Pauline Braasch, Illegal Abortion Death

Pauline Braasch

Nurse or midwife implicated in fatal abortion

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On November 13, 1910, Mrs. Pauline Braasch, age 32, died in her Chicago home from an abortion performed there that day.

A nurse or midwife named Elizabeth Burns was indicted for felony murder in Pauline's death. The source has no record of the case going to trial.

Note, please, that with issues such as doctors not using proper aseptic techniques, lack of access to blood transfusions and antibiotics, and overall poor health to begin with, there was likely little difference between the performance of a legal abortion and illegal practice, and the aftercare for either type of abortion was probably equally unlikely to do the woman much, if any, good. For more information about early 20th Century abortion mortality, see Abortion Deaths 1910-1919.

For more on pre-legalization abortion, see The Bad Old Days of Abortion.

Source: Homicide in Chicago Interactive Database