the woman's sexual history, perhaps history of prior abortions, or in this case the fact that she had decided to abort a baby old enough to survive outside the womb, in order to paint her as somebody who just got what she deserved. This is a pretty typical defense, the threat of which, as Kitty Kolbert characterized it to the National Abortion Federation, means "beating the shit out of this woman to get her to drop her suit." It's staggering to think of what Rho's attorneys put Jamie's family through.

Predictably, abortion advocates blamed Jamie's death on the fact that, at the time, New York had limits on circumstances under which it was legal to abort babies past the age of viability. Planned Parenthood's Margaret Sanger Clinic, which at the time did abortions up to 24 weeks, reportedly would refer women to other facilities willing to abort viable babies. It's unclear if they referred her to Rho.

Watch Rushed Late Abortion Kills Mother on YouTube.

Sources:

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Monday, July 07, 2025

July 7, 1982: First of Two Deaths Under Rajan's Care

 

Dr. Ragna Rajan
On July 2, 1982, Darlene Wood was put under anesthesia for a second trimester abortion at Temple University Hospital. The abortionist was Renga Rajan; the anesthesiologist was William Stevenson-Smith.

Darlene was given nitrous oxide by face mask. She started coughing after the procedure began.

After the abortion was completed, she was admitted to the respiratory intensive care unit, where she was diagnosed with primary pulmonary hypertension.

Over the next several days, Darlene experienced increasing respiratory distress. She was given medication to maintain her blood pressure. But on July 7, Darlene went into cardio-respiratory arrest. She was pronounced dead at 2:50 p.m.

The administratrix of Darlene's estate contended that the lack of appropriate medical and anesthetic clearance was a substantial factor in her death.

Rajan was also successfully sued for the 1987 abortion death of Iris Velazquez.

Watch First of Two Abortion Deaths for Regna Rajan on YouTube.

Source: Philadelphia (PA) Court of Common Pleas Case No. 83-01/77

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July 7, 1888: Sudden Death in a Doctor's Office

 Portland, July 8, 1888 – To day the Morgue was visited by hundreds of persons, drawn thither through motives of morbid curiosity to look at the body of the young woman who died suddenly yesterday in the office of Mrs. Dr. Murray-Blumauer. Many came in the hope of identifying the girl. Among those calling was a sister of the dead girl, who had no idea whose body lay at the Morgue. She was dreadfully shocked on recognizing the body as that of her sister, Mary Schneller. Her grief was inconsolable for several hours.”

The Mysterious Death

Dr. Frances Murray-Blumaer told authorities that a young woman had come to her office at around 10:00 on the morning of July 7, asking for treatment for hemorrhage of the lungs. Dr. Murray gave the young woman some ice to help her to be more comfortable, and told her to lie down until she finished caring for another patient. The young woman lay down for while, then left the office, returning at 2:00 p.m.

Again Dr. Murray gave the young woman some ice and said she'd be with her shortly. Upon finishing with another patient, Dr. Murry called to the young woman but got no response. Going to the waiting lounge, Dr. Murray found her bleeding profusely from the mouth. With ten minutes the young woman was dead.

Dr. Murry said she had no idea who the patient was but noted that she had spoken with a German accent.

The Portland Oregonian gave a description of the dead woman:

The woman was about 27 years old, of good form, fair complexion, and had light brown hair, light gray eyes and sharp features. She wore a green dress and basque of the same color, and a light red bonnet with brown velvet trimmings and feathers of the same color as the bonnet, No. 5 button shoes, light brown veil and brown gloves. Nothing was found among her effects that would indicate her identity. She had a large, white, silk handkerchief, embroidered with roses, worked in green, red and yellow colors. In one corner of the handkerchief was a letter"W." She also had a small, red, leather purse, which contained 10 cents and several postage stamps.

The Woman is Identified

Hundreds of people came to the morgue to view the body, some out of morbid curiosity but some to try to identify the young woman. One of those who came by identified the body as that of her sister, Mary Schneller. Mary's sister was shocked and for several hours inconsolable.

Mary was 23 years old, originally from Middleton, Washington County. The circumstances of her death suggested an abortion, and an inquest found that she had also suffered hemorrhage of the lungs.

Dr. Murray was originally implicated in Mary's death, then brought charges against two men, John D. Wilcox and C. H. McIsaac, for blackmail in relation to the case. They had, Dr. Murray-Blumauer said, offered to retract allegations they had made against her in exchange for a payment of $1,500.

