History of abortion
The
history of abortion, according to
anthropologists, dates back to ancient times. There is evidence to suggest that, historically,
pregnancies were terminated through a number of methods, including the administration of
abortifacient herbs, the use of sharpened implements, the application of abdominal pressure, and other techniques.
Abortion laws and their enforcement have fluctuated through various eras. Many early laws and church doctrine focused on "quickening," when a fetus began to move on its own, as a way to differentiate when an
abortion became impermissible. In the 18th–19th centuries religious conservatives successfully pushed for an all-out ban on abortion. During the 20th century abortion has become legal in many Western countries, but it is regularly subjected to legal challenges and restrictions by
pro-life groups.
[Frontline. (2005) The Last Abortion Clinic.]Antiquity (prehistory to 476 AD)
The first recorded evidence of induced abortion is from a
Chinese document which records abortions performed upon royal concubines in China between the years 500 and 515 BC.
[ Glenc, F. (1974). Induced abortion - a historical outline. Polski Tygodnik Lekarski, 29 (45), 1957-8.] According to
Chinese folklore, the legendary Emperor
Shennong prescribed the use of
mercury to induce abortions nearly 5000 years ago.
[Christopher Tietze and Sarah Lewit, "Abortion", Scientific American, 220 (1969), 21.]There have been
archaeological discoveries which would seem to indicate early
surgical attempts at the extraction of a
fetus; however, such methods are not believed to have been common, given the infrequency with which they are mentioned in ancient medical texts.
[ Contraception and Abortion in the Ancient Classical World. (1997). Ancient Roman Technology. Retrieved March 16, 2006, from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill website.] Many of the methods employed in early and
primitive cultures were non-surgical. Physical activities like strenuous labour,
climbing,
paddling,
weightlifting, or
diving were a common technique. Others included the use of irritant leaves,
fasting,
bloodletting, pouring hot water onto the abdomen, and lying on a
coconut shell which had been heated.
[ Devereux, G. (1967). A typological study of abortion in 350 primitive, ancient, and pre-industrial societies. Retrieved April 22, 2006. Abortion in America: medical, psychiatric, legal, anthropological, and religious considerations. Boston: Beacon Press. Retrieved April 22, 2006.]References in classical literature
Hippocrates, the
Greek physician whose famous
Oath forbids abortion, nonetheless writes of having advised a dancer and
prostitute who fell pregnant to jump up and down, touching her buttocks with her heels at each leap, so as to induce miscarriage.
[ Lefkowitz, Mary R. & Fant, Maureen R. (1992). Women's life in Greece & Rome: a source book in translation. Baltimore, MD: John Hopkins University Press. Retrieved January 11, 2006. ] Other writings attributed to him describe instruments, fashioned to dilate the
cervix and
curette inside of the
uterus, which he used to perform an abortion upon one of his patients.
[Klotz, John W. (1973). A Historical Summary of Abortion from Antiquity through Legalization (1973). A Christian View of Abortion. St. Louis, Missouri: Concordia Publishing House. Retrieved March 16, 2006.]Tertullian, a
2nd century Christian theologian, also described surgical implements which were used in a procedure reminiscent of the modern
dilation and evacuation. One tool had a "nicely-adjusted flexible frame" used for dilation, an "annular blade" used to curette, and a "blunted or covered hook" used for extraction. The other was a "copper needle or spike". He attributed ownership of such items to Hippocrates,
Asclepiades,
Erasistratus,
Herophilus, and
Soranus.
[ Tertullian. (n.d.) A Treatise on the Soul. (Peter Holmes, Trans.). Retrieved April 12, 2006.]Tertullian's description is prefaced as being used in cases in which abnormal
positioning of the fetus in the womb would endanger the life of the pregnant women.
Saint Augustine, in
Enchiridion, makes passing mention of surgical procedures being performed to remove fetuses which have
expired in utero.
[Augustine. (n.d.) Enchiridion. (Albert C. Outler, Trans.) Retrieved April 12, 2006.] Aulus Cornelius Celsus, a
1st century Roman encyclopedist, offers an extremely detailed account of a procedure to extract an already dead fetus in his only surviving work,
De Medicina.
[Celsus. (n.d.) De Medicina. (W. G. Spencer, Trans.) Retrieved April 12, 2006.]In Book 9 of
Refutation of all Heresies,
Saint Hippolytus of Rome, another Christian theologian of the
3rd century, wrote of women tightly binding themselves around the middle so as to "expel what was being conceived."
[ Hippolytus. (n.d.) Refutation of All Heresies. (Rev. J. H. Machanon, Trans.). Retrieved April 10, 2006.]Soranus, a 2nd century Greek physician, provided some rather detailed suggestions in his work
Gynecology. He recommended that women wishing to abort their pregnancies should engage in violent exercise, energetic jumping, carrying heavy objects, and riding animals.
Diuretics,
emmenagogues,
enemas, fasting, and bloodletting, were also prescribed, although Soranus advised against the use of sharp instruments to induce miscarriage due to the risk of organ
perforation.
Middle Ages (476 AD to Renaissance)
|
Oldest known visual representation of abortion at Angkor wat |
An
8th century Sanskrit text instructs women wishing to induce an abortion to sit over a pot of steam or stewed
onions.
The technique of
massage abortion, involving the application of pressure to the pregnant
abdomen, has been practiced in
Southeast Asia for centuries. One of the
bas reliefs decorating the temple of
Angkor Wat in
Cambodia, dated circa 1150, depicts a
demon performing such an abortion upon a woman who has been sent to the
underworld. This is believed to be the oldest known visual representation of abortion.
[ Potts, Malcolm, & Campbell, Martha. (2002). History of contraception. Gynecology and Obstetrics, vol. 6, ch. 8.]Japanese documents show records of induced abortion from as early as the
12th century. It became much more prevalent during the
Edo period, especially among the peasant class, who were hit hardest by the recurrent
famines and high taxation of the age.
[ Obayashi, M. (1982). Historical background of the acceptance of induced abortion. Josanpu Zasshi 36(12), 1011-6. Retrieved April 12, 2006.] Statues of the
Boddhisattva Jizo, erected in memory of an abortion,
miscarriage,
stillbirth, or young childhood death, began appearing at least as early as 1710 at a
temple in
Yokohama (see
religion and abortion).
[Page Brookes, Anne. (1981). Mizuko kuyō and Japanese Buddhism.. Japanese Journal of Religious Studies, 8 (3-4), 119"47. Retrieved 2006-04-02.]Physical means of inducing abortion, such as
battery,
exercise, and tightening the
girdle " special bands were sometimes worn in pregnancy to support the belly " were reported among
English women during the early modern period.
[Mcfarlane, Alan. (2002). Abortion methods in England. Retrieved June 7, 2006.]Modern (17th-century to present)
Nineteenth century medicine saw advances in the fields of
surgery,
anaesthesia, and
sanitation, in the same era that doctors with the
American Medical Association lobbied for bans on abortion in the
United States [Dyer, Frederick N. (1999). Pro-Life-Physician Horatio Robinson Storer: Your Ancestors, and You. Retrieved March 11, 2006. ] and the
British Parliament passed the
Offences Against the Person Act.
Various methods of abortion were documented regionally in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. After a rash of unexplained miscarriages in
Sheffield,
England, were attributed to
lead poisoning caused by the metal
pipes which fed the city's water supply, a woman confessed to having used diachylon " a lead-containing
plaster " as an abortifacient in 1898.
Criminal investigation of an abortionist in
Calgary, Alberta in 1894 revealed through
chemical analysis that the concotion he had supplied to a man seeking an abortifacient contained
Spanish fly.
[Beahen, William. (1986). Abortion and Infanticide in Western Canada 1874 to 1916: A Criminal Case Study. Historical Studies, 53, 53-70. Retrieved June 3, 2006.] Women of
Jewish descent in
Lower East Side, Manhattan are said to have carried the ancient
Indian practice of sitting over a pot of steam into the early 20th century.
Dr. Evelyn Fisher wrote of how women living in a
mining town in
Wales during the
1920s used candles intended for
Roman Catholic ceremonies to dilate the
cervix in an effort to
self-induce abortion.
Similarly, the use of candles and other objects, such as glass rods, penholders,
curling irons, spoons, sticks, knives, and
catheters was reported during the 19th-century in the United States.
[King, C.R. (1992). Abortion in nineteenth century America: a conflict between women and their physicians. Womens Health Issues, 2(1), 32-9. Retrieved June 4, 2006. ] A paper published in 1870 on the abortion services to be found in
Syracuse, New York, concluded that the method most often practiced there during this time was to
flush inside of the uterus with injected water. The article's author, Ely Van de Warkle, claimed this procedure was affordable even to a
maid, as a man in town offered it for $10 on an
installment plan.
[Van de Warkle, Ely. (1870). The detection of criminal abortion. Journal of the Boston Historical Society, Vols 4 & 5.] Other prices which
19th-century abortionists are reported to have charged were much more steep. In
Great Britain, it could cost from 10 to 50
guineas, or 5% of the
yearly income of a
lower middle class household.
who lived in
New Zealand before or at the time of
colonisation terminated pregnancies via miscarriage-inducing drugs, ceremonial methods, and girding of the abdomen with a restrictive
belt.
[Hunton, R.B. (1977). Maori abortion practices in pre and early European New Zealand. The New Zealand Medical Journal, 86(602), 567-70. Retrieved June 4, 2006.] Another source claims that the Māori people did not practice abortion, for fear of
Makutu, but did attempt
feticide through the
artificial induction of
premature labor.
[ Gluckman, L.K. (1981). Abortion in the nineteenth century Maori: a historical and ethnopsychiatric review. The New Zealand Medical Journal, 93(685), 384-6. Retrieved June 4, 2006.]The
20th century saw improvements in abortion technology, increasing its safety, and reducing its
side-effects. In 1971, Lorraine Rothman, a founding member of the feminist self-help movement, invented the Del-Em, a safe, cheap
suction device that made it possible for people with minimal training to perform early abortions. In 1980,
French researchers developed
mifepristone (RU-486), a drug which induces abortion by blocking
hormone action.
Advertisement of abortion services
|
The text of this clandestine ad reads: "Dr. Caton's Tansy Pills! The most reliable remedy for ladies. Always safe, effectual, and the only guaranteed women's salvation. Price $1. Second advice free. R. F. Caton, Boston, Mass." |
|
