Robert Spencer (doctor)

One of Spencer's arrests stemmed from the death of 26-year-old Mary Davies, who had traveled from New York City on Saturday, December 8, 1956, seeking an abortion. According to Spencer, Mary came to him alone. She reported that she'd been bleeding for about two weeks. Spencer did not examine her at the initial visit, but gave her medication for pain and bleeding. He instructed her to return the next day for the abortion.

Mary returned the next morning at about 10 a.m. Spencer administered 13 cm³ of Evipal in a 10% solution to induce anesthesia. He testified, "I injected that solution into the vein of the left arm and in ten seconds she was asleep." The next thing he noticed, he said, was that Mary had stopped breathing and had turned blue. He injected her with a cardio-respiratory stimulant into her left leg, but she didn't respond. He administered a second injection into a vein.

When these efforts failed, Spencer called his assistant, Mildred Zettlemoyer, into the room to assist in his attempts to resuscitate Mary with oxygen. Leaving Mary in Zettlemoyer's care, Spencer left the room to retrieve adrenaline. He gave Mary three injections of adrenaline.

When this effort to revive his patient failed, Spencer had Zettlemoyer call Steve Sekunda, his laboratory assistant. Spencer inserted a breathing tube but had to work blind because the light on his endoscope wasn't working. He resumed artificial respiration. By the time Sekunda arrived, at around 11:30, Spencer had concluded that Mary was dead. Spencer concluded "that this patient died in my office from some heart disease."

Dr. Milton Helpern, chief medical examiner for New York City, was among the experts that testified in Spencer's trial for Mary's death. Helpern concluded that Mary had been pregnant, that the pregnancy had been terminated shortly before her death, and that she had died from administration of a drug used for anesthesia. Mary had been in good health before her death. No mention is made of any fetal remains being found in Mary's body or in Spencer's office.

Patricia G. Miller, author of The Worst of Times, asked another doctor, "Dr. Bert," who had practiced before legalization, to review news reports of Mary's death and speculate as to whether Mary would have died had abortion been legal. "Dr. Bert" faulted Spencer for not having an assistant while he was administering general anesthesia and speculated that Spencer had not had an assistant with him due to the law against abortion.

Spencer's widow, Eleanor, told Miller that her husband had been quite stricken by Mary Davies' death. He continued to perform abortions, however, along with his regular medical practice, up until the trial. He was acquitted on all counts, likely because it was impossible to prove that Mary had neither miscarried during those two weeks of bleeding before her appointment with Spencer nor been aborted by somebody else.[10]

Spencer briefly ceased doing abortions after the trial, "for a month or so," his widow said. But he resumed his business and eventually got entangled with Harry Mace, who ran a referral business bringing women to Spencer for abortions. Eleanor Spencer lamented that Mace flooded her husband with patients, pressuring him to rush through abortions. Spencer's health began to fail. He was arrested again, due to the attention from Mace's activities, but died before the case went to trial.[10]