Sadie Taylor1880s, massachusetts, 20s, illegaldoctor, 19thcenturySUMMARY: Sadie Taylor, age 23, died on January 1, 1886 after an abortion perpetrated by Dr. Guilford in Lynn, Massachusetts.

On January 1, 1886, the father of 23-year-old factory worker Sadie E. Taylor got word that his daughter was in Lynn, Massachusetts, terribly ill. He went to Lynn to get her and was taking her home to Burlington, Massachusetts when she died.

Later that day Dr. Guilford and his wife were arrested for Sadie’s death. A search of their home revealed an abundance of abortion instruments, as well as an incriminating letter.

Police also arrested Charles E. Ames, a married citizen of West Lynn, as an accessory.

Another Guilford patient, found at their home, who said she was familiar with the circumstances of Sadie’s death was questioned as a witness.

Mrs. Guilford had been arrested a few months earlier for the abortion death of Annie H. Dier, but was released for insufficient evidence.

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I have no information on overall maternal mortality, or abortion mortality, in the 19th century. I imagine it can’t be too much different from maternal and abortion mortality at the very beginning of the 20th Century.
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 on this era, see Abortion Deaths in the 19th Century.

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

Sources:

• “Charges of Malpractice“, The New York Times, Jan. 2, 1886
• “Her Miserable Fate,” Chicago Inter-Ocean, Jan. 21, 1886
• “(illegible) Arrest of Abortionists,” Reading (PA) Times, Jan. 2, 1886

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