Browse Primary Sources
"Undercover in the Theatre: The 'Sexy Lord' of Abortion" - Anas Aremeyaw Anas - Modern Ghana
". . .Having gathered information about the existence of the 'illegal abortion hub,' operated by Drah, we [the Special Investigations Team] of the New Crusading Guide, headed by our ace undercover reporter Anas Aremeyaw Anas, went in to ascertain the truth, during which time we managed to plant our cameras in the 'theatre'.The videos that we got were simply unbelievable. It was a peek into the activities of a man who has for over a decade demeaned womanhood, flouted laws of the land and supervised numerous abortions – some of which have gone horribly wrong leading to complications and death of clients in extreme cases. . ."
XV-"Infanticide" - Unsigned - Chicago Daily Times
"My pilgrimmage of disgrace is ended. I have consigned the habilaments of my woe, together with the collection of professional cards accumulated en voyage, to the funeral pyre and step forth thankful to have escaped with my life from the whole array of remorseless vivisectors with whetted knife and gleaming steel; steel in their hand and steal in their mind. The effect on my mind I need not describe. . . ."
Chicago Daily Times 1888-12-26
XXV-"Infanticide" - Unsigned - Chicago Daily Times
"From the time of creation women have been saddled with the whole responsibility for every species of wrong. Men have always been the moral teachers. That is how I account for such loose ideas of right and wrong throughout humanity."
Chicago Daily Times 1889-01-05
XV-"Infanticide - Unsigned - Chicago Daily Times
Chicago Daily Times 1889-01-05
XXIV-"Infanticide" - Unsigned - Chicago Daily Times
"I am heart and soul against this diploma-made system of medical practice. I hope to see the time when a board of the best physicians of the state will require written examinations of every candidate for degrees, that examination be type-written, so no possible favor can be shown."
Chicago Daily Times 1889-01-04
XXIII-"Infanticide" - Unsigned - Chicago Daily Times
"I have been much interested in the Infanticide articles that have appeared in your fearless journal from various parts of the country. The plea that infanticide will disappear from this free country when the ranks of medical men have been expunged of ignoramuses and the standard of education raised to a height which would meet the approbation of the most sanguine educator meets its refutation in those two facts."
Chicago Daily Times 1889-01-03
XVII-"Infanticide: The Remedy" - Unsigned - Chicago Daily Times
"There should be incorporated in the law a clause making it imperative on the state board to revoke the license of any physician convicted on the charge of committing abortion or planning or consenting to do the same."
Chicago Daily Times 1888-12-28
XXII-"Infanticide" - Unsigned - Chicago Daily Times
"We need a law that will give the board of examiners power to revoke a license for cause and that will not compel it to give a license on a diploma. We also need a law that will put these abortionists out of the way; expel them for agreeing to perform or aid in bringing about an abortion, and that will punish women for the same thing also."
Chicago Daily Times 1889-01-02
XXI-"Infanticide: Seeking the Remedy" - Unsigned - Chicago Daily Times
"I am in favor of the most stringent laws that can be passed for the punishment of abortionists. Educate the people to a higher standard of morality on this subject, making the enormity of the crime more profound, and there will be a reward worthy the effort."
Chicago Daily Times 1889-01-01
XX-"Infanticide: Seeking the Remedy" - Unsigned - Chicago Daily Times
"At the regular monthly meeting of the Cook county cabinet of the National union in Washington hall Saturday evening a motion was introduced directing the committee of medical examiners to investigate the charges made by The Chicago Times against certain physicians who are members of the National union and if found true such members be expelled from the order."
Chicago Daily Times 1888-12-31
XIX-"Infanticide: The Remedy" - Unsigned - Chicago Daily Times
"Springfield, Ill., Dec. 28--Great excitement has been created at the capital of Illinois by THE TIMES' disclosures on the enormous prevalence of infanticide, and many conjectures are indulged in as to what action will probably be taken by the state board of health and the coming legislature to suppress this great evil of the age. It is known that Dr. Rausch of the state board of health has had various consultations with different members of that body, but up to this time the board has given no indications as to the probable course it will pursue. THE TIMES' representative called at the office of the state board of health today and discovered Dr. Rausch in the act of reading THE TIMES' most recent revelations ... "
Chicago Daily Times 1888-12-30
XVIII-"Infanticide: The Remedy" - Unsigned - Chicago Daily Times
"Dr. Charles Gilman Smith said: "Stirring this matter up is bound to do good. It can't help it, I read Dr. Belfield's lottor, and I think it's recommendations very good, but of course the practice can never be stopped while there is a demand. So long as abortionists are patronized they will exist in the lower grade of the profession."
