Katherine DiDonato1930s, 20s, newyork, illegaldoctorSUMMARY: Katherine DiDonato, age 26, died October 23, 1936 after an abortion performed by Dr. Aloysius Mulholland in New York.

On October 16, 1936, 26-year-old Katherine DiDonato, mother of two, was admitted to Roosevelt Hospital to be treated for complications of a criminal abortion.

Katherine’s husband reported that the abortion had taken place three days earlier.

Detectives were told that Katherine had bought pills from drug clerk Hyman Kantor, who had then recommended Dr. Aloysius Mulholland to perform an abortion.

Katherine died at 2 AM on October 23. Both Mulholland and Kantor were arrested and charged with homicide.

Mulholland had also been implicated in the 1931 abortion death of Jane Merrill.

Katherine’s abortion was typical of pre-Roe abortions in that it was performed by a physician.

During the 1940s, while abortion was still illegal, there was a massive drop in maternal mortality from abortion. The death toll fell from 1,407 in 1940, to 744 in 1945, to 263 in 1950. Most researches attribute this plunge to the development of blood transfusion techniques and the introduction of antibiotics. Learn more here.

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

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Source: New York Times 10-23-36

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