Saturday, April 02, 2016

1912: A Typical Chicago Abortion Death

On April 2, 1912, 25-year-old homemaker Elizabeth Jorgeson died from an abortion perpetrated that day by Katie Sauer, whose profession is not given. Sauer was held by the Coroner's Jury and indicted by a Grand Jury on November 30. The case never went to trial.

An article in the Chicago Inter-Ocean from the year before Elizabeth's death identifies a Chicago woman named Katie Sauer as a midwife. I am working to verify if the midwife and the abortionist are the same person. If the Katie Sauer implicated in Elizabeth's death is indeed this midwife, that would be typical. Abortions in Chicago in that era were most often perpetrated by either doctors or midwives.

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