Chicago Daily Times 1888-12-29
XVI-"Infanticide: The Remedy" - Unsigned - Chicago Daily Times
"Such statements, sent for no selfish purpose, carry strong truth with them. The balance of judgment is certainly in favor of a place where unfortunates will be safe from doctors."
Chicago Daily Times 1888-12-27
XIV-"Infanticide" - Unsigned - Chicago Daily Times
"THE TIMES has gone far enough in the publication of these exposures to convince the most skeptical that it has aimed at the performance of a work which shall not be of a fleeting character. True there has been much of the sensational connected with this series of articles, but it could not have been otherwise. It is impossible to print anything of great public interest that is not tinctured more or less with sensationalism . . . "
Chicago Daily Times 1888-12-25
XIII-"Infanticide" - Unsigned - Chicago Daily Times
"THE TIMES has gone far enough in the publication of these exposures to convince the most skeptical that it has aimed at the performance of a work which shall not be of a fleeting character. True there has been much of the sensational connected with this series of articles, but it could not have been otherwise. It is impossible to print anything of great public interest that is not tinctured more or less with sensationalism. . . . "
Chicago Daily Times 1888-12-24
XII-"Infanticide" - Unsigned - Chicago Daily Times
"...The work of exposure is not more than half-done. The pressure upon the columns of THE TIMES is so great from day to day that it is impossible to give more than a few specimen visits. Besides, it is necessary or at least advisable that as those cases are published the public may have an opportunity of digesting them thoroughly. To publish the list complete would have the effect of contesting the poular mid, the matter would soon blow over, and perhaps in a short time be forgotten."The newspaper instituted the investigation not for the purpose of creating a sensation but a mere performance of duty from which it felt, in view of the testimony sent in by reputable physicians from time to time, it could not shrink, nor is it the intention of THE TIMES now to permit this matter to drop until the real purposes for which the crusade was inaugurated shall have been consummated. One of these purposes will be found in an editorial in THE TIMES of today. It is believed that the honest people of Chicago will provide without further delay for a lying-in hospital, where girls in disgrace or married women in poverty may find a refuge in case of necessity. Another object in view is an amendment to the state law relating to medical colleges which will make legal the revocation of licenses issued to doctors after they shall have committed an offense of a criminal nature. Another is the creation of a widespread interest in a subject which demands of every honorable man and woman and every lover of this republic the most thoughtful attention that they can bestow upon it, with the view of driving out or at least checking to a great extent the monstrous social evil which if allowed to increase in the future as it has in the past, will result in the demoralization and the degeneration of the American people."
Chicago Daily Times 1888-12-23
XI-"Infanticide" - Unsigned - Chicago Daily Times
"THE TIMES has evidence of one of the most damnable cases of abortion that could possibly be imagined. IT is undoubtedly, only one of many such and shows more than anything which could be said just how far the villainy of a doctor will extend in order to obtain patients when he enters into this practice of crime, cruelty and death."In the letter of Dr. P.H. Cronin, published Thursday, occurred this sentence: "'One of the men mentioned by you is known to have performed an abortion at the command of a husband despite the supplication of the poor mother that her offspring be spared.' . . . "
Chicago Daily Times 1888-12-22
X-"Infanticide" - Unsigned - Chicago Daily Times
"Had Dr. A. B. Bausman obeyed his first inclination he would have shaken off the temptation. Asit was he dallied fatally and when he attempted to cast it off it had taken and his case was a straight one. He thought a little while, changed his chair, breathed very hard, started to say he could not, got as far as to say he did not think he could."'Why?' I asked...."
Chicago Daily Times 1888-12-21
IX-"Infanticide" - Unsigned - Chicago Daily Times
"...The question naturally arises, 'How far can this investigation go?' It is developing from day to day to such an extent that where to stop is becoming a problem."
