A Midwife's Fatal Work and Two Mystery Abortions

On January 10, 1907, homemaker Ellen White , a 36-year-old Irish immigrant, died of shock and hemorrhage in her Chicago home from an abort...

1918 and the 1980s

On January 9, 1918, 39-year-old Mary Cusack , a widowed homemaker, died at Chicago's West Side Hospital from septicemia caused by an ab...

Unknown and High-End, Before and After Legalization

On January 8, 1918, 20-year-old homemaker Margaret Balch died in a Chicago home from hemorrhage caused by an abortion perpetrated by a per...

Two Historic Chicago Deaths

On January 6, 1905, a young woman was found dead in a ditch near Dunning, Illinois. The body was taken to an undertaking establishment, wh...

On This Date in 1930, Sonia Ragins Died in Chicago

On January 5, 1930, bookkeeper Sonia Ragins , age 26, died from an illegal abortion performed at an unknown location by an unknown person. ...

Illegal, Illegal, and Probably Legal. Still Equally Dead

On January 4, 1921, 21-year-old Jennie Chub b died in her Chicago home from complications of an abortion performed that day. The coroner ide...

Two Deaths Over a Hundred Years Apart

An inquest was held in St. Louis, Missouri, regarding the January 3, 1866 death of 23-year-old Aurora Heaton . Finding rural life dull, she ...