Further muddying the waters, Mary's family filed a civil suit of $5,000 against Dr. Murray-Blumaur. "The complaint alleges that through malpractice Dr. Murray killed the said Mary Schneller. This case will undoubtedly bring before the court very damaging evidence accumulated by detectives employed by the Daily News to investigate the death of Miss Schneller," according to the Salem Statesman.

Mary had moved to Portland about 10 years earlier, first working as a household cook, then as a hotel chambermaid. She left her employ at the Globe Hotel three months prior to her death and went to Wallua to work in a hotel there. She returned to Portland, intending to marry John Mebus, a railroad brakeman.

Correspondence between the two of them indicate that Mary wanted to get married but John refused. “He was on the way home from playing a game of baseball this evening when met by a reporter. When told whose body it was at the Morgue he exhibited no signs of feeling or emotion.”

There was evidently evidence tying Mebus up with Mary's death, since he was arrested and charged with manslaughter.

Dr. Murray-Blumauer had been born in 1837, and died December 14,1923 in Portland from "senility." She was a practicing allopath, and had graduated the Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania in 1873. (Directory of Deceased American Physician, 1804-1929)

Though evidently not prosecuted, she was sued by Mary's family.

Sources:
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July 7, 1941: Death at the Doctor's Office

  Preparing for Her Final Day

On the morning of July 7, 1941, 27-year-old Emma Laisure awoke as usual and prepared breakfast for her taxi-driver husband, Earl, and their two daughters, four-year-old Patsy and 6-year-old Betty.

At around 3:30 pm, Emma went to the office of 53-year-old Dr. Nathaniel H. Schaffner in Chicago. She was accompanied by Earl and little Patsy. 

This was her third visit. 

The First Visit

She and Earl had first gone to Schaffner's office on June 27 after getting the doctor's name and address provided by Earl's co-worker Joseph Lamping when Earl had asked for help finding an abortionist. (Another co-worker, William Garnet, would later testify that he had witnessed the exchange between Earl and Joseph. Lamping would later assert that he had only been providing the name of a maternity doctor who was fair and reasonable.)

During the first visit, Earl said, Dr. Schaffner had examined Emma, verified that she was pregnant, and quoted a fee of $65 (roughly $1,300 in 2022) for an abortion. Earl said that he and Schaffner had dickered the price down to $40.

It's unclear when the money changed hands.

The Second Visit

Emma went to Schaffner's office alone the second time on July 2. According to Schaffner, he had merely warned Emma not to go through with a planned abortion.

The Fatal Day

When the Laisures arrived on July 7, Earl said, Schaffner asked Emma if she was ready and she replied, "Yes." Schaffner then asked Earl for permission "to go ahead with this." Earl said no, he didn't want the abortion performed but Emma was insisting.

Earl waited in the outer office with the little girl while Schaffner brought Emma into the inner office. Dr. Schaffner positioned Emma on an exam table with her feet in stirrups.

Something Went Wrong

About five minutes later, Earl said that he heard Emma cry out "I thought you said this wasn't going to hurt!" Earl said he heard Schaffner's voice but couldn't make out what he was saying. Emma then called out, "I can't breathe! I can't breathe!

Earl rushed into the room to find Schaffner at the foot of the table, removing one of Emma's feet from the stirrup. Emma tried to sit up but collapsed. Schaffner half-carried, half-dragged Emma from the exam room into another room and lay her on a couch. 

Earl said that Emma's color was pasty. Dr. Schaffner injected something into Emma's arm and listened to her chest with a stethoscope.  lifting Emma from the operating table to place her on a couch. Schaffner administered an injection and attempted artificial respiration, but to no avail. Earl told police that Emma died "practically in my arms."

To compound the tragedy, Emma died on the couple's seventh wedding anniversary. 

"Don't Get Excited."

Earl said that Schaffner told him, "Now don't get excited. I will take care of everything. I will pay for all the funeral aggangements and everything else. Just be quiet. Don't tell anybody about it. My career is at stake." 

Schaffner, Earl said, then went into the exam room and came out with an instrument in his hand. It was chrome metal, about 13 inches long, with a handle on one end and a tubular extension with a little pea-sized bulb at the end. "I don't know why she should die," Earl said Schaffner told him. "This is all I used on her." 

Earl filled out a blue paper at Dr. Schaffner's request then took his daughter home.

Meanwhile Schaffner put Emma back on the exam table and closed the door. He left her body there while he continued to treat other patients in his practice until about 8:30 pm.

