Denver in 1913, New York in 1970

A Deadly Doctor in Denver, 1913

On July 20, 1913, Mrs. Emma Chandler, age 20, died suddenly from complications of a criminal abortion perpetrated the previous day. In a deathbed statement, she named Dr. J.A. Richmond as her abortionist. Her husband, Ora, a Denver grocery clerk, notified the police immediately after Emma's death.

An investigation revealed that a friend had accompanied Emma to Richmond's practice after finishing work at the offices of a lumber company. After the abortion she was driven home. Her husband returned from work and found Emma very weak. Overnight she became more and more ill. Around noon she realized that she was dying and sent for a neighbor, who she begged to pray for her. The neighbor remained by Emma's bedside, knitting and praying.

Some time in the afternoon Emma confessed about the abortion to her husband, saying she'd arranged it because she didn't want another child, feeling that her 3-year-old son was enough. Mr. Chandler sent for a doctor who lived across the street, but there was nothing he could do for her.

Maternal Indications in New York, 1970

Barbara Riley was 23 years old when she chose abortion. She had a history of sickle cell anemia and three previous term pregnancies -- two live births and a stillborn child. She was in her first trimester of pregnancy when she underwent the abortion on July 11, 1970 at Harlem Hospital. The abortion had been recommended by hospital staff because Barbara had a history of sickle cell disease.

The abortion would probably have been recommended as beneficial to Barbara's health, under New York's old abortion law; the new law just meant that they didn't need to leally justify going ahead with it. But instead of improving, Barbara's health deteriorated. Her blood  started to break down. Nine days after the abortion, July 20, Barbara died. She was the third abortion-related death reported in New York State in the 23 days that abortion had been legal in New York. The other women I've identified as dying from sickle cell crisis triggered by an abortion are Margaret Davis and Betty Hines.

The 1970 liberalization of abortion had made New York state an abortion mecca until the Roe vs. Wade Supreme Court ruling that abortionists could legally set up shop in any state of the union. In addition to Barbara, these are the women I know of who had the dubious benefit of dying from the newfangled safe-and-legal kind of abortion in pre-Roe New York:

1970

• Pearl, July 12, 1970 Age: 42, St. Luke's Hospital
• Carmen, July 19, 1970 Age: 31, Lincoln Hospital
• "Linda", September 22, 1970 Age: 19, Unspecified New York City facility
• Maria October 10, 1970 Age: 23, Dr. Armida Zepata
• "Kimberly", December 23, 1970 Age: 25, Unspecified New York City facility
• Seven additional New York City deaths about which I have no information* **

1971

• "Amy", January 2, 1971 Age: 35, Unspecified facility
• "Andrea", January 20, 1971 Age: 26, Unspecified facility
• "Roseanne", February 27, 1971 Age: 37, Unspecified facility
• "Sandra", April 18, 1971 Age: 18, Unspecified facility***
• "Anita", May 12, 1971 Age: 23, Unspecified facility *** ****
• Margaret, June 16, 1971 Age: 25, Dr. Jesse Ketchum
• Edith, June 24, 1971 Age: 29, Dr. Robert Livingston 
• "Audrey", July 1, 1971 Age: 44, Unspecified facility
• "Vickie", August 17, 1971 Age: 23, Unspecified facility
• "April", August 22, 1971 Age: 17, Unspecified facility
• "Barbara", September 23, 1971 Age: 35, Unspecified facility
• "Becky", October 5, 1971 Age: 18, Unspecified facility
• "Tammy", October 13, 1971 Age: 33, Unspecified facility
• Carole, October 20, 1971 Age: 37, Dr. Jesse Ketchum
• "Beth", December 29, 1971 Age: 23, Unspecified facility

1972

• "Wendy", 1972 Age: 23, Unspecified facility
• "Colleen", March 8, 1972 Age: 21, Unspecified facility
• "Connie", March 8, 1972 Age: 31, Unspecified facility
• "Julie", April 16, 1972 Age: 14, Unspecified facility
• "Robin", May 4, 1972 Age: 21, Unspecified facility
• "Roxanne", May 13, 1972 Age: 17, Unspecified facility
• Pamela, May 17, 1972 Age: 18, Monsey Medical Center
• "Sara", June 18, 1972 Age: 22, Unspecified facility
• Beverly, December 21, 1973 Age: 21, Unspecified physician in Monsey

*In the New York Daily News, November 24, 1970, New York City Health Services Administrator Gordon Chase indicated that there had been a total of 11 abortion related deaths in the city during the first four months of legalization, July through October, 1970. He indicated that only one of those abortions took place outside a hospital. In the February 7, 1971 Daily News, Chase notes a total of 12 abortion deaths in New York City for the first six months, seven of which involved outpatient abortions. This contradicts what he said earlier, when he indicated that only one of 11 deaths was outside of a hospital. In the June 30, 1971 Wellsville Daily Reporter, Chase reported a total of 15 abortion-related deaths in New York City as of February, 1971, eight of them from legal abortions and the remainder from illegal abortions.  However, he also said that there had been no abortion deaths in the four month period March - June. 

