Illegal Abortions Post-Roe Trivia Quiz

Answer: Illegal practitioners passing themselves off as physicians in legal-appearing facilities.

The CDC's staffers interviewed the women's friends and families, and others associated with the fatal abortions. They concluded that women seek illegal abortions for "idiosyncratic" reasons, meaning that there was no pattern the CDC could identify and target as a public health issue.

Answer: One woman died, and another was hospitalized, after similar illegal abortions.

Two Colorado women suffered complications in 1978 from abortions they performed themselves using pennyroyal oil. One of the women developed liver failure and died as a result. The CDC's investigation found that the women's lives had not intersected in any way.

They did not belong to any organization that promoted herbal abortion. They had not attended any events together promoting self-help abortion. They did not even buy their pennyroyal at the same herbal shop. The CDC investigation concluded that the similarity of the cases was just a coincidence.

Answer: A prochoice activist.

Prochoice activist and author Ellen Frankfort was disgusted by the response to the illegal abortion death of Rosie Jiminez in 1977. Public health officials seemed content to simply note and report Rosie's death. The police were not taking any action on their own. Frankfort took it upon herself to put the pressure on the powers-that-be and organized the sting.

Answer: Acupuncturist

An 18-year-old patient told investigators she went to Zhong Fu's home, where he operated an acupuncture business, for an abortion. He charged $1,500. The woman was hospitalized with retained fetal parts, pain, and hemorrhage. Fu said that the woman had threatened suicide, and that the fetus was already dead, so he pretended to perform an abortion on her with herbs. Local authorities believe that Fu had also sold abortions to other women.

Answer: Chiropractor

Dr. Julius Leatherman, a chiropractor with suspended license, faced charges of performing two illegal abortions. A 21-year-old patient was injured in an abortion performed in November of 1975. A 26-year-old woman who was opposed to abortion said that she visited Leatherman and he performed a pelvic exam, told her she was pregnant, used instruments on her without getting consent or informing her what he was doing, then informed her abortion was complete.

This woman bleed heavily 4 days, and was admitted to a hospital to complete the abortion and treat blood poisoning.

Answer: A physician

The CDC, as well as the 'Miami Herald', reported a cluster of four abortion deaths at Woman's Care Clinic. Myrta Baptiste, age 26, had abortion of her 10 week pregnancy performed by Orlando Zaldivar December 18, 1982. Myrta arrived at the hospital in critical condition due to delay of transfer by the clinic staff. She bled to death from 2 uterine perforations. Zaldivar could not be reached for 7 hours while hospital staff were struggling to save his patient's life.

Since Zaldivar's license was inactive at the time he performed Myrta's abortion, the CDC classified her death as being due to illegal abortion rather than legal abortion. The other three deaths at the same facility were counted as legal abortion deaths.

Answer: She paid a fee to a referral service.

Dr. Howard White, a chiropractor who had failed his licensing test at least three times, and whose license had been suspended in 1976, charged the girl $250 for an abortion. She was 21 weeks pregnant and thought that White was a qualified physician because she'd been referred by a heavily advertised Chicago area abortion referral-for-fee organization. White used a corkscrew-like device on the girl, who was taken from his facility directly to the hospital to be treated for complications.

She was hospitalized for 11 days and required a hysterectomy. White was sentenced for 1 to 3 years in prison.

Answer: The woman's boyfriend.

An autopsy report from the San Bernadino County Coroner's office tells the story of this woman, a systems analyst for a defense contractor. She had an appointment to abort her second-trimester pregnancy scheduled for April 30, 1990, at a local abortion clinic.

But for some reason, she didn't wait for her appointment. On April 28, she allowed her boyfriend to insert a plastic tube into her uterus in a home-abortion attempt. She died of infection.

Answer: The owner of an abortion clinic.

Alicia Hannah's abortion clinic, Clinica Feminina de la Comunidad, was operating openly and apparently legally. Hanna had begun passing herself off as a doctor and performing abortions at the facility when the physician who had been performing abortions quit. Hanna had given Angela an injection to induce abortion. Angela stopped breathing, and staffers attempted to revive her but did not summon paramedics because Hanna feared that she would go to jail and lose her children if it was discovered that she was running the clinic illegally.

She and the other woman had planned to abandon Angela's car, with her body in it, at a distant location. In December 1994, Hanna was convicted of second-degree murder for Angela's death. She was sentenced to 16 years to life.

Answer: Kris did it herself.

Kris had decided to use pennyroyal tea to abort her pregnancy because she'd had an unpleasant experience with legal abortion at a Planned Parenthood. She also mistrusted modern medicine because her brother had died from an allergic reaction to a painkiller. What Kris failed to do was ensure that the embryo was actually in her uterus.

She actually had an ectopic pregnancy. Her persistent efforts to use herbs to end the pregnancy caused liver damage and clotting problems which killed her.