History of Abortion

While the first recorded recipe form an abortion inducing drug came from 2600 BC, and there is a record of Egyptian potions made from crocodile dung, dating to 1850 BC, the history of Abortion in the U.S. is, obviously of more interest. Most people consider the U.S. history of abortion to have begun with the famous 1973 Roe vs. Wade Supreme Court decision, but the history of abortion in the U.S. began with the pilgrims. What may not be widely known is that abortion in early America was NOT illegal before the last part of the Nineteenth century. When abortion was frowned on, it was for social and economic reasons, not because of concern about the fetus. In fact, while "in Colonial New England, adultery was illegal, so was incest and insubordination, abortion was not expressively forbidden" (Flanders, 17). In fact, there was not even a canonical law of the Catholic Church forbidding abortion. (That happened in 1869 by edict of Pope Pius IX.)

"From the 1660's through 1776, the colonies, following English common law, permitted abortions everywhere (Rosenblatt 8). So, why did the movement to make abortions illegal really take hold? Strangely enough, one major cause was the falling birthrate among middle-class whites. More than that, it was the beginning of a crusade of medical doctors who felt that some of their practices (including abortions) were now being taken over by non-physician practitioners, including midwives, even pharmacists and homeopaths. "No group of physicians was more insecure than the gynecology/obstetrics specialists" (Flanders 176). Even worse, doctors and other anti-abortionists, brought race and "patriotism" into the argument, as the Great Plains were opening up. "The leading mid-century antiabortion campaigner demanded: 'Shall they be filled with our children or by those of aliens?'" (Flanders 178).

o, by 1880 "anti-abortion laws were written in 40 states and territories. Interestingly, America's mainline Protestant churches did not support the medical profession's crusade; the practice was too common in their congregations" (Rosenblatt 9).

Before the end of the Nineteenth century when abortion laws first made the rounds of state legislatures, "commercial preparations were so widely available that they had inspired their own euphemism ('taking the trade'). Unfortunately, these drugs were often fatal" (Pollin 112). Actually, as Pollin (1997) explains, the first laws were not really anti-abortion, but poison-control laws. Abortion continued to be offered by specialists- who were not doctors. "The most famous practitioner, Madame Restell, openly provided abortion services for thirty-five years with offices in New York, Boston, and Philadelphia and traveling salesmen touting her 'Female Monthly Pills'" (Pollin 112).

By the beginning of the Twentieth Century, abortion was illegal in every state in the U.S. "In 45 states an exception was made if the mother's life were in danger from the pregnancy" (Gale 1). This was liberalization of the strict "no abortion" emphasis made by 19^th century doctors. At this same time, the medical establishment believed, unlike today "that life began at about four months, when the mother felt the baby move in her stomach (a moment known as quickening)" (Shenkman 69).

At the beginning of the 10^th Century, we find another interesting statistic about abortions. Family size. "In an age where couples lacked all but the most basic information about birth control, abortion had emerged as a way for women to control the size of their families" (Tarshis 11). According to Shenkman (1988) there have even been some statistics which estimate almost one out of every four pregnancies in the 1920'a were terminated by an abortion.

It may not necessarily be called "liberalization", but as the years passed, there were other exceptions to the medically unsafe legislation. "There was a growing concern about birth defects and advances in physicians' abilities to predict them during pregnancy" (Gale 1). And, then, some states passed controversial laws permitting abortions when the pregnancy was caused by rape or incest, still debated in 2004.

Early in the 20^th Century. there has even been a foreign aspect about abortion. The Cold War added to the furor, because anti-Communists publicized the fact that "in 1920 the Soviet Union became the first nation in the world to provide legal abortion on request during the first trimester" (Anon. 1891).

By the 1960s, there were some different events which changed the minds of some about abortion. "The first involved the drug thalidomide. Widely used by European women to alleviate morning sickness in pregnancy, the drug caused serious deformities in the babies many of these women were carrying" (Tarshis 11). The most famous case involved a woman named Sherri Finkbine, who had taken the drug and, when she heard about the dangers, she applied to her local hospital for an abortion. The hospital refused. So did other hospitals, and the tabloids were filled with stories and pictures of deformed babies.

