| "Glenda Coe" | |
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On September 18, 1958, Mrs. "Glenda Coe" (name changed at the family's request) was found dead in her Norman, Oklahoma home by one of her four children. An autopsy confirmed that an induced abortion had caused her death. Her ex-husband was arrested for questioning. Witnesses said they had seen him at Glenda's home the night before her death. During the 1950s, we see an anomaly: Though maternal mortality had been falling during the first half of the 20th Century, and abortion mortality in particular had been plummeting, the downward trend slowed, then reversed itself briefly. I have yet to figure out why. For more, see Abortion Deaths in the 1950's. For more on pre-legalization abortion, see The Bad Old Days of Abortion
Sources: "Death Tied to Abortion" The Oklahoman, September 20, 1958
