Four Deaths. Did Legalization Make Things Better?

Felipi Berriozabal Jr., was living in Chicago as the Mexican Consul with his wife, Doloris, during the entirety of their daughter Mercedes's short life.The family was a highly respected one: Mercedes's grandfather, Felipe Berriozabal Sr., was a highly regarded military and political man in Mexico who died when his granddaughter was about ten years old. Mercedes sought an abortion someplace in Chicago on February 1, 1906, but the attempt caused her physical problems without killing the baby. In an attempt to save her life, Dr. Bayard Holmes performed a legal abortion on her in Wesley Hospital. This attempt proved to be in vain, and Mercedes died of blood poisoning on February 5. Holmes, interestingly enough, was known as a criminal abortionist, but was not believed to have made the initial attempt to abort Mercedes.

On February 5, 1918, Carmile Ghant died at 3746 State Street in Chicago from an abortion perpetrated by two doctors, Ges. Miller and Robert J. Miller. There is some odd mention of the defendants being "Outside labor force (incl. criminals" and the business owner of a bar or saloon." It is therefore unclear if one or both of these doctors also owned a bar, or if the bar owner was somehow an accomplice in Carmile's death. Either way, the men were indicted on March 1, but the case never went to trial.

On January 29, 1929, Glasgow native Louise Allman, age 25, underwent an abortion at the home of Amelia K. Jaruez, a midwife. The address is also listed as a medical facility, so evidently she provided care to legitimate patients there as well. On February 5, Louise died, leaving behind a husband, Stanley. Jaruez was held by the coroner on February 23, and indicted for homicide by a grand jury, but she was acquitted on July 2.

Moving on along to the age of safe and legal abortions, when women no longer die horrible, needless abortion deaths.

Though Carolina Gutierrez's abortion took place in 1995, her story didn't surface until 1996. It took her that long to die. She had come to the United States at the age of 13 as a refugee from Nicaragua. She had two children from a previous marriage, and though her husband was ready to welcome the new baby, Carolina chose abortion. A friend drove her to one of Miami's many fly-by-night abortion mills. Over the next two days, she became increasingly ill, but the clinic wouldn't return her calls. On December 21st, she could hardly breathe, so her family called 911. She arrived at the emergency room already in septic shock. Carolina underwent an emergency hysterectomy at the hospital to try to halt the spread of infection from her perforated uterus. Carolina was put into the intensive care unit, where she battled for her life against the raging sepsis. She was on a respirator, with her fingers and feet going black with gangrene. Carolina's 21st birthday came and went as she lay in the ICU. Doctors fought to help the young woman to gain enough strength to undergo amputation of her gangrenous limbs. But despite the hysterectomy, the amputations, and all their other efforts, Carolina died on February 5, 1996. And rather than blame the Florida Abortion Council, an organization of abortion clinic owners who had successfully fought state efforts to close down seedy abortion clinics, prochoicers blamed "lack of access" purportedly called by prolifers for Carolina's horrific death.