Inez Brown Burns

Inez Brown Burns (1886-1976) was an underground abortion provider and socialite in San Francisco. She created an extensive West Coast abortion network in the United States, which catered to a range of clients in the early 20th century. It is estimated that her clinic provided about 50,000 abortions in San Francisco and about 150,000 abortions total. In her lifetime, Burns was widely covered in the press, due to her socially unconventional lifestyle, legal troubles, and occupation as an abortion provider in the pre-Roe v. Wade era.

Early life On September 5, 1886, Inez Brown Burns (née Ingenthron) was born. The accounts of her birthplace vary, with some sources claiming that she was born in a two-bedroom cardboard shack in the outskirts of Philadelphia, while others say that she was born in San Francisco. According to her biographer, Burns was truly born in a tenement building in the South of Market district of San Francisco. The Philadelphia story was merely a legend told by Burns. At the time, the South of Market neighborhood was comparable to Hell's Kitchen in New York City, due to its gritty warehouses, street gangs, and cramped living spaces. At the time, West was a "lady's man," according to historians, and three times the age of Burns. However, a large underground economy of abortion providers existed, which was primarily marketed through word-of-mouth. The doctors, midwives, and specialists who performed underground abortions were rarely arrested, unless the pregnant woman died during the procedure. As a result, underground abortion services were fairly common at the time. As written by Riggin, his "incompetence and malpractice routinely kept him in the courtroom."

Following her affair with West, Burns began a relationship with George Washington Merritt, a 42-year-old businessman.

Abortion clinic In San Francisco, Burns quickly became known as a skilled abortion provider. In 1922, she opened her first abortion clinic in a 2-story building, located at 327 Fillmore Street. The clinic had multiple people on staff, including nurses, a blood technician, and a janitor.

The clinic had various arrangements to address the illegal nature of the work. Trapdoors were installed, in case of police raids, but Burns barely provided discounts, as she was primarily interested in the financial aspects of the business (rather than political or philosophical reasons). Clients of the clinic included housewives, celebrities, and athletes, and it was common for women to be waiting when Burns opened the doors in the morning. The majority of her clients were married, middle-class and wealthy women, and some did not tell their husbands that they were pregnant and/or that they had sought out abortion services. Hollywood studios sent contract actresses to her clinic, and the Olympic skater Sonja Henie reportedly visited her clinic.

The clinic network eventually spanned the West Coast, with services extending from Seattle to San Diego. At her peak, Burns was making at least $50,000 per month through the clinic. By 1924, Burns was able to purchase a home at 274 Guerrero Street, where she stored much of her cash. That year, she married Charles A. Granelli, a stylish and handsome Italian playboy. Over time, she acquired a range of properties, including a house in Atherton and a 800 acre ranch (known as "Burns Ranch") in La Honda, amidst the Santa Cruz Mountains. Burns drove around in a chauffeured limousine. She hosted famously raucous parties on Wednesday nights, especially at Burns Ranch, which attracted politicians, prostitutes, policemen, and health care professionals. Some attendants of her parties included Pinky Lee, Dwight Fiske, Burl Ives, and a magician named Gali-Gali. During this period, she became a source of social fascination in gossip headlines, particularly due to her flamboyant lifestyle. She eventually left Granelli. In 1932, she married Joseph Burns, a California Assemblyman, who she met at one of her parties. She took his last name.

In 1945, Burns claimed that she made about 1 million dollars per year, but about half of that money went to kickbacks and bribes.

Raids and legal issues The abortion clinic suffered many police raids during its existence. The first raid was in 1936, when police stormed the Fillmore Street location and arrested a maid and a janitor, whom they called "vagrants." However, the clinic was not shut down and Inez was not arrested. Two years later, in 1938, the clinic was raided again, when a patient had informed the police that Inez had performed an abortion. The police questioned 10 women in the waiting room, and they arrested Burns and Margie Silver, a nurse. A few weeks later, Burns and Silver were released when the police were unable to acquire formal complaints from the clinic's clients. It was repeatedly difficult for the police to find formal evidence and charges for the clinic, as most women did not want to share that they had received an abortion.

In 1939, Burns was charged with tax evasion. She settled it in 1940 by paying a $10,000 fine.

In the following decade, Burns faced some of her greatest legal challenges, when Pat Brown became District Attorney in 1943. He had run a campaign to rid the city of vice and police corruption. A few years later, on September 23, 1945, a young woman had visited San Francisco's Central Emergency Hospital, requesting treatment after a recent abortion. The woman was questioned and it was determined that she had received an abortion at the Fillmore Street clinic. The next day, two undercover police officers were instructed to watch over the location. They found no incriminating evidence or activity, but a police raid was still conducted on September 26 at 9:40am. By the time the police arrived, Burns had fled the flat with her husband, another women, and various documents in a bag. They had driven away in a limousine. With this news, Police Inspector Frank Ahern drove to Inez's home on Guerrero Street, where he discovered $289,217 in cash, and a piece of paper (that Burns reportedly tried to first swallow) that detailed her revenues. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) was notified and Burns was immediately arrested.

Following the arrest of Burns, the police and legal forced clamped down on the clinic. Yet another raid was conducted, where police found notebooks with extensive financial records. They learned that the clinic had performed about $500,000 worth of abortions in 1944. Then, Burns and seven clinic employees were charged with conspiracy to commit abortion and violation of state medical laws. Burns pled not guilty before a grand jury. The jury members could not agree on her guilt, despite a large amount of evidence supplied by the prosecution.

On September 26, 1946, Burns was convicted of performing illegal abortions. She served two years and seven months at Tehachapi Women's Prison. She later had convictions for tax evasion and served additional prison sentences. In total, Burns paid about $800,000 in back taxes.

Death Inez spent the final years of her life with her husband, Joe, at a nursing home in Moss Beach, California. She died on January 25, 1976, at 87 years old, and a few years after the Supreme Court legalized abortion in Roe v. Wade (1973). Although she was very wealthy as a middle-aged woman, she was destitute in her old age, most likely due to the multiple tax evasion charges brought against her.