Vera Baker - Illegal operation

Vera Baker a young unmarried woman of 23 years of age had been employed as a domestic servant in Mt Eden, her Mother and Father had passed away.

Vera had fallen pregnant and with little means, and with no possibility of having the child and surviving on her own, she would have been desperate. She faced the loss of employment when her pregnancy became evident, and with this her lodgings. She also faced the very real stigma associated with unmarried women who found themselves in the family way.

Vera told her lover Percy Norman Henry in the hope that he could help her. Henry told her that he was in no position to marry her, that he was unable to support Vera and a child, but he did suggest Vera have an abortion.

Henry knew of an elderly nurse, a Mrs Hannah Dalton, who may assist them, and on 23 October he accompanied Vera to Mrs Dalton's house to discuss matters .It was arranged that Vera was to go back to Mrs  Dalton’s the next day for an abortion.

Page 9 Advertisements Column 4,

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 16669, 

13 October 1917. paperspast

Vera telephoned Henry on the evening of  the 24th of October and asked him to come over to Mrs Dalton’s that night as everything was all right. Henry saw Vera and paid Mrs Dalton £10 for the operation and £1.10s for extras.  He visited the house to see Vera on several subsequent occasions.

There were problems with infection following the abortion and Mrs Dalton made an appointment on the 1st of November 1917 for Vera to be examined by Dr. Florence Keller at the Doctors house. Dr Keller having examined Vera, told her that she had better go home and go to bed.

Vera visited Mrs Dalton on the 2nd and 3rd of November and Dr Keller was again asked to examine her. Dr Keller found Vera in a very grave condition and suffering from acute peritonitis. She told Mrs Dalton that the girl would have to go to the hospital right away, but Mrs Dalton asked why the necessary operation  could not be performed there. Vera allegedly  said, "I don't want to leave the nurse; I want to stay here.”

Dr. E. V. Drier was quickly called in to perform an urgent abdominal operation but Vera died on the 5th of November 1917 whilst at the home of Mrs Dalton.

Post mortem examination would find the cause of death to be acute septic peritonitis.

Abortion methods were varied and items 

were re purposed to perform the task so as not to 

arouse suspicion during a police search. 

Enema syringes were commonly used by 

abortionists to inject fluid into the uterus 

to induce miscarriage.

L0036376 Credit: Wellcome Library, London 

Brass, ivory, ebony and pewter enema syringe 

Photograph 17th - 19th century 

Collection: Wellcome Images

Library reference no.: Museum No A626202,

A626932, A640607, A606384 

Creative Commons Attribution only 

licence CC BY 4.0 

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

The Doctors were to testify in Court that very serious internal
injuries had been caused by the introduction of a foreign instrument which had been the probable cause of the acute peritonitis.
Dr. Ezra N. Drier went on to testify that the condition of peritonitis discovered at the operation indicated the probability of infection within five or seven days previously.

There was sufficient evidence to warrant Hannah Matilda Dalton being charged with having unlawfully used an instrument to procure an abortion on Vera Baker, and Percy Norman Henry was charged with aiding abetting Dalton in the commission of this offence. They were jointly charged with murder.

Lengthy trial notes have been condensed and summarised for this article .

Dalton was charged with manslaughter in respect to the girl, Vera Baker, but the jury disagreed, and an additional indictment had been laid charging her with performing an illegal operation. However, when this charge was heard, the jury failed to agree. The same evidence was tendered again at the retrial on Wednesday. This time the jury agreed on a verdict of not guilty 20 February 1918.

Percy Norman Henry was charged at the Supreme Court with having on or about October 24 1917 counselled and procured a young woman named Vera Baker to submit to the unlawful use of an instrument for the purpose of procuring an abortion. He was also indicted with being a party to manslaughter in connection with the death of Vera Baker, but this count was withdrawn on the application of the Crown Prosecutor. After a retirement for 20 minutes the jury returned a verdict of not guilty, and the accused was discharged 22 February 1918.

Anglican Division D, Row 9,
Plot 68: Vera Martha Baker (23) 1917 – unmarked

Sources:
Papers Past https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/
Auckland Star vol XLIX issue 45 21/2/1918
Evening Post 10/11/1917
Evening Post  30/11/1917
Evening Post  20/02/1918
Evening Post  21/02/1918
NZ Truth, Issue 648, 17 /11/1917
NZ Truth, Issue 663, 2 /03/1918

Megan Cook, 'Abortion - Who and how', Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand,  http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/abortion/page-2

Museum of Contraception and Abortion http://en.muvs.org/abbruch/instrumente/klistierspritze-id1020/

Image: Page 9 Advertisements Column 4, New Zealand Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 16669, 13 October 1917. http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NZH19171013.2.59.4

Image: L0036376 Credit: Wellcome Library, London
Collection: Wellcome Images Library reference no.: Museum No A626202, A626932, A640607, A606384

Presented by Susan Reid, Discover Waikumete