A pioneer of abortion services in the United States died at the age of 93 after being detained under the mental health act at a Dorset hospital after suffering paranoia and delirium having been diagnosed with dementia, an inquest has heard.
Dr Horace Hale Harvey III, who was born in New Orleans in December 1931, opened one of the first independent abortion clinics in the US in Manhattan in July 1970 after New York State had reformed its laws.
The clinic, called Women’s Services, provided safe and affordable abortions.
In an obituary, the New York Times reported that Dr Harvey had become an abortion provider to “combat what he felt was an epidemic of unsafe abortions at a time when unmarried women were denied access to contraceptives, and when comprehensive sex education was discouraged”.
Dr Harvey, who had a son and a daughter, later moved to the Isle of Wight and worked for public health services there but in 2014 moved to Dorset after his house burned down.
The obituary states that Dr Harvey had chosen the Isle of Wight because “according to his research, it had the highest average temperature and received more hours of sunlight than anywhere else in England”.
In a statement read to the Bournemouth inquest, his daughter Kate said that her father was “very determined” to keep healthy by walking a mile and doing 20 squats each day and said he “enjoyed laughter and making up jokes” as well as activities such as dance, table tennis and snooker.
She added that he was a scholar who was “committed to Aristotelian ethics and scientific learning”.
The inquest heard that in late 2024, Dr Harvey was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and PTSD after the house fire 10 years earlier.
On January 22 2025, he was taken to Dorset County Hospital having suffered a rib fracture in a fall at home.
After physiotherapists expressed concerns at his ability to understand care instructions, he was assessed by psychiatrists and was detained under the mental health act.
Coroner Richard Middleton said that Dr Harvey was increasingly experiencing delirium and paranoia.
He said that Dr Harvey was found dead in his hospital bed in the early hours of February 14 and a post-mortem examination found he died of natural causes from ischaemic heart disease and coronary artery disease.
The coroner, recording a conclusion of death by natural causes, explained that the inquest had to be held by law because Dr Harvey was formally detained by the state at the time of his death.
Mr Middleton added: “I express my deepest condolences to all of Dr Harvey’s family and friends for their loss.”
