smokescreen by the medical and political establishment to quash their lower-priced competitors" because "an abortion at the FMC cost about fifty dollars less than at hospitals." He also felt the push to require abortions to be performed only in hospitals would "push the already limited capacity of hospitals beyond the breaking point." One local hospital had been performing 18 abortions per week, whereas FMC had been set up to perform 60–100 abortions per day. In 1978, the Chicago Sun-Times published a 15-part series titled The Abortion Profiteers, exposing the dirty underbelly of the abortion industry in Chicago. Dr. Arnold Bickham — a doctor who worked at Howard's Friendship Medical Center performing abortions from 1973 to 1975, and who went on to run several other abortion clinics, including one he also named "Friendship Medical Center" after Howard's death — was one of several Chicago-area abortion practitioners featured in the 1978 investigative report. The reporters stated that three women died from hemorrhages in 1973 and 1974 after abortions at FMC, and several others died after abortions at Bickham's other clinics, Biogen and Water Tower. After a history of license suspensions, gross malpractice, and federal convictions for misuse of funds, in 1989 Bickham was arrested for practicing medicine without a license while trying to flee his "Friendship Medical Center" clinic. Death Howard died in Chicago on May 1, 1976 after many years of deteriorating health. The Reverend Jesse Jackson officiated at the funeral. See also List of civil rights leaders References Further reading T.R.M. Howard Facebook Page Ward, Thomas J. Black Physicians in the Jim Crow South. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 2003.9 Video and audio material Audio recording of Howard's eulogy at the memorial service for Medgar Evers, June 15, 1963, Jackson, Mississippi Speech at Madison Square Garden (introduced by A. Philip Randolph, on May 24, 1956) 1908 births 1976 deaths 20th-century American physicians African-American businesspeople Activists for African-American civil rights American anti-communists African American American abortion providers American hunters American community activists Physicians from Chicago People from Murray, Kentucky Physicians from Mississippi African-American history of Mississippi Seventh-day Adventists in health science American Seventh-day Adventists Oakwood University alumni African-American physicians American surgeons African-American activists Union College (Nebraska) alumni Illinois Republicans 20th-century American businesspeople People from Mound Bayou, Mississippi Loma Linda University alumni International Order of Twelve Knights and Daughters of Tabor