Carole Schaner

Carole Schaner30s, 1970s, hemorrhagedeath, newyork, quackery, preroelegalSUMMARY: Carole Schaner, age 37, bled to death on October 20, 1971 after an abortion performed by Jesse Ketchum in Buffalo, NY.

Carole Schaner was 37 years old when she traveled from Ohio to Buffalo, New York, for a safe and legal abortion. to be performed by Dr, Jesse Ketchum. She had been referred by a local abortion advocacy organization, West Shore Center. Carole was divorced and caring for her four children.

Dr. Jesse KetchumKetchum was a former criminal abortionist from Ypsilanti, Michigan who had relocated to New York specifically to open an abortion practice. He had allowed another abortion patient, Margaret Smith, to bleed to death in his office from a hysterotomy abortion just four months earlier. A hysterotomy was like a c-section, but with the intention of allowing the fetus to die of prematurity.

Ketchum performed a vaginal hysterotomy on Carole on October 20, 1971. She was 14 weeks pregnant.

After the abortion, Carole went into shock, and was taken to a hospital. She was in shock when she arrived. Despite all efforts, Carole died before doctors could even fully assess the extent of her injuries. She left behind four children.

The autopsy found that Carole’s cervix and uterus had been cut open, and an artery outside her uterus had been cut. It also noted sutures that had evidently been put in by Ketchum in an attempt to repair the damage. The sutures, however, completely closed Carole’s cervix, allowing her to continue bleeding from the injured uterus and artery.

Carole was the second woman to bleed to death after an outpatient hystertomy abortion performed by Ketchum; Margaret Smith had died four months earlier.

Another former criminal abortionist, Milan Vuitch, also had kept his nose clean as a criminal abortionist, then went on to kill two legal abortion patients. Wilma Harris and Georgianna English both died under Vuitch’s care. Benjamin Munson, likewise, had a clean record in his criminal abortionist then went on to kill two women in his supposedly safer legal practice — Linda Padfield and Yvonne Mesteth.

The 1970 liberalization of abortion had made New York an abortion mecca until the Roe vs. Wade Supreme Court ruling that abortionists could legally set up shop in any state of the union. In addition to Margaret and Carole, these are the women I know of who had the dubious benefit of dying from the newfangled safe-and-legal kind of abortion in pre-Roe New York:

Pearl Schwier, July, 1970, cardiac arrest during abortion
Carmen Rodriguez, July, 1970, salt solution intended to kill the fetus accidentally injected into her bloodstream
Barbara Riley, July, 1970, sickle-cell crisis triggered by abortion recommended by doctor due to her sickle cell disease
“Amanda” Roe, September, 1970, sent back to her home in Indiana with an untreated hole poked in her uterus
Maria Ortega, October, 1970, fetus shoved through her uterus into her pelvic cavity then left there
“Kimberly” Roe, December, 1970, cardiac arrest during abortion
“Amy” Roe, January, 1971, massive pulmonary embolism
“Andrea” Roe, January, 1971, overwhelming infection
“Sandra” Roe, April, 1971, committed suicide due to post-abortion remorse
“Anita” Roe, May, 1971, bled to death in her home during process of outpatient saline abortion
“Annie” Roe, June, 1971, cardiac arrest during anesthesia
“Audrey” Roe, July, 1971, cardiac arrest during abortion
“Vicki” Roe, August, 1971, post-abortion infection
“April” Roe, August, 1971, injected with saline for outpatient abortion, went into shock and died
“Barbara” Roe, September, 1971, cardiac arrest after saline injection for abortion
“Tammy” Roe, October, 1971, massive post-abortion infection
“Beth” Roe, December, 1971, saline injection meant to kill fetus accidentally injected into her bloodstream
“Roseann” Roe, February, 1971, vomiting with seizures causing pneumonia after saline abortion
“Connie” Roe, March, 1972, cardiac arrest during abortion
“Julie” Roe, April, 1972, holes torn in her uterus and bowel
“Robin” Roe, May, 1972, lingering abortion complications
“Roxanne” Roe, May, 1972, given overdose of abortion sedatives
“Danielle” Roe, May, 1972, air in her bloodstream

As you can see from the graph below, abortion deaths were falling dramatically before legalization. This steep fall had been in place for decades. To argue that legalization lowered abortion mortality simply isn’t supported by the data.

external image Abortion+Deaths+Since+1960.jpg

Sources:

Maternal Mortality Associated With Legal Abortion in New York State: July 1, 1970 – June 30, 1972, Berger, Tietze, Pakter, Katz, Obstetrics and Gynecology, 43:3, March 1974, 324;
“Doctor convicted in N.Y. practicing in Detroit area,” Robert L. Pisor, The Detroit News, Apr. 26, 1974, 1A, 10A.
“MD, Indicted in Abortions, Linked Here,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, Jan. 30, 1972

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