Chicago Daily Times 1888-12-20
VIII-"Infanticide" - Unsigned - Chicago Daily Times
"Dr. C.C.P. Silva, the surgeon of hte police department who has attracted some attention in the last few days from his prominence in the infanticide articles in THE TIMES, was yesterday summarily dismissed from the public service by order of Mayor Roche. So far as the mayor was concerned, it was a very quiet proceeding, for as near as could be learned he simply sent for Supt. Hubbard and told him to inform the doctor that his services were no longer needed in the department, and that his name had been dropped from the city's pay-roll. The cause of his dismissal was, of course, the position he had been placed in by the investigations now being prosecuted by THE TIMES, and he may be said to have been a victim of his own conduct. . . . "
Chicago Daily Times 1888-12-19
VII-"Infanticide" - Unsigned - Chicago Daily Times
"Will they or their friends claim that I took unfair advantage of them? How an they? Could I possibly have pleaded as hard as a woman who was really introuble? I could not. I have learned in this newspaper work to dissemble to seem one thing and be another -- and I think I have learned it well. But I cannot feel what I am not. It requires Amelie Rives [ed: prolific poet, novelist] to do that and I am no phenomenal genius. . . . "
Chicago Daily Times 1888-12-18
VI-"Infanticide" - Unsigned - Chicago Daily Times
"It has been noticed by readers of The TImes that while some of the physicians already approached declined to commit child murder themselves they very kindly suggested the names of other practitioners who would be accommodating in that direction. . . . "
Chicago Daily Times 1888-12-17
V-"Infanticide" - Unsigned - Chicago Daily Times
" ... The frightful spectacle of a physician sitting calmly in his office and telling how in consideration of a fee, he would butcher the legitimate or the illegitimate offspring of a mother, is not one easily forgotten. . . . Barbarous! No, for the barbarian does not do this . . . "
Chicago Daily Times 1888-12-16
IV-"Infanticide" - Unsigned - Chicago Daily Times
"The Girl Reporter's Story: She Visits Dr. Emile Siegmund and Tells How She was Received: In company with my reportorial comrade, who went in the guise of 'my friend,' I started forth to test experimentally what treatment a girl whose chastity had been blighted but who was not yet publicly disgraced would receive from phyisicians in the city. "My story was a simple one. My home was in another city, where no one, not even my parents, knew of my shame. My purpose was to conceal it from them. Consequently, I had come to the city ostensibly to study art, but intending to undergo any medical treatment assured to be safe that promised release from the conspicuousness of guilt. . . "
Chicago Daily Times 1888-12-15
III-"Infanticide" - Unsigned - Chicago Daily Times
"There are 263 midwives mentioned in the last city directory, and there are probably more than 300 in the city, and a large number of these were visited. In no case was any indignation expressed at the proposition made. All of them knew how it could be done safely. And while a few, not more than five or six, refused to commit themselves, all gave as a reason for not practicing abortion that it was liable to get them into trouble. The terrors of the law, which they spoke of as being in the way of a most philanthropic profession, seemed to be the only check on a universal practice of abortion among all the midwives visited."
Chicago Daily Times 1888-12-14
II-"Infanticide" - Unsigned - Chicago Daily Times
"...She appeared to be under 40 and was intelligent and disposed to be very cautious until the reporter made known his mission in a straightforward, pathetic manner. he came to secure a place where a young lady relative must be saved from the disgrace that would fall upon her and a proud, happy family if she were permitted to become a mother. She could not remain in the city till nature made her a mother in due time and give birth to the child in the usual way. Nature must be assisted by one of the numerous methods scientific people like the madame know so well. . . . "
Chicago Daily Times 1888-12-13
I-"Infanticide" - Unsigned - Chicago Daily Times
"Well, the TIMES has found it necessary to make an investigation into the condition of affairs in Chicago, and the result will be laid before its readers. Horrible crimes are being perpetrated here daily. The victims are the unborn or the born babes of mothers, married and single. They tell no tales. There are no coroner's inquests. They are disposed of so quietly that they do not cause a ripple in the social stream. Prominent physicians and well-known midwives are engaged to commit murders and they commit them without compunction of conscience. Abortions are performed for a price by some of the leading physicians. There are specialists in this line who will choke the life out of a babe at its entrance into this value of ears. The TIMES never publishes anything on hearsay, and never charges a crime upon men or women without giving names and addresses. "In the course of the investigation, some startling, shocking truths will be told. The TIMES has undertaken to crush out a fiendish practice and if a number of people who have heretofore been considered respectable, but who by the most abominable and villainous of practices have subjected themselves to public . . . "
Chicago Daily Times 1888-12-12
III-"The Evil of the Age" - Augustus St. Clair - New York Times
The New York Times 1871-08-28
II-"The Evil of the Age" - Augustus St. Clair - New York Times
The New York Times 1871-08-27
I-"The Evil of the Age" - Augustus St. Clair - New York Times
"The enormous amount of medical malpractice that exists and flourishes, almost unchecked in the City of New York, is a theme for most serious consideration. Thousands of human beings are thus murdered before they have seen the light of this world, and thousands upon thousands more of adults are irremediably ruined in constitution, health and happiness. So secretly are these crimes committed and so crafily do the perpetrators inveigh their victims, that it is next to impossible to obtain evidence and witnesses. Facts are so artfully concealed from the public mind, and appearances so carefully guarded, that very meagre outlines of the horrible truth have thus far been disclosed. But could even a portion of the facts that have been detected in frightful profusion, by the agents of the TIMES, be revealed in print, in their hideous truth, the reader would shrink from the appalling picture. . . "
The New York Times 1871-08-23