Instructions to the Family

After treating his last patient of the day, Schaffner went to the Laisure home and spoke to Earl and his sister-in-law, Theresa Gross. According to Theresa and Earl, Schaffner gave the grieving husband a card with a funeral director's name on it, telling him, "This is a friend of mine. He will take care of the arrangements." Schaffner offered $500 to cover the costs. He explained that the undertaker would not come to his office to collect Emma's body, so he would bring the body to the Laisure home between 1:00 and 3:00 in the morning.

"We will call her death heart trouble and mark that on the death certificate," he said, admonishing Emma's widower and sister not to go to the police. "My reputation is at stake. I will have to commit suicide if you go to the police."

Theresa said she had asked Schaffner what he had done to her sister and he'd replied, "All I did was scrape her a little bit." 

He then returned to his office and wrapped Emma's body in a gray blanket. "I got the body downstairs myself. Rigor mortis had set in; the body was almost like a board. I lifted it all the way down and rested it on my knees as I was advancing towards the street."

What Happened Next?

What happened next is unclear. Some sources indicate that Dr. Schaffner dropped Emma's body off at the Laisure home shortly after midnight. However, court documents indicate that the next time Earl saw Schaffner was about 1:15 am in front of his home. He and his father-in-law, John Dietrich, were seated outside in a car when Schaffner came to the window and rebuked John for calling the police. "Earl and I have an arrangement. I knew she was going to die before I worked on her."

Schaffner was arrested at about 2:30 am on July 8, in an alley behind his sister's home. He at first insisted that he was not Dr. Schaffner but was somebody named Phillips. He was identified as Nathaniel Schaffner by Emma's brother-in-law, Herbert Gross.

The Cause of Death

A post-mortem examination confirmed that Emma had died from an abortion that had been initiated but not completed. Her three-and-a-half-month unborn son was still in her uterus. Chemical analysis of the fluid in Emma's uterus showed that it contained some ordinary soaps and cresols. There was hemorrhage in the uterine wall. There was no damage to the vagina or cervix, which Dr. Samuel Levinson, chief pathologist to the Cook County Coroner, said indicated that the toxic materials had been deposited directly in the uterus with some form of instrument. 

Emma had been healthy, with no injuries or ailments that could account for her death. Dr. Levinson concluded that Emma had died from shock caused by the chemicals.

Not His First Brush With the Law

Dr. Schaffner had previously been in big trouble with the law. He had served terms in Leavenworth federal prison on narcotics convictions -- 19 months starting in 1918 and three years beginning January of 1933. Schaffner's medical license had been revoked when he was arrested for the narcotics charges, but after he served his sentences he successfully petitioned to get his license back. It was granted in March of 1935.

It was undisputable that Schaffner had broken laws. He had failed to report Emma's death and had given police a false name when they arrested him.

Schaffner faced murder charges and a possible death sentence. A jury of three women and nine men heard the case.

The Trial

Schaffner insisted during his trial that he had indeed examined Emma and confirmed her pregnancy. He said that though Earl had offered him $40 to perpetrate the abortion, he had refused on the grounds that it was too risky due to advanced state of pregnancy. "I am sorry," Schaffner said he'd told Earl, "I cannot accept that kind of money for that kind of work. He asserted that Emma had been weak and barely ambulatory when she and Earl had arrived at his office. He said that she was pale, her breathing was rapid and shallow, and she complained of radiating pelvic pain. He said that he placed her on the table to perform an examination. He said that he used forceps and cotton balls to swab out a large amount of cloudy fluid. He said that it was at this point that Emma said that she could not breathe and Earl entered the room.

Dr. Schaffner said that after he had pronounced Emma dead, Earl had cried out, "Why did I do it? Why did I do it?" He said that he responded, "Well, I had warned you not to do anything. I told you that it was really risky and dangerous. It looks like you have ruptured the sac of water." He said that Earl replied, "No we didn't rupture no sac of water. We didn't do anything. The only thing we have done, we have tried every kind of medicine to use." 

The Outcome

The jury didn't believe him. Schaffner was convicted of murder and sentenced to 14 years in prison. He appealed his sentence but it was upheld in 1943. He was released in September of 1951 and promptly resumed perpetrating abortions. He got caught when he returned to an 18-year-old abortion patient's home and raped her. The woman's husband and father ambushed him, beat him up, and dumped him by the side of the road. After his arrest Schaffner was committed to a state institution for the criminally insane.

