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About Annie Aves
- Isabel Annie Aves (née Michaelsen) (18 March 1887–15 October 1938) was a New Zealand abortionist.
- She was born in Waipawa, Hawke's Bay, New Zealand on 18 March 1887.
- Aves ran an abortion business from her home in Napier using sea-tangle tents (probably Laminaria digitata seaweed stalks or a local substitute) which, when inserted into the cervical canal, absorbed water and slowly expanded, dilating the cervix.Her first trial was in Napier on a charge of "unlawfully using an instrument with intent to procure a miscarriage", but the jury could not agree on a verdict.
- Two further trials were held in Wellington, with the juries again failing to agree on a verdict, amid much publicity.
- An unusual fourth trial followed, which also resulted in no conviction.
- Aves was represented by Cyril Harker at the trials in Napier in August 1936, Wellington in October 1936, December 1936 and February 1937.
- Harker's defense rested on lack of direct evidence; none of the women gave evidence and the crown prosecutor relied on circumstantial evidence. In 1938, Aves was shot by Colin Herbert Hercock, the fiancé of a woman she had performed an abortion on, after he was led to believe that his fiancée was going to die as a result of the abortion.
- Aves died later in hospital; the fiancée survived to give evidence at Hercock's trial.
- Harker defended Hercock, getting him off on the lesser charge of manslaughter rather than murder and subsequently getting his prison term reduced.
- The judge in Hercocks' trial was Michael Myers, who had presided over Aves's last trial, during the trial he said if [Annie Aves] had been dealt with as she should have been, this tragedy would not have happened.
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