Nancy Klein remembered: How comatose woman's abortion story is still relevant today

Nearly four decades ago, one woman went into a coma. Her family thought an abortion would help her medically. It unexpectedly became the center of a debate about the ethics of abortion.

(Nancy Klein. Photo courtesy Janet Smuga.)

When a car accident left Nancy Klein in a coma, no one thought that her pregnancy would become the center of a controversy over abortion.

At the time of her wreck, Nancy was a 32-year-old woman who lived with her husband, Martin, and 3-year-old daughter, Arielle, in Long Island, N.Y.

Her brother, Arnold Zusselman, described what Nancy was like before it happened.

“She was the pride and joy of the family,” Zusselman said. “She was absolutely the ideal person.”

Klein became a flashpoint of the national debate over abortion in the late 1980s. When she was 17 weeks into her pregnancy, she slid out and collided with another car while driving on an icy road on Dec. 13, 1988. It put her in a coma. Afterward, she stayed in North Shore University Hospital in Long Island. Her family decided that it was not a good time for her to be pregnant because that would put additional stress on her body. They all agreed that an abortion was the best course. Little did they know how hard that would be to do.

More than 30 years later, the story of Nancy Klein seems as relevant as ever. It raises questions about whether abortion care should be permitted in medically necessary situations and whether women and their families have the right to make healthcare decisions that are in their best interest.

Martin Klein declined to be interviewed for this story. I reconstructed this story through interviews with Nancy’s sister Janet Smuga, her brother Arnold, and abortion rights leader Bill Baird, who became an essential figure in the saga.

In Nancy’s situation, doctors faced a dilemma. She alone had the right to end a pregnancy, but she couldn’t make that decision given her state of health. Martin sought to get guardianship of his wife so that she could get an abortion. He filed a lawsuit at the local courthouse to do so.

Five medical experts testified that pregnancy increased the risks for the comatose patient and could threaten her life. State Supreme Court Justice Bernard McCaffrey granted Martin Klein's petition.

But there were soon unexpected–and unreasonable–legal challenges to the decision.

Back then, many reporters covered the judicial branch. One caught wind of Klein’s situation and reported it in a newspaper, spreading it to other media. When her sister, Janet, heard it on the radio while driving, she remembered knowing it would be different than expected.

“As soon as I heard Marty's name, I just…you have one of those moments when your blood freezes,” Smuga said.

The story exploded after that. People sent the family hundreds of cards and notes, offering opinions and thoughts on Nancy’s situation. Most supported the family’s decision.

“Out of all those hundreds, there were perhaps a half a dozen that were opposed to the abortion,” Smuga said. “There were an awful lot from people who said, ‘I'm against abortion. But in your case, I think you should do it.’”

When the incident became national news, Frederick and Anne Zusselman, Nancy’s parents, approached Baird for help. Baird had been a longtime supporter of abortion rights. He had been involved in seminally important legal cases like Eisenstadt v. Baird, which was a Supreme Court ruling that legalized birth control for single people. He had been called the “father of abortion rights” because of his early and staunch support of a woman’s right to choose.

Many on the other side of the debate had long been Baird's nemesis. Two men, John Short and John Broderick, took significant roles in Nancy’s situation. Short was a retired accountant, and Broderick was an attorney. They had never met Nancy and didn't know the family. Both were from New York and were leaders within the local antiabortion movement.

Broderick had been involved in the antiabortion movement primarily as a lawyer who represented activists who had been charged with harassing abortion clinics. In a move that would later be ironic, Broderick had fought for a man to prevent his wife from getting an abortion because he had “father’s rights.”

In 1975, Short filed to become the legal guardian to all infants born alive after abortions in Long Island. A judge denied his attempt. Short had lost his job at the Nassau County Social Services Department about a decade earlier because he refused to certify a $10 million state aid claim because he thought it included money for abortions and IUDs. He founded the Long Island Right-To-Life Committee.

Baird had regularly interacted with them. He described them as thugs at the time.

“They were saying to me, ‘We're saving her soul. We're saving the husband's soul. And that's the way it's going to be,’” Baird said over the phone to me.

Short and Broderick filed for guardianship of Nancy to prevent the abortion. In testimony before the appeals court, five medical experts said pregnancy increased the risks for the comatose patient and could threaten her life. Two medical experts testified that the pregnancy was not life-threatening.

Martin Klein said at the time that some physicians advised him that an abortion may enhance her recovery and could save her life.

"All we want to do is save Nancy's life,' he said. "Time is precious. Any delay in terminating the pregnancy is only increasing the risks to Nancy. These people's actions constitute severe harassment and interference with Nancy's rights and my wishes and Nancy's parents' wishes."

Martin expressed his frustration to the national media.

"I'm begging the American people to please help us," Martin Klein said. "We're torn up. These strangers have come off the street and are intruding in our lives. We don't know what to do about it."

While this happened, Smuga was driving back and forth between the hospital and Nancy’s home to care for her child. When she visited her sister, she had to pass a police guard outside her room.

The five-member Appellate Division of the state Supreme Court in Brooklyn, calling Short and Broderick “absolute strangers,'' who had “no place in the midst of this family tragedy.''

Short told reporters he was concerned about Nancy Klein's "psychological and emotional state" if she awoke.

"Under our plan, we say the baby's down at the neonatal clinic getting the best care possible," Short said. "Under their plan, they've got to tell her they've killed her baby. Emotionally, that would kill her."

New York’s highest court rejected their appeal. They filed a motion to stay with Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, who also turned down their request.

A Nassau County police officer was stationed in the hospital, and a police cruiser was parked out front following the decision after hospital officials were told the anti-abortion group Operation Rescue might try to stop the abortion, according to a Houston Chronicle report that came out at the time. They wanted to prevent a possible attempted blockade of the hospital's surgery wing. Officials feared small groups of activists would 'infiltrate' the 644-bed facility and chain themselves to vital areas and passageways.

Her parents had been staying with Martin during the court battle and supported his decision to seek an abortion. Afterward, Frederick Zusselman expressed his view of the ordeal.

"Life will never be the same. It was too terrible. And then to have the complications come in and the publicity," he said.. "This has been such a horrendous ordeal. I hope no one will ever have to experience what we have. We're really torn apart. We've been up and down on a roller coaster. These people have put us through absolute hell.”

Afterward, Nancy came out of her coma. Later, an Emmy-nominated movie starring Henry Winkler and Patty Duke depicted the events surrounding her abortion. It was named after that judge’s comment about Short and Broderick being Absolute Strangers. The reality of Nancy’s life was much different after that. She was permanently and severely disabled due to brain damage.

Nancy Klein’s story is worth examining because similar situations could unfold now. What would happen if this scenario happened again in Mississippi, Alabama, or Texas? Likely, a family would have to pay for expensive medical transportation to a place where abortion was legal. I fear this will likely happen in the next few years.