George Loutrell Timanus

{{short description|American physician}}

{{Infobox medical person

| name = George Loutrell Timanu

| birth_date = {{birth date|1892|01|31}}

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| death_date = June {{death year and age|1981|1892}}

| nationality = American

| occupation = Physician

| field = Abortion

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George Loutrell Timanus (January 31, 1892 – June 1981) was a physician who performed illegal abortions in the Baltimore and Washington, D.C. area from 1920 to 1951.[https://web.archive.org/web/20071001014838/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,893984,00.html "Abortion in the U.S.", Time, June 2, 1958]

He graduated from Baltimore City College in 1910 and earned his M.D. at the University of Maryland in 1914.{{cite book |last1=Kummer |first1=Frederic Arnold |author1-link=Frederic Arnold Kummer |title=The Free State of Maryland: A History of the State and its People, 1634-1941 |date=1941 |publisher=Historical Record Association |location=Baltimore |pages=1434–1435 |url=https://archive.org/details/freestateofmaryl04kumm/page/1434/mode/2up}}

Timanus and one other abortion provider performed an estimated 90% criminal abortions in Baltimore.

In 1950, Timanus used his criminal trial to challenge the abortion laws in the United States, as Aleck Bourne had done in the UK. However, his trial and that of another doctor, Edgar Keemer, were not understood as challenges by the public, and Timanus and Keemer did not recruit other doctors or patients to their cause in a way that might have built a movement or sparked national conversation.Leslie J. Reagan, When Abortion Was A Crime, University of California Press 1997 He was fined $5,000, sentenced to six months in jail, and barred from further practice of medicine.

Timanus participated in the Planned Parenthood Conference on Abortion in America in 1955. He gave a detailed breakdown of his patients, of whom he kept meticulous records, noting that of 5,200 women on whom he had performed abortions, only two had died.{{Cite journal |title=Recent abortion law reforms (or, much ado about nothing) |first=Harvey L. |last=Ziff |volume=60 |issue=1 |date=March 1969 |journal=The Journal of Criminal Law, Criminology, and Police Science |page=7}} As Garrett Hardin noted, this 0.04% rate, in the days before antibiotics, was not only far lower than the mortality rate for women carrying to term at the time, but still only half the maternal mortality rate a generation later.{{Cite book |title=Stalking the wild taboo |first=Garrett |last=Hardin |year=1973 |publisher=W. Kaufmann |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XsgnAAAAYAAJ |page=15}} At the conference, Timanus also lamented that of the 353 doctors who referred patients to him—some of them, Timanus claimed, with letters recommending abortion—none stood up to testify for him when he was arrested."Abortion in the United States. A Conference Sponsored by the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Incorporated at Arden House and The New York Academy of Medicine", by Mary Steichen Calderone

Timanus asked referring doctors to make a written statement that the abortion was necessary because her life would otherwise be jeopardized.

The breakdown of Timanus' patients was as follows:

• Age 12 - 15: 17
• Age 16 - 20: 688
• Age 21 - 25: 1,834
• Age 26 - 30: 1,268
• Age 31 - 40: 1,312
• Age 41+: 91
• Single: 1,830
• Married: 2,773
• Widowed/Divorced/Separated: 607
• Physicians: 7
• Wives of physicians: 58
• Nurses: 270

Mary Calderone, then medical director of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, noted that Timanus "certainly seemed to be very competent and professional.""Illegal Abortion as a Public Health Problem," Mary S. Calderone, American Journal of Public Health, July, 1960

Timanus was born in Baltimore, a son of George E. and Nettie Mae (Zimmermam) Timanus. His grandfather Luther Timanus was a judge on the Baltimore County Court.