Different Legal Status, All Deadly

Beverly Moore, age 15, died July 7, 1985 after an abortion by Tuckey Hayes at Chattanooga Women's Clinic -- the "Lime 5" clinic. Hayes assured Beverly's parents that she would be "all right" just fifteen minutes before she died. Chattanooga Women's Clinic was written up for continued deficiencies even after Beverly's death. Noted flaws included expired and improperly stored medications, re-use of disposable items, stained instruments, and blood in the procedure table.

On July 11, 1920, 36-year-old homemaker Vincenza Romano 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. I've been unable to learn enough about the case to draw any conclusions.

Dr. Julius Hammer

Marie Oganesoff, wife of the Russian Attache in Washington during WWI, died on July 11, 1919, from complications of a criminal abortion performed on July 5 by Dr. Julius Hammer (pictured), father of industrialist Armand Hammer. Hammer, a 1902 graduate of the College of Physicians and Surgeons, reported used instruments on her. She had been about one month pregnant. Marie reportedly had health problems that necessitated a "life of the mother" abortion.

On July 11, 1904, Alma Swanson died at her home from an abortion performed there that day. Midwife Constance Marie Anderson was arrested and held by Coroner's Jury on July 15. Though the fact that Alma's abortion was done in her home reeks of "back alley butchery" to modern sensibilities, surgery performed in the home was not that unusual at the time.