Mary Gresky1920s, infection, ohioMary Gresky took ill, dying of blood poisoning on September 20, 1922, from a criminal abortion performed with some sort of instrument on September 16 in Ohio.
On her deathbed, she named Mary Vargo as the perpetrator who used some sort of instrument on her.
Mary Vargo was found guilty of criminal malpractice, but won an appeal on the grounds of of improper instructions to the jury, irregularities of the admission of the deathbed statement, and failure to prove that the abortion had been part of a prior pattern of criminal activity by Mary Vargo.
I have been unable to determine Mary Vargo’s profession.
Keep in mind that things that things we take for granted, like antibiotics and blood banks, were still in the future. 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 Source:
- 1923 WL 1879 (Ohio App. 7 Dist.), 1 Ohio Law Abs. 830, Vargo v State
- 1900s
- 1910-1919
- 1920s
- 1930s
- 1940s
- 1950s
- 1960s
- 1970s
- 1980s
- 1990s
- 19th century
- 2000-2009
- 20s
- 30s
- 40s
- NAF
- abortifacient
- abortion
- abortion mill
- abortion mortality
- abortionists
- abortionists — female
- abortionists — male
- alabama
- anesthesia
- arizona
- black women
- botched abortion
- california
- chicago
- colorado
- connecticut
- cover-up
- death
- deaths
- deception
- delay in transport
- delay in treatment
- district of columbia
- dumped body
- ectopic
- embolism
- falsifying forms
- fetal indications
- florida
- former criminal abortionist
- george tiller
- georgia
- hemorrhage death
- hospitals
- illegal – doctor
- illegal – midwife
- illegal – nurse
- illegal – paramedical
- illegal – post roe
- illegal – unknown
- illegal – untrained
- illegal abortion
- illinois
- inadequate documents
- inadequate equipment
- inadequate resuscitation
- incomplete abortion
- indiana
- infection
- kansas
- legal abortion
- llinois
- louisiana
- maryland
- massachusetts
- maternal indications
- maternal mortality
- michigan
- mills
- missouri
- mortality
- national abortion federation
- new jersey
- new mexico
- new york
- north carolina
- ohio
- oklahoma
- pennsylvania
- planned parenthood
- pre-roe legal
- previous misconduct
- prostaglandin
- quackery
- questionable stories
- ru-486
- rupture
- saline
- secret abortion
- self-induced
- suicide
- teens
- texas
- wisconsin
Recent Comments