****According to the June 19, 1971 Press and Sun Bulletin, the Centers for Disease Control counted only 9 legal abortion deaths in the entire state of New York for the 11-month period of July 1, 1970 - May 31, 1971. They report seven illegal abortion deaths in the state during that period. This indicates that the CDC was severely underreporting abortion related deaths even before Roe vs. Wade. 

Sources:

• "Health Board Defers Action on Abortion Regulations," New York Daily News, July 22, 1970
• "50,000 Aborts Reported Here," New York Daily News, November 24, 1970
• "Half of City Abortions Go to Out-of-Staters," Sunday News, February 7, 1971
• "Health Official Praises Abortion Safety Record," Wellsville Daily Reporter, June 30, 1971

Two Beneficiaries of Abortion Liberalization

The first two deaths commemorated today were of women who took advantage of their states repealing anti-abortion laws prior to the Roe vs. Wade Supreme Court decision which struck down every abortion law in the nation in 1973. 

New York, 1970

Carmen Rodriguez was 31 years old when she underwent a 14-week saline abortion at Lincoln Hospital in New York City. A saline abortion was performed by injecting a strong, sterile salt solution into the amniotic fluid. The fetus would then swallow and inhale the fluid, causing internal bleeding. After the fetus died, the woman would go into labor.

Carmen had a history of rheumatic heart disease. After the saline was injected, it got into Carmen's blood stream. This caused acute pulmonary edema -- fluid accumulation in the lungs -- and Carmen went into a coma from which she never recovered. She died on July 19, 1970, leaving behind a husband along with her children.

After Carmen's death, a militant Puerto Rican group, The Young Lords, swung into action. They pointed out that doctors at Lincoln Hospital knew that Carmen had heart problems and failed to take proper precautions -- a very valid claim. After all, saline abortions had long been known to be risky to the woman's heart.

Merle Goldman, spokeswoman of an abortion advocacy organization, did not share The Young Lords' outrage. Ms. Goldman said she hoped that Carmen's death wouldn't deter other women from undergoing abortions. She touted abortion's reputed safety and stressed that her group was lobbying against proposed health department regulation of abortion practice.

New York City Chief Medical Examiner Milton Helpern, on the other hand, expressed concern that ill-equipped and poorly-staffed freestanding legal abortion facilities were posing a danger to women. The 1970 liberalization of abortion had made New York an abortion mecca until the Roe vs. Wade Supreme Court ruling that abortionists could legally set up shop in any state of the union. In addition to Carmen, these are the women I know of who had the dubious benefit of dying from the newfangled safe-and-legal kind of abortion in pre-Roe New York:

• 1970: Pearl, cardiac arrest during abortion; Barbara, sickle-cell crisis triggered by abortion; "Linda", sent back to her home in Indiana with a hole poked in her uterus; Maria, fetus shoved through her uterus into her pelvic cavity; "Kimberly", cardiac arrest during abortion
• 1971: "Amy", massive pulmonary embolism; "Andrea", overwhelming infection; "Sandra", committed suicide due to post-abortion remorse; "Anita", bled to death during outpatient saline abortion; Margaret, hemorrhage from multiple lacerations during outpatient hysterotomy; "Annie", cardiac arrest during anesthesia; Edith, cardiac arrest during abortion; "Vicki", post-abortion infection; "April", went into shock during saline abortion; "Barbara", cardiac arrest after saline injection for abortion; "Tammy", massive post-abortion infection; Carole, hemorrhage from multiple lacerations during outpatient hysterotomy; "Beth", saline accidentally injected into bloodstream; "Roseann", vomiting with seizures causing pneumonia after saline abortion
• 1972: "Connie", cardiac arrest during abortion; "Julie", holes torn in her uterus and bowel; "Robin", lingering abortion complications; "Roxanne", overdose of abortion sedatives; Pamela, air in her bloodstream; "Wendy", saline accidentally injected into her bloodstream; "Sara", infection from retained fetal tissue

The bulk of these deaths were published in a report by the New York Health Department covering the period from June of 1970 through June of 1972, which is why those women are only identified by pseudonyms. 

