Thursday, February 12, 2009

1974: "Therapeutic" abortion proves fatal for California mother

Life Dynamics lists 38-year-old Bonnie Fix on their "Blackmun Wall" of women killed by safe, legal abortions. LDI put together the following information on Bonnie's death:

  • Bonnie, a mother of four, was admitted to Fresno Community Hospital on February 7, 1974.
  • Doctors there performed an abdominal hysterectomy on Bonnie, removing her uterus along with her unborn baby.
  • Codes used at the state registrar's office inidcate that an abortion had been induced on Bonnie for medical reasons.
  • Several days after her hysterectomy, Bonnie began to suffer bowel and lung problems.
  • She suffered cardiac arrest and was pronounced dead on February 12.

    We don't know enough about Bonnie's case to know if the baby was killed as an unfortunate side-effect of a medically necessary hysterectomy -- say, for aggressive uterine cancer -- or if Bonnie and/or her doctor just thought an abortion was the easiest thing to do in her case and used a medical condition as justification. The fact that such a drastic method as hysterectomy was chosen tends to support the former, but Bonnie's age and the propensity at the time for abortionists to do the most drastic of surgeries as a matter of course -- in many cases as fertility control -- tends to support the latter.

    For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice:



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