Until the late 1960s, abortion was illegal in Australia. With limited access to contraception, many women, like my great-grandmother, unlawfully attempted to terminate unwanted pregnancies.
According to The Royal Women’s Hospital records from the 1930s, about 250 women each year presented with a septic abortion. This equates to five admissions each week to that one hospital.
“It’s a situation for the desperate,” registered nurse, midwife and historian, Madonna Grehan says.
According to the inquest, Isabel had repeatedly attempted to abort the pregnancy herself. When these home methods were unsuccessful, she sought the assistance of a backyard abortionist.
But there were clearly complications.
Once at the hospital, Isabel was quickly admitted to ward one, the septic ward.
“Ward one was a ward that collected women with lots of problems,” Ms Mabbitt explains.
Now in her 90s, the former midwife still has vivid memories of caring for women with septic abortions on ward one.
“It’s the distinctive smell, it’s all-encompassing. And the screaming. They were in so much pain from everything shutting down,” she says.
Despite the pain Isabel would undoubtedly have been suffering, she was interviewed by police within hours of her admission to hospital because of the illegality of abortion.
She told police that she had miscarried.
“She really didn’t give any indication of the truth, and that was normal,” Ms Mabbitt says.
Just 24 hours after she was admitted to hospital, Isabel died at 5.15am on August 21, 1937.
For decades, thousands of Australian women found themselves in equally desperate situations and they died as a result.
“What really irritates me, most of the people who are against abortion are men, and they really have no idea what they’re talking about, no idea how women died.”