California, 1971

Betty Hines was 21 years old when she was checked into Doctors Hospital in California for a safe, legal abortion to be performed by Dr. A. Mitchell on July 19, 1971. Mitchell had been her physician for three or four years. Betty was eight weeks pregnant. There didn't seem to be anything wrong during the procedure. Betty was transferred to the recovery room, when she suddenly went into cardio-respiratory arrest.

Mitchell theorized that perhaps Betty had died because of a bad vial of Inovar, because the next patient who was injected from that vial also went into cardiac arrest but was successfully resuscitated. Betty's autopsy, however, found no trace of Inovar in her system. A toxicology check was also done on the vial of medication, and found nothing wrong with the Inovar. Betty's death was attributed to massive intravascular sickling due to underlying sickle cell disorder. Other women who died of sickle cell crisis triggered by abortion include Margaret Davis and Barbara Hoppert.

Other women who died from safe, legal abortions in California in advance of Roe vs. Wade include:

• Pre-1970: Cheryl, lingering complications; Stella, allergic reaction to antibiotic to treat sepsis; Erika: cardiac arrest during abortion; Elva, details unavailable
• 1970: Denise, amniotic fluid embolism; Sara, cardiac arrest during hysterotomy abortion; Sharon, died in Los Angeles; "Felicia," infection from saline abortion; Katherine, sepsis after saline abortion
• 1971: LaSandra, cardiac arrest; Cassandra, bled to death; Janet, infection from mangled fetus left in her uterus; Doris, hemorrhage after failure to diagnose ectopic pregnancy; "Mary," bled to death
• 1972: Twila, cerebral hemorrhage during saline abortion; Natalie, infection after saline abortion; Gwen, saline injected into blood stream; Kathryn, bled to death from perforated uterus

Long story short, legalization didn't stop abortion deaths. It just shifted their legal status. Illegal is in purple, legal is in orange:

Additional source:
"Health Board Defers Action on Abortion Regulations," New York Daily News, July 22, 1970

Doctor Provides Fatal Referral After Fetal Demise

Operation Rescue obtained documents from a 2011 medical malpractice/wrongful death lawsuit filed by the family of Rebecca Charland, whose OB/GYN referred her to her death in the spring of 2010.

Rebecca had serious health problems from a condition known as antiphospholipid syndrome which can lead to the formation of blood clots, deep vein thrombosis, and miscarriage or stillbirth. When Rebecca went in for her 20 week ultrasound, she learned that her unborn baby had died, likely at least two weeks earlier to judge by fetal size.

Rather than arrange for care in a hospital, Dr. Supriya Varma referred her patient to a substandard abortion clinic, Washington Surgi-Clinic, operated by Dr. Cesare F. Santangelo in Washington, D.C.

Rebecca went to the abortion facility on May 19, 2010, for the first stage of the procedure. Santangelo lacked hospital privileges so he could not perform the procedure in a hospital himself, and he did not refer Rebecca to a qualified doctor who did have privileges. Her family also said that Santangelo failed to properly inform Rebecca of the significant risks due to her condition, her medications, and the length of time since her unborn baby had died. Santangelo inserted dilators into Rebecca's cervix and instructed her to return the next day for the procedure.

When Rebecca arrived the following day, Santangelo informed her that she was not yet sufficiently dilated. He took out the old dilators and inserted some new ones and instructed Rebecca to return the next day. However, about two hours later Rebecca returned to the clinic reporting abdominal pain. Santangelo was not at the clinic at that time so Rebecca waited.

At about 2:38 p.m., Santangelo performed the procedure to dismember and remove Rebecca's unborn baby. By 2:45 pm her oxygen levels dropped and she turned blue. Staff intubated her and administered medications. At 2:58 p.m. someone at the clinic called an ambulance.

EMS workers found Rebecca to be bluish-purple in color. They began effective resuscitation efforts which improved Rebecca's color. Her pupils once again became responsive to light. At 3:12 p.m., medics were unable to detect a pulse, so they defibrillated Rebecca. At 3:25 they transported her to George Washington University Hospital. There she was diagnosed with massive uterine bleeding caused by disseminated intravascular coagulopathy, or DIC, a condition in which clotting factors in the blood are not working properly. Patients with DIC can bleed out even from minor internal injuries. Because of the DIC, doctors at the hospital were unable to control the bleeding and pronounced Rebecca dead on May 28. 

The autopsy revealed that "fetal debris" had gotten into her blood stream. This can trigger DIC. Rebecca would be more vulnerable to hemorrhage than a normal patient due to her blood disorder.

Rebecca's family sued Santangelo and the clinic for $80 million. The case was dismissed, likely because the parties settled out-of-court. Rebecca's family did not file suit against the doctor who referred her to her death. 

