Dr. Josephine Gabler (January 16, 1879 – June 13, 1961) was a physician best known for performing illegal abortions in Chicago, serving the entire Midwest, during the 1930s.
Gabler graduated from medical school in 1905 and was licensed to practice that year; by the late 1920s, she had begun to specialize in abortion.
These records indicated that over 200 Chicago physicians had been sending patients to her clinic for abortion procedures.
[2] In the 1920s and 30s, on State Street in downtown Chicago, Gabler specialized in abortions in a time of great repression.
Gabler was a significant player in women's health by providing abortions in accordance with standard medical procedures during a time where the number of abortions occurring in the United States ranged from 250,000 to 2 million per year.