Mary Rodgers
... The Mysterious Death of Mary Rodgers certainly exhibits both of these skills as she transports the reader to nineteenth century New York. ... The legacy of Mary Rodgers death yielded the Abortion Law, criminalizing the act of terminating a pregnancy at the request of the mother. The fact that Mary died as the result of a botched abortion because public knowledge when the penny press exposed this tragic story to the public. Mary Rodgers was thought to be a prostitute, a whore, a loose women, whose sexual activity was subject for speculation. The fact that Mary Rodgers sought an abortion seemed to anger the public and they were quick to judge her.