Three Criminal Abortion Deaths From the 1910s

A Legal Muddle in Chicago, 1911

On July 18, 1911, 24-year-old homemaker Ragna B. died in Chicago from an abortion performed on May 9th by Mrs. C.M. Anderson. Anderson was held by the Coroner and arrested on July 19, but the case was stricken off during trial.



A Doctor's Unclear Role, Georgia, 1918

Dr. C. A. Blanchard of Augusta, Georgia, was charged in July 18, 1918 abortion death of Berter Mae Parrish of Wrens, Georgia. Blanchard said that Berter Mae had already been in serious condition when she was brought to his practice. He said he waited a day before treating her for her obvious abortion complications because he didn't want to make any mistakes in treating her. It was the next day, he said, that he saw that an operation to finish the abortion was necessary to save her life.

Blanchard said that Berter Mae then was lost to follow-up, though he made many efforts to find her to provide ongoing care. He said that the first he'd known of her death was when police came to arrest him. I've been unable to determine any outcome of the case.

***

Margaret Smith death certificate:

New Information on Indiana Death

Twenty-year-old beautician Gail Ann Vroman had a safe and legal abortion performed at ten weeks of gestation on July 14, 1979, by New York abortionist Taskin Ratharathorn at Ft. Wayne Women's Health Organization. 

Within two hours, Gail was transferred to Lutheran Hospital. Gail died of massive infection on July 18. The coroner ruled that the death was caused by clostridium perfringens, or "gas gangrene." This caused her red blood cells to burst and her kidneys to shut down.

New Source: Death Certificate

July 18, 1979 Dead Before Day's End

Geneva Colton, age 21, a mother of two, wanted to stay off welfare, her friend, Joy Fisher, told the Atlanta Constitution. She was a full time meter maid and school crossing guard for the Cochran, GA, police department and worked part-time at a restaurant. "She just felt she could not support another child without going back on welfare." Geneva, Joy said, had nearly completed her studies to get her GED and would have taken thjude last two tests in September. "She wanted that certificate so she could become a certified policewoman."

Joy supported Geneva's choice, and drove her friend to Northside Family Planning Service in Atlanta on July 18, 1979. They left Cochran at 6:10 a.m. and talked about Geneva's two little boys during the trip. They were about ten minutes late for the 9 a.m. appointment. Joy even helped Geneva to pay for the procedure, performed at 10 weeks of pregnancy.

"She was a unique individual in that she was a young black woman with two children who could have had a relatively carefree life on welfare. But she elected to fight it, and she was pulling herself up by herself with no help really from anybody much except the friends around her who loved her," Joy said.

It was 4:00 p.m. before Geneva was discharged. "She was obviously in pain coming back, and I stopped once to buy a pillow to make her more comfortable," Joy said. "She appeared to be having abdominal cramping, which they had told her she would experience."

Joy dropped Geneva off at a friend's house in Cochran at about 7:30 p.m. About an hour later, Joy said, the friend called and said that Geneva had been taken to the emergency room at Bleckley County Hospital.

A hospital spokesman told the Constitution that Geneva had no vital signs on arrival. She was pronounced dead at 9:30 p.m. after attempts to resuscitate her failed. The hospital contacted the Centers for Disease Control to report Geneva's death. Geneva was the fifth legal abortion death reported in Georgia since the 1973 Supreme Court decision, Roe vs. Wade, which struck down nearly all limits on abortion practice in the United States. Dr. George Rubin of the CDC said that those five deaths could be considered a "rash" of deaths.

The autopsy found that Geneva's uterus had been perforated. She had bled to death. A jury awarded Geneva's two young sons, ages 4 and 7 at the time of her death, $225,000 in a malpractice suit. ($600,000 in 2020 dollars.) Both the clinic and Dr. Lawrence Cohen were named in the suit. The boys ended up under the guardianship of the Georgia Department of Family and Children Services.

Northside was eventually sued by their malpractice insurer because they'd allowed one of their abortionists to continue to perform surgery even though his manual dexterity had deteriorated due to multiple sclerosis. The suit by the insurer also alleged failure to meet state health standards, failure to have enough nurses on duty, failure to have proper on-call procedures, and lack of a professional director of medical services.

The clinic where Geneva's fatal abortion was performed seems to be the same clinic where Catherine Pierce underwent her fatal abortion in 1989.

Geneva's death also highlights a sad reality: According to the Alan Guttmacher Institute, a Black woman is nearly twice as likely to end up on the abortion table than a white woman, and once she's on that table she's significantly more likely to end up dead. According to the Centers for Disease Control, about 35% of abortions are performed on white women and about 38% on Black women.  Of the 95 legal abortion deaths for which I've been able to determine the woman's race, 47% were Black woman and only 30% were white women. (Asian women were 3% and Hispanic women 19%.) 

