Madelyn Andersonmay6, age24, 1924, chicago, illinois, louiseachtenberg, illegaldoctor, 20s, 1920sSUMMARY: Madelyn Anderson, age 24, died May 6, 1924 after an abortion perpetrated in Chicago by Dr. Louise Achtenberg.

On May 6, 1924, 24-year-old Madelyn Anderson, a native of Norway, died at Chicago’s Washington Park Hospital from a criminal abortion performed that day. The coroner recommended the arrest of a woman identified as “Dr. Ogdenberg”. On May 13, Dr. Louise Achtenberg was arrested for Madelyn’s death. Achtenberg was indicted for felony murder on May 15.

According to the Cook County Death Index, Madelyn was divorced, and worked as a manicurist at the Morrison Hotel.

Achtenberg already had a bad record as a criminal abortionist. In 1907, Dora Swan had died in a Chicago hospital after an abortion by Louise Achtenberg. “Louisa Achtenberg,” identified as a midwife, had been implicated in the 1909 abortion death of Florence Wright. An abortionist identified only as Achtenberg was implicated in the 1921 abortion death of Violet McCormick.

It would seem that the same woman, Louise Achtenberg, was responsible for all four deaths. She was identified as a midwife in 1909 — a term commonly used to describe obstetricians, particularly if they were female.

Madelyn’s abortion was typical of criminal abortions in that it was performed by a physician.

Keep in mind that things that things we take for granted, like antibiotics and blood banks, were still in the future.It was the development of these medical advances that brought maternal mortality in general, and abortion mortality in particular, down during the 20th century. Those who credit improved abortion safety to legalization are either misinformed or are stealing somebody else’s thunder.

For more about abortion in this era, see Abortion in the 1920s.

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

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Source:

• Homicide in Chicago Interactive

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1. 1900s
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