Chicago Woman's Death: Examining Abortion-Related Complications and Public Reaction

Question
Hi Danielle. I was wonderin if you had read about the young woman (24 years old) from Chicago who died as a result of complications from a second trimester abortion? I was horrified to read of a woman dying from an abortion in this day and age. Isn't this very rare? I was also horrified (and disgusted!) to read a lot of the self-righteous and judgemental comments from anti choice people. How can they be so insensitive and cruel? This poor young woman lost her life, and her family lost a beloved daughter and sister, and these people are gleeful about it, eager to use it to further their political agenda. A lot of them are saying that it is a myth that legalizing abortion made it safer, but incidents like this are rare now, whereas when abortion was illegal they actually had wards especially for women and girls who were suffering complications from botched abortion. And since when do these people care about women? Sorry, but it makes me mad. I felt so bad for this young woman and her family. A lot of these anti choice people seem to be seriously lacking in empathy. Some basically implied that she got what she deserved, while others villanized the doctor and Planned Parenthood. Anyway, I just basically wanted to get your views on this. I wonder if this was doctor's error or if she had a pre-existing medical condition. Also, her name along with the name AND address of the clinic was made public. Isn't this grossly irresponsible? And what about confidentiality? An abortion is a very personal and private thing, and I'm sure this young woman wouldn't have wanted the whole world to know about. Also, we know from experience that some anti choice people can be violent. What if they harass this girls family, or hararss/threaten clinic staff? I think the media should have treated this beautiful young lady with a lot more dignity and respect. Thank you in advance for your time, and for sharing your thoughts with me. I appreciate it.

Answer
Hi Amy :)

It is rare, but it happens, just like the young woman who died during a wisdom tooth extraction several months ago, or the teen girl who lost her life while getting plastic surgery.

From the CDC: : No more than two deaths have occurred as a result of known illegal abortion in any year since 1979. In 2002, nine women died as a result of legal induced abortion, and none died as a result of illegal induced abortion.

Anti-choice people hate women, so their comments aren't surprising, as upsetting as they are. When you start off thinking women aren't full people...the outcome is never so good. She already made the "mistake" of daring to be in any way sexual, so points lost there automatically in their eyes.

It gross to publicize her address, that's absolutely disgusting, and unfortunately a common tactic to the anti-choicers. Hopefully her family can heal in peace. Hopefully Voice for Choice, an organization to help protect workers/victims of anti-choice nonsense will hear about this.

WHo knows what went wrong-there are a ton of variables, like pre-existing conditions, if she had anesthesia, if she had complications, etc.

It's much more convenient for them to ignore that 1 million abortions occur in the US every year (my bad for not knowing the stats of other countries!) alone, with little complication.