Mostly, she was helping to save women from their own, botched abortions. They offered therapeutic treatments like 'Sun Baths' and 'Complete Electro-Therapy.'Īnd over her long career, Smith also provided a number of illegal abortions. There, they treated women and children for all kinds of health problems: tuberculosis, appendicitis, arthritis. But at the beginning of the century, the large, white house sat near a historic art deco movie theater. There's no longer any evidence of Smith Hospital today.

Shortly after, she and her husband moved to Poplar Bluff - which sits in the southwest corner of the state - and opened Smith Hospital. Originally born in Iowa, Smith graduated from osteopathic school in Kirksville, Missouri, in 1902. Doctor Annie Smith was a real physician in the early 1900s. Most of these details were total fabrications.īut they are rooted in some truth. Rumor had it Doc Annie was building an abortion clinic at her now-abandoned property just outside town she supposedly kept babies in jars of formaldehyde and threw fetuses in her well. “A group of us as teenagers would go out there and tell ghost stories about abortions and dead babies and all kinds of macabre things,” a local resident told KBIA's podcast Show Me The State in 2019. If you were around Poplar Bluff in the 1970s, you might have heard a tale about a mysterious witch-like woman known as “Doc Annie.”Īs high schoolers told it, she was infamous for performing abortions. With one major exception: Doctor Annie Smith.Īnd only because she's the subject of a popular ghost story around the town of Poplar Bluff, Missouri. Evan Hart, an assistant professor of history at Missouri Western State University.Īs a result, we don't know much about the doctors who provided these health care services. So they wanted to fly under the radar so as not to be arrested,' says Dr. 'Doctors could face fines or jail time for performing an abortion. In 1907, they expanded the penalties, making it a felony offense.īut whether or not abortion is criminalized, that hasn't stopped people from trying to terminate their pregnancies. Missouri lawmakers first passed a law restricting abortions in 1825 - becoming the second state in the U.S. It’s a return to a time when states could ban abortion with few exceptions.

In Nebraska, state senators are weighing a special session to debate access. Wade, and many other Midwestern states are likely to follow. Missouri now prohibits almost all abortions, following the overturning of Roe v.

Missouri ghost towns near poplar bluff