Two mysterious deaths

On September 6, 1917, 29-year-old Lizzie Heimos died at Chicago's Wesley Hospital from a criminal abortion performed by an unknown perpetrator. I've been unable to determine anything else about Lizzie's death.

Legalization was supposed to eliminate dangerous self-induced abortions. Evidently there is something other than illegality driving women to these grisly acts. In September of 1989, 33-year-old mother of four Laura France was found dead in the garage of her home in Mansfield, Ohio. Laura, part-owner of a bicycle repair shop and go-go dancer at a local bar, evidently attempted a self-induced abortion with an air compressor. She had given herself a massive air embolism by putting 90 psi of air into her own uterus with an 18-inch air hose. I've never learned, nor do I know if anybody else ever learned, what possessed Laura to do such a bizarre and dangerous thing, when legal abortion was readily available and there are less clearly risky ways to dislodge an unwanted unborn baby.