Rebecca Suzanne "Becky" Bell (August 24, 1971 – September 16, 1988) was an American teenage girl who died of complications from a septic abortion.
[1][2] After becoming pregnant, Bell inquired about a legal abortion but was hindered by Indiana state laws which required either her parents' consent or a waiver from a judge.
[18] The Bells worked with the Feminist Majority Foundation, which credited them with helping to turn public opinion against a parental notification law in Oregon.
In coverage of this debate on 60 Minutes, Morley Safer characterized the anti-abortion movement's response as an attack on "the Bells' motives and the character of their dead daughter".
In the 60 Minutes interview, John C. Willke, a retired physician and then-president of the National Right to Life Committee, maintained that Bell had a "normal miscarriage" rather than an induced abortion.
Willke's opinion was disputed on the program by John Pless, a forensic pathologist associated with Bell's autopsy, who affirmed his finding that she most likely had an illegal abortion.