****************************

New Sources on Geneva's death:

• "Death follows abortion," Rome (GA) News-Tribune, July 20, 1979
• "Autopsy Blames Abortion For Death Of Cochran Woman," Atlanta Journal and Constitution, July 21, 1979
• "State told to draw new abortion rules," Rome News-Tribune, November 8, 1979
• "$225,000 awarded in death," Atlanta Constitution, August 13, 1982

News to Me: Failure to Diagnose Leads to Death in 2019

While checking the Operation Rescue site to see if there were any Planned Parenthood abortion deaths I'd missed, I found a tragedy that took place at the notorious Preterm facility in Cleveland. Her name was Tai Archevia Parks and she was the 26-year-old mother of a 4-year-old girl. Operation Rescue obtained the autopsy report to learn how Tia died.

Tai went to Preterm on June 7, 2019 for a first trimester abortion. Tai was obese and had an enlarged heart, conditions which would make her high risk. When preforming pre-abortion examinations, nobody noticed that Tai was actually pregnant with twins -- one in her uterus, and one in her fallopian tube. Though this condition, heterotopic pregnancy, is rare, occurring between 1 in 7,000 and 1 in 30,000 pregnancies. A high-volume abortion facility might expect to see at least one patient with the condition.

Tai was discharged after her abortion. The next day Tia began sweating profusely and suffering abdominal pain. She was transported by ambulance to the Cleveland Clinic, arriving at 1:48 p.m. Doctors there determined that she had a lot of free blood in her abdomen. Attempts to save her were to no avail. The unnoticed fetus had caused her fallopian tube to rupture, causing massive bleeding. She was pronounced dead in the ER at 5:01 pm on June 8.

Though the abortion didn't cause Tia's death, Preterm, as a high-volume abortion facility, should have had people on staff with the experience and skills to detect the second embryo. Thus their failure to perform an adquate pre-abortion examination missed the opportunity to diagnose the heterotopic pregnancy and save Tia's life.

Women with ectopic pregnancies should be less likely to die if they choose abortion because the pre-abortion examination is supposed to include a careful and detailed ultrasound, but they're actually more likely to die than women who either do not yet know they are pregnant or who are intending to carry to term. This is because symptoms that the ectopic pregnancy is about to rupture are attributed to the abortion, not to an ectopic pregnancy. Hospital staff also might be less likely to suspect an ectopic pregnancy in a patient with a history of a recent abortion.

Operation Rescue has carefully documented many alarming cases of injury at Preterm, including the death of Lakisha Wilson in 2014. When Lakisha's heart started slowing alarmingly and eventually stopped beating entirely, Preterm staff did not follow all proper procedures to treat her. To make it worse, because the building wasn't set up to allow for easy EMS access, medics had trouble getting Lakisha to the ambulance. They had to halt CPR while extricating their patient because the elevator was too small to lay the gurney flat. Staff at the hospital were able to get Lakisha's heart started again but she never recovered.

It's also interesting to note that both of the young women who died after abortions at Preterm were Black.

A Repeat Offender in Oklahoma, 1940

On July 17, 1940, Goldie Crow, 28-year-old wife of Oklahoma City milk truck driver Albert Crow, died of peritonitis from a criminal abortion performed July 2 by Otto C. Lucy. Lucy was a 37-year-old psychologist and teacher, had previously been dean of men at Central State College. He performed the fatal abortion on Goldie while he was out on bail pending trial for the June 1, 1938 abortion death of Mary Ellen Legge.* Though he was not a physician, Lucy had a listing in the telephone book reading "Dr. Otto C. Lucy". He might have gotten away with this because of his job as a consulting, albeit unlicensed, psychologist for a prison.**

Albert admitted that he had purchased some abortifacients, which had not had their desired effect. He went to Lucy's apartment in June, thinking that Lucy was a doctor. He told him that Goldie was pregnant and that they didn't want the child. He also told Lucy that he had no money, and Lucy said that he couldn't do anything for him.

Otto Lucy

But evidently either Albert found the money or he worked out some arrangement with Lucy, because on July 2, Lucy went to the Crow home at dusk and performed an abortion on Goldie. At some point that evening he called a nurse, Mrs. Ruth Bowen, to assist him. Some time afterward he returned to check on Goldie, found her condition improved, and recommended that she drink fruit juices and plenty of water.

Over the next few days, Goldie's condition deteriorated. Albert called Lucy, who said he'd done all he could for her and told Albert to take his wife to a hospital. Albert called the family doctor, who also said to take Goldie to a hospital. Albert called a taxi and did so. But despite the efforts of doctors there, Goldie died.

