Lillie Giovenco

Lillie Giovencoteens, 19101919, chicago, illinois, illegaldoctorOn October 1, 1914, eighteen-year-old Lillian “Lillie” Giovenco died at Wesley Hospital in Chicago from complications of a criminal abortion.

Dr. Eva Shaver, Dr. Leopold Pijan, and Dr. John Fernow were held by the coroner in Lillie’s death. Shaver had been identified as the abortionist by Lillie’s husband, Frank.

The coroner concluded that the fatal abortion had been preformed on September 5 in a medical facility that my source describes as “Abortion place”. It was most likely Shaver’s practice in her Chicago home.

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

Eva Shaver convicted in Lillie’s death, appealed, and was granted a new trial while under indictment for the 1915 abortion death of Anna Johnson, which Shaver had tried to disguise as a suicide by shooting the dead woman in the head as she lay on the floor of Shaver’s home.

Note, please, that with issues such as doctors not using proper aseptic techniques, lack of access to blood transfusions and antibiotics, and overall poor health to begin with, there was likely little difference between the performance of a legal abortion and illegal practice, and the aftercare for either type of abortion was probably equally unlikely to do the woman much, if any, good. For more information about early 20th Century abortion mortality, see Abortion Deaths 1910-1919.

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

LillieGiovencoDay_Book_Fri__Mar_10__1916_.jpgSources:

  • Homicide in Chicago Interactive Database
  • “Dr. Eva Shaver on Trial,” Chicago Daily Tribune, March 7, 1916
  • “Woman Doctor Guilty on Abortion Charge,” Chicago Day Book, March 11, 1916
  • “New Trial for Abortion,” Chicago Daily Tribune, July 9, 1916

LillianGiovencoChiDailyTrib7Mar1916.png

LillianGiovencoChiDailyTrib9Jul1916.png

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