Watch Doctor Blames Woman and Husband on YouTube.

Sources:

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July 7, 1950: Atypical Death Treated as Typical by the Abortion Lobby

 

Headshot of a young Black woman wearing a blouse and jacket, eyeglasses, and hair styled in a laite 1940s coif
Vivian Campbell
I was originally very skeptical about a story told on the National Organization for Women web site. They said that Vivian Campbell (follow link for more sources) was a recently-separated 24-year-old mother of two when she discovered she was pregnant. NOW indicated that Vivian sent her children to stay with her parents while she obtained some sort of illegal abortion. NOW provided no details of the abortion, but did say that Vivian asked for her estranged husband, who came to the hospital only after she had died of peritonitis on May 6, 1950.

I decided to check the story out when I was able to visit the archives of the Allegheny County Coroner's Office in Pittsburgh. What I found left me totally bewildered as to why NOW and other abortion advocacy organizations using Vivian's story didn't bother to do any research. They certainly would have hit pay dirt. The details paint a poignant picture, though they don't indicate who perpetrated the abortion that ended Vivian's life. Was it a doctor, as was most common at the time? Was it somebody else with medical training, such as a nurse or midwife? Or was it that rarest of criminal abortions, the amateur abortion? Vivian took the secret to her grave.

Vivian J. Campbell worked for the IRS, her age was actually 27, and her death took place at 7:05 p.m. on Friday, July 7, 1950.

Her estranged husband, Edward L. Campbell, told the coroner's jury that on the evening of Thursday, June 22, he got a call at work. He was to go to the Elks Hall to pick up a package from Vivian and deliver it to the children. When Edward arrived, he noticed Vivian sitting at a table, drinking, with two men. Edward ordered a beer, and the bartender gave him the package. Though Vivian did approach the bartender to verify delivery of the package, she didn't speak at all to Edward.

On Wednesday, June 28, Edward spoke with Vivian's grandmother, Mrs. Jordon, who told him that Vivian was very sick. He called Vivian's home but the woman who answered, Miss Daniels, said that Vivian was too sick to speak to him. He told Miss Daniels to get a doctor and whatever else Vivian needed.

On Friday, June 30, Dr. John C. Reed was called in and cared for Vivian. He returned the next day, July 1, and talked to Vivian about his conclusion that she'd undergone an abortion. She admitted to taking a large amount of castor oil, but said she'd taken it for a cold. Dr. Reed told Vivian that she needed to go to the hospital, and her friends drove her to McKeesport Hospital, where she was admitted at 11:30 a.m., suffering from abdominal pain and distention, and moderate vaginal discharge but no bleeding. Her admission notes indicate that she had already expelled the fetus and most of the placenta, but might have retained some tissue. Her vital signs were alarming, with a pulse of 120 and respiration 26 and shallow. Her blood pressure was 118/70, within normal limits. She had some deep tenderness of the abdomen. She appeared to be slightly dehydrated.

Her doctor prescribed medications for her. Edward visited Vivian at the hospital at about 3:30 that afternoon and found her very sick. He consulted with Dr. Reed, who said that Vivian had gangrene and was in very serious condition. He called her from time to time to check in on her. Finally on Friday, July 7, Edward got a call at about 4:30 p.m. from Vivian's family, telling him to hurry to the hospital. He found his estranged wife unconscious, and remained at her side until her death that evening. At no point, Edward said, had Vivian said anything to him about the abortion.

According to Vivian's death certificate, she had suffered a ruptured bowel during the abortion attempt, causing the peritonitis that killed her.

Watch "A Little Off on the Details" on YouTube.

According to Vivian's death certificate, she had suffered a ruptured bowel during the abortion attempt, causing the peritonitis that killed her.
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Sunday, July 06, 2025

July 6, 1930: Who Perpetrated the Fatal Abortion?

The Homicide in Chicago Interactive Database provides very confusing information about the death of 34-year-old Mary Tulis on July 6, 1930. The case summary says:

Death due to a criminal abortion performed by person or persons at this time unknown to the Coroner's Jury. Marie La Montagne, 2327 W. Harrison St. mentioned as having attempted the abortion and Dr. O. W. Sommer of Frances Willard Hospital called in when peritonitis set in. Neither was mentioned in the verdict.

The details page, however, muddles the story. It said that the time between offense and death was "Immediate -- death occurred at the crime scene," which is given as 2327 W. Harrison: Marie La Montagne's address. The defendant is named as Dr. O. W. Sommer but lists his occupation or skill as "Law Enforcement, Police." It also has the odd note "Killed While Protecting Person: Protecting person outside family."

