Jeanette Reder1930s, 20s, chicago, illinois, illegaldoctorOn December 1, 1930, 22-year-old Jeanette Reder underwent a criminal abortion at the Chicago office of Dr. Emil Gleitsman. Jeanette died December 12. Gleitsman was arrested on December 13, and held for murder by abortion. He was indicted by a grand jury for homicide, but was acquitted on June 15, 1931. The source does not clarify why there was enough evidence to indict Gleitsman, but not enough to convict him.

Evidently Gleitsman was a persistent abortionist. The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) noted in 1943 that the Illinois Supreme Court had upheld Gleitsman’s 1942 murder by abortion conviction, for which he was sentenced to 14 years in prison. I’ve been unable to determine if this conviction was for one of the three deaths I’m aware of, or for the death of an entirely different woman.

JAMA.also indicated that the Chicago Tribune traced Gleitsman’s legal troubles back to 1928 when a grand jury refused to indict him for abortion — which is intriguing, since Gleitsman was indicted for 22-year-old Lucille van Iderstine’s abortion death that year. Did one source screw up, or was Gleitsman implicated in two abortion deaths during that time perior? JAMA also notes that the Tribune reported Gleitsman being convicted three times on a single charge of manslaughter by abortion in 1934 (I’m assuming related to the death of 21-year-old Mary Colbert in 1933), but each time his lawyer got a reversal and eventually the prosecutors gave up.

Jeanette’s abortion was typical of illegal abortions in that it was attributed to a physician
During the first two thirds of the 20th Century, while abortion was still illegal, there was a massive drop in maternal mortality, including mortality from abortion. Most researches attribute this plunge to improvements in public health and hygiene, the development of blood transfusion techniques, and the introduction of antibiotics. Learn more here.

external image MaternalMortality.gif

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

Source:

• Homicide in Chicago Interactive

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1. 1900s
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