During the investigation into Goldie's abortion, police found surgical instruments wrapped in a towel and bloody newspaper, stuffed into a garbage can in the basement of the apartment building where Lucy lived. He was convicted of first degree manslaughter on April 17, 1941 and sentenced to 25 years in the state penitentiary for Goldie's death. After his conviction in Goldie's death, Lucy pleaded guilty of manslaughter in Mary Ellen's death and to obtaining an abortion in the case of a 27-year-old stenographer he's performed an abortion on in November of 1938. Lucy was paroled on May 26, 1945, having served just a hair over four years.

* Another abortionist who killed a second woman while out on bail pending trial for the first woman's death was Dr. Jesse Ketchum. In the 1960s, Clergy Consultation Services would refer women to Ketchm's Ypsilanti, Michigan practice for illegal abortions. Ketchum was arrested after a sting operation, so when New York legalized unfettered abortion in 1970, Ketchum was there with bells on performing risky hysterotomy abortions in his office. His carelessness killed Margaret Louise Smith on June 16, 1971. Because of the egregious level of disregard for Margaret's life, Ketchum was arrested but released on bail pending trial. On October 20, he performed a similarly careless abortion resulting in the death of Carole Schaner. Lucy at least managed to wait two years before killing a second woman, unlike Ketchum who killed the second woman less than five months after killing the first one.

** Otto Lucy's status as a not-quite-psychologist puts me in mind of abortion-rights hero Harvey Karman. Karman, who styled himself a doctor, performed a fatal abortion on a woman in a motel room in 1955. After he got out of prison he went right back to doing abortions. He networked with the Jane abortion syndicate in Chicago, who recruited him to do experimental abortions on a bus load of poor, minority women at Kermit Gosnell's abortion clinic in Philadelphia. Karman was practically beatified by the abortion-rights movement due to his tireless enthusiasm for abortion.

New sources:

• "Otto Lucy to be Tried for Murder," Morrison Transcript, January 2, 1941
• "Trial of Lucy for Murder Set for Monday," Oklahoma County Register, April 3, 1941
• "Lucy Sentenced To 25 Years, Will Not Appeal," The Oklahoma County Register, April 17, 1941
• "Otto Lucy Given 25-Year Term For Manslaughter, Muskogee Daily Phoenix, April 17, 1941
• "Smashing Oklahoma City's Abortion Ring" (advertisement), The Daily Oklahoman, November 16, 1941
• "Parole Granted Otto Lucy," Seminole Producer, May 27, 1945

A Phony Doctor in Chicago, 1917

On July 17, 1917, 34-year-old nurse Frances Reinhardt died at Chicago's County Hospital from septic blood poisoning caused by an abortion which police said had been perpetrated by Dr. A. E. Thomas. However, further investigation revealed that a non-physician identified as W. Thomas had appropriated the name from a retired doctor.

W. Thomas had been able to practice medicine without a license for several years until his ruse was exposed after his arrest for Frances' death. The real Dr. A. E. Thomas's brother suspected that the arrested "doctor" had stolen his identity and reported this to the board of health.

The Chicago Daily Tribune notes, "Instead of being a pompous, suave, well fed and dressed charlatan like other quacks who have fallen into the meshes of the law recently, he turned out to be a shaking, wretched, and miserable victim of morphine, whose condition when he was captured bordered on hysteria." Upon arrest, Thomas admitted the ruse to police.

Though he was held by the Coroner for Frances' death, the charges were dropped for a reason I have been unable to determine. I have also found no evidence that anybody else was arrested for the crime.

An Abortion and a Suicide, Pittsburgh, 1901

At about 9 a.m. on July 17, 1901, 23-year-old widow Juliette "Julia" O'Brien, an immigrant from France, died in her home at 3187 Carson Street in Pittsburgh, from complications of an illegal abortion which Julia had told her family had been perpetrated by Dr. Michael A. Arnholt. At the coroner's inquest, Julia's mother, Marie Maurice, through a French interpreter, added that on or around July 12, "My daughter told me that Dr. Arnholt had abused her several times when she was in his office." I believe that the "abuse" to which Julia's mother refers is abortion attempts.

Julia's sister-in-law, Helen Maurice, said that she'd gone to Arnholt's office with Julia on July 5. Julia, she said, went back into another area with Arnholt and was there for more than a hour. Julia was pale and weak when she emerged, barely able to walk.

Arnolt went to the family home on July 15, cussing up a storm and berating Julia for telling her family about the abortion. Two other physicians -- Dr. W. H. McCombs and Dr. George P. Rossman, were called in to attend to help attend Julia in her illness. Her mother had told both of them about the abortion, but they advised her not to say anything to the coroner about how Julia died. McCombs signed the death certificate Councilman John H. Semmelrock, who was partner in a funeral business, witnesses also said, likewise advised the family not to report the abortion since it would disgrace the family.