Genealogy records indicate that Lottie and her husband, Simon, had two children, ages 12 and 11 at the time of her death.

Watch "When the Source is Muddled" on YouTube.

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July 6, 1970: Safe and Legal in New York

Pearl Schwier, age 42, was 20 weeks pregnant when she sought a safe, legal abortion at St. Luke's hospital in New York City.

She was brought into the operating room on July 6, 1970 for a hysterotomy abortion, which is simply a C-section in which the intention is to allow the baby to die rather than to deliver him or her alive. It was performed under general anesthesia.

About 45 minutes into the procedure, Pearl had a reaction to the anesthesia and died.

Other beneficiaries of the early legalization of abortion-on-demand in New York include:

  • Carmen Rodriguez, July, 1970, salt solution intended to kill the fetus accidentally injected into her bloodstream
  • Barbara Riley, July, 1970, sickle-cell crisis triggered by abortion recommended by doctor due to her sickle cell disease
  • "Amanda" Roe, September, 1970, sent back to her home in Indiana with an untreated hole poked in her uterus
  • Maria Ortega, October, 1970, fetus shoved through her uterus into her pelvic cavity then left there
  • "Kimberly" Roe, December, 1970, cardiac arrest during abortion
  • "Amy" Roe, January, 1971, massive pulmonary embolism
  • "Andrea" Roe, January, 1971, overwhelming infection
  • "Sandra" Roe, April, 1971, committed suicide due to post-abortion remorse
  • "Anita" Roe, May, 1971, bled to death in her home during process of outpatient saline abortion
  • Margaret Smith, June 1971, hemorrhage from multiple lacerations during outpatient hysterotomy abortion
  • "Annie" Roe, June, 1971, cardiac arrest during anesthesia
  • "Audrey" Roe, July, 1971, cardiac arrest during abortion
  • "Vicki" Roe, August, 1971, post-abortion infection
  • "April" Roe, August, 1971, injected with saline for outpatient abortion, went into shock and died
  • "Barbara" Roe, September, 1971, cardiac arrest after saline injection for abortion
  • "Tammy" Roe, October, 1971, massive post-abortion infection
  • Carole Schaner, October, 1971, hemorrhage from multiple lacerations during outpatient hysterotomy abortion
  • "Beth" Roe, December, 1971, saline injection meant to kill fetus accidentally injected into her bloodstream
  • "Roseann" Roe, February, 1971, vomiting with seizures causing pneumonia after saline abortion
  • "Connie" Roe, March, 1972, cardiac arrest during abortion
  • "Julie" Roe, April, 1972, holes torn in her uterus and bowel
  • "Roxanne," May, 1972, convulsions and death at start of abortion
  • "Robin" Roe, May, 1972, lingering abortion complications
  • Pamela Modugno, May, 1972, air in her bloodstream
Watch The Empty Promise of Safety on YouTube.

Sources:
  • "Abortions Prove Fatal To Three N.Y. Women," The Troy (NY) Record, July 22, 1970
  • "Maternal Mortality Associated With Legal Abortion in New York State: July 1, 1970 - June 30, 1972; Berger, Tietze, Pakter, Katz, Obstetrics and Gynecology, 43:3, March 1974, 320
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Saturday, July 05, 2025

July 5, 1908: Self-Induced in New York

 According to New York death records, 33-year-old Lena Bruner Silver died at St. Mary's Hospital in Brooklyn on July 5, 1908. This young homemaker's death was due to septic peritonitis following a self-induced abortion.

I have been unable to find any further information about Lena's death.

Watch Self-Induced in New York on YouTube.
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July 5, 1921: Septicemia after Criminal Abortion in the Bronx

 According to New York death records, Eudora Edwards, a 23-year-old immigrant from the British West Indies, died at Bronx Hospital in New York on July 5, 1921. Her cause of death was septicemia, septic peritonitis, and endocarditis due to a criminal abortion. 

According to census records, this young Black woman left behind a husband and infant son.

Unfortunately, I have been unable to find any information about the perpetrator of the fatal abortion. According to research by both Planned Parenthood and author Nancy Howell-Lee, about 90% of pre-legalization abortions were performed by doctors. Howell-Lee broke down the remaining 10% and found that the bulk of them were perpetrated by somebody with medical training, such as a nurse or dentist.

Watch "Did Eudora Find a Doctor?" on YouTube.



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