Josephine Gabler

Dr. Josephine Gabler (January 16, 1879 – June 13, 1961) was a physician who performed illegal abortions in Chicago, serving the entire Midwest, during the 1930s. Gabler graduated from medical school in 1905 and was licensed to practice that year; by the late 1920s, she had begun to specialize in abortion. Gabler and the other doctors at her clinic performed more than 18,000 abortions between 1932 and 1941, or approximately five a day. Patients were referred by their physicians, or sometimes heard about the clinic from friends or relatives.

Information about the clinic comes from seventy patient records preserved in legal documents.

Sources

• Leslie J. Reagan, When Abortion Was A Crime, University of California Press 1997