Dr. Arnholt

Julia's brother, Arthur Maurice, and sister, Mary Smith, had been planning to file suit and expose Arnholt's abortion practice if he did not pay them $5000 (c. $130,000 in 2020 dollars) in damages to cover the cost of caring for the 21-month-old child the abortion had left an orphan. They went to Arnholt's office with their demands. He reportedly begged them on his knees not to subject him to the ignominy of being exposed as an abortionist. Putting him behind bars, he said, would not bring their sister back. Julia's sister said that a distraught Arnholt had torn at his hair and told them, "I know I did wrong. I know I did wrong in causing this poor girl to die." He offered to pay all of the expenses related to Julia's death and to pay $3 per week (c. $80 in 2020 dollars) for the maintenance of Julia's toddler until the child reached the age of 21.

Julia's siblings told Arnholt that they wanted the $5,000 up front instead, and decided to give him time to think about it. they agreed to meet with him on July 25 to discuss the situation. However, several hours before the scheduled meeting Arnholt committed suicide in his office by shooting himself through the heart.

Arnholt's death and the circumstances surrounding it came as a shock to the community, since he was a prominent physician and former state senator.

On a completely different note, just when I thought things couldn't get any weirder, I stumbled across a very creepy article when checking for new information about this case. In May of 1876, Arnholt and two other doctors were for grave-robbing. They'd evidently disinterred and dissected a young female murder victim.

New Sources:

• "The Flemm-Palling Tragedy," Pittsburgh Commercial, May 27, 1876
• "Death Sealed his Troubles," The Pittsburgh Post, July 26, 1901
• "Shot Himself Rather Than Be Disgraced," Dayton Herald, July 26, 1901
• "Dead Doctor Was Blamed," Pittsburgh Press, August 25, 1901
• "Were Officials Cheated?", Pittsburgh Daily Post, August 25, 1901
• "Coroner Holds Doctors as Accessory to a Crime," PIttsburgh Press, September 4, 1901

Two Doctors' Work and One Self-Induced

Emma M., age 28 or 29, of Jacksonville, Illinois, died at 3:00 the morning of July 16, 1903. An investigation found that she had tried a do-it-yourself abortion with an instrument given to her by a friend, Belle Osborne. The abortion had caused septic peritonitis that took Emma's life.

On July 16, 1913, 24-year-old Catherine S. died in Chicago, at the scene of an abortion perpetrated that day by Dr. Paul Ackerman. Ackerman was arrested and held by the Coroner for murder on August 8. Spiros Glambedakos was arrested as an accessory. Dr. Jacques Moses was also arrested in connection with the case. Ackerman was indicted by a Grand Jury on August 15, but the case never went to trial.

Little information is available about the death of 21-year-old Linda L. of Tennessee. According to her death certificate, she underwent a safe and legal abortion on June 14, 1980. The death certificate does not say where, or who performed the abortion. It does say, though, that her uterus was perforated. As a result, Linda developed sepsis and went into shock. She died on July 16, 1980.

1921: More Confusion, No Justice

On July 14, 1921, 23-year-old homemaker Edna May Rohner died at Illinois Masonic Hospital in Chicago from an abortion reportedly perpetrated by Dr. Otto Klemmick.

He was held by the coroner and tried, but acquitted on June 12, 1923. The source material is scanty, so it's unclear how much evidence there was against Klemick or why he was acquitted. Whether Klemmick was truly innocent, or whether he simply managed to escape punishment, Edna and her baby got no justice.

When I checked on Newspapers.com to see if there was any information from recently added newspapers, I found the following snippet in the July 15, 1921 Chicago Tribune:

This piece says that Edna died from a self-induced abortion.

So a search for more information about Edna's tragic death just led to more confusion.

From Mysterious in 1889 to Safe and Legal in 1978

Unclear Circumstances in Chicago, 1889

On July 12, 1889, 24-year-old Annie Doran, from Traverse City, Michigan, died suddenly in Chicago. Annie had come to Chicago about two weeks earlier, and had asked her sister to accompany her to visit friends in Cadillac, Michigan. They stayed for three days, Annie's sister said. 

Annie's brother-in-law, a former county sheriff, pushed for an investigation. The coroner's inquest concluded that she had bled to death from an abortion, possibly self-induced. News coverage, however, indicated that a physician, Dr. McMullen, was believed to have provided Annie with abortifacients. However, McMullen indicated that he was in New York attending a medical conference at the time.

Annie's sister said that she had been unaware that her sister had been pregnant. Mrs. Hansen, who ran the boarding house where Annie died, also said that she'd known nothing about Annie being pregnant.

The crime scene was described in the Homicide in Chicago database as a "Medical facility", with the additional notes, "Midwife, Abortion place" and "Clinic (e.g. abortion facility)". This lends credence to the idea that Annie had visited some sort of doctor or midwife for the purpose of an abortion.

Two Doctors in Oklahoma, 1918

Druggist John A. Sims of Stigler, Oklahoma, was charged in the abortion murder of 18- or 20-year-old telephone operator Grace Malone in 1918. Simms was believed to be responsible for Grace's pregnancy as well as for arranging the abortion, though not present when it was perpetrated on July 11 at the home of her sister, Mrs. Cynthia Vasser.

Cynthia stated that she had sterilized the instruments in question by boiling them in water. She didn't know what they were called, but said that one resembled scissors without blades. She said that Dr. W. W. Aiken of Muskogee perpetrated the abortion, assisted by another physician that neither she nor another witness were able to positively identify. The witnesses could, however, identify Dr. L. D. Bruton as a physician that Aiken called in at some point to help him in providing care to Grace.

Grace died there the following day, July 12. The original death certificate attributed her death to "heart failure," but an autopsy found internal lacerations.

Aiken and Bruton were charged with murder in Grace's death, as was Sims, after Grace's father, O. E. Malone, filed a complaint against them. Both Grace's father and sister said that Grace had originally gone to Dr. T. B. Turner of Stigler, OK to ask him to perform an abortion. Only after he refused did she go to Muskogee and arrange for Aiken to do the abortion.

During pre-trial proceedings, Grace's father ran out of the courtroom shouting that somebody needed to be punished for his daughter's death. He was taken to the county attorney's office, where he was able to regain his composure.

Sims died, reportedly from "nervous collapse," before his case went to trial. Aiken and Bruton had also been charged with murder in Grace's death, but charges were dropped due to insufficient evidence to secure a conviction after Sims' death.

Abortion-on-Demand Unleashed in New York

Pearl Schwier, age 42, was 20 weeks pregnant when she sought a safe, legal abortion under New York state's new law, 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 never regained consciousness, dying on July 12, leaving her husband, John, a widower.*

The 1970 liberalization of abortion had made New York an abortion mecca until the Roe vs. Wade Supreme Court ruling that abortionists could legally set up shop in any state of the union. In addition to Pearl, these are the women I know of who had the dubious benefit of dying from the newfangled safe-and-legal kind of abortion in pre-Roe New York. The following include women noted by public health officials from the mid-1970 legalization for a two year period ending in mid-1972:

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

Screwed-up Anesthesia, 1978

In 1978, Twenty-seven-year-old Gail Mazo went to Mt. Sinai in New York for an abortion, because she had ulcerative colitis. While she was under general anesthesia for the abortion, Gail began to vomit, and breathed the vomit into her lungs. The material in her lungs caused  complications that killed Gail on July 12.

Gail's survivors filed suit against the anesthesiologist for failure to recognize that Gail was a high-risk patient and to treat her accordingly. The family and the doctor eventually settled out of court for $800,000 ($3.15 million in 2020 dollars).

*New article covering Pearl's death:
"Health Board Devers Action on Abortion Regulations," New York Daily News, July 22, 1970

Three Chicago Deaths

Three Deaths in Early 20th Century Chicago

On July 11, 1904, Alma Swanson (link broken), 24-year-old wife of Morris Swanson, died at her Chicago home from an abortion performed there that day. Midwife Constance Marie Anderson was arrested and held by Coroner's Jury on July 15. (Source: Homicide in Chicago Interactive Database, not sure what else!)

At six weeks pregnant, 24-year-old "Cathy", identified in the source document as "Mrs. W.," used a catheter on herself to perform an abortion. All seemed well for three weeks, but then she took sick. On July 7, 1909, three weeks after taking ill, Cathy was admitted to Cook County Hospital by a doctor who had diagnosed her as suffering from typhoid fever. Her pulse was 144, her respirations 42, and her temperature 104.8. The Widal test for typhoid came back negative. Cathy's blood culture showed streptococci instead. Her leucocyte count was 8,800. Cathy developed an abscess on her left forearm, and it too tested positive for streptococci. For reasons the source document does not make clear, the septicemia was attributed to the self-induced abortion. Doctors were unable to fight the infection, and Cathy died on July 11.

On July 11, 1920, 36-year-old homemaker Vincenza Romans died at Chicago's Columbus Hospital from septicemia after an abortion. A midwife named Marie Lendino was arrested, and was indicted on July 15, but the case never went to trial for reasons the source does not indicate.