Three pre-Roe deaths

All three of today's pre-Roe victims suffered their fatal injuries at the hands of doctors. However, only the most recent case didn't raise eyebrows or result in an indictment.



On August 23, 1859, Miss Mary E. Visscher left the home of Mrs. C. Perrine, where she had been a boarder, and went to the "stylish" house of two female physicians, Elizabeth Byrns and Mary E. Smith, who practiced midwifery. Byrnes and Smith said that Mary had come to their home to be treated for back pain due to a fall, and that they'd not even know she was pregnant until after the abortion, which they attributed the abortion "to the imprudence of deceased herself." The abortion took place on August 27, and Mary "lingered" until her death from peritonitis on Saturday, September 3. The coroner's jury decided that Byrnes had performed the abortion, with the prior knowledge of Smith, who was charged as an accessory before the fact.



On September 3, 1903, Mrs. Florence Gaiewski died in St. Mary's Hospital in Chicago from an abortion performed there that day. Dr. Ladislaw Slominski was arrested September 4, held by Coroner's Jury September 8, and indicted for felony murder, but discharged by a Grand Jury for reasons that the source doesn't explain.



After California legalized abortion on demand in 1970, a Texas company began selling abortion referrals and air fare. Twenty-year-old Katherine Morse was one customer. Katherine was admitted to Bel Air Memorial Hospital in LA County on September 1, 1972. (Until Roe v. Wade, California abortions were performed in hospitals, and many hospitals opened specializing in abortion.) John Dupont initiated a saline abortion on Katherine. Katherine developed a 102 degree fever, then expelled the dead baby just after midnight on September 3. Katherine's blood pressure rose, she went into shock, and was pronounced dead by Dupont at 9:40 AM. An autopsy found sepsis, and gangrene of the ovary. Since Katherine's abortion was safe and legal, her abortionist was able to continue his practice unmolested.