The 1960s also were the beginning of a stronger women's movement in the U.S., in which the motivation and central theme was that women should have a right to control what happens to (and even in) their bodies.

Of course, the central focus of abortion history in the U.S. was the Roe vs. Wade decision by the Supreme Court in 1973. What was this decision? The Supreme Court struck down a Texas law which made abortion illegal. "The Court ruled that the constitutional right to privacy 'encompassed a woman's decision whether or not to terminate her pregnancy'" (Tarshis 12). Since
Roe vs. Wade, the abortion controversy seems to have increased. At first, of course, it was the Religious Right that took up the public outcry. They were aided and abetted by some of the medical establishment who argued that life began at conception, not as was mentioned earlier, at "quickening". On the other side, the women's movement seemed to feel that Roe vs. Wade did not go far enough. One has to remember that Roe vs. Wade ONLY covered the first three months of a woman's pregnancy. As we now know what is called "late term abortion" has been a political football during both the Clinton and Bush administrations.

Still, there are those who see abortion as a religious issue. Some believe that, since the Catholic church prohibits abortion (just as it permits sex only for procreation), all Catholics are anti-abortion. However, there are some recent statistics that tell a different story.

It is interesting to note that even among educated Catholics the trend is toward agreement that a woman should have a right to choose. However, the polarization continues between the liberal and conservatives. It is a fundamental moral and ethical issue and will continue to polarize American society, no matter whether Roe vs. Wade will remain the law of the land or be overturned. Aside from the philosophical differences, the key question now is- will there continue to be the violence of recent years? The problem with polls on Abortion is that the questions themselves are often weighted toward one side or the other: One deficiency with most polls is that they require snap judgments from the subjects. For example: a TIME-CNN poll in

1992 showed that "only 11% of American adults would withhold an abortion" (TIMES 1). The debate over Abortion continues, even as both sides of the question seem to use some historical facts to prove their case. It is not merely a medical debate. It is a religious and social and gender debate. "It sometimes seems that the further abortion is removed from the actual lives and circumstances of real girls and women, the more interesting it becomes to talk about" (Pollin 112).

While medical progress has made aborting a fetus easier, the debate about Abortion issue is about ethics, religion, and morality. Opponents of abortion say it is against every aspect of humanity to "kill a defenseless human being". They also believe that no state should "rule" whether abortions can and should be legalized, or ruled illegal and "murder" of sorts. Yet, the fact remains that "43% of American women will have an abortion in their life-time, if current rates are sustained....But few women share the details beyond a small circle of loved ones because the experiences don't fit neatly into a debate that centers on moral absolutes" (Waldman 20) It seems clear, therefore, that the Abortion polarity in this country in both its social and medical aspects, offers no way to compromise and bring the two sides together. Even though history shows that abortion was common even thousands of years ago, the debate about its morality or legality, will not go away.

Works Cited:

Flanders, Laura: "Abortion, the Usable Past" The Nation, August 7, 1989

Pollin, Katha "Abortion in American History" The Atlantic Monthly Magazine, May, 1997

Rosenblatt, Roger: "Welcome to uncomfortable times" Arlington VA: U.S. Newsand World Report, July 17, 1989

Shenkman, Richard: "History8 of Abortion in the U.S." from Legends, Lies & Cherished Myths of American History New York: Harper & Row (1988)

Tarshis, Lauren: One hundred years of debate" Scholastic Update, April 20, 1990

Waldman, Steven, Ackerman, Elise, Reed, Cheryl L., Greenberg, Ilan, Cutter, Natela, Jordon, Bill, and Lavelle, Marianne: "ABORTIONS IN AMERICA So Many Women have Them, So Few Talk About Them" Arlington VA: US NEWS AND WORLD REPORT, Jan 19, 1998

No author listed: "Abortion Policies in the 1960's"

DISCovering U.S. History, Online edition, Gale 2003

No author listed: "From Abortion to Contraception: A Resource to Public Policies and Reproductive Behavior in Central and Eastern Europe From 1917 to the Present" Washington DC: American Journalof Public Health, Dec. 1999

No author listed: New York Times/CBS News Poll, The New York Times, August 18, 1980.