No, a doctor did not order her left ‘dead or alive’ when revisiting an abortion tale. This phrase is a reference to an infamous one-sentence newspaper report from the 1800s. This report was a confusing account which described an 1884 incident involving an abortionist and their patient, who was left “in a state of collapse, dead or alive”. Since then, this phrase has been often used figuratively to describe someone’s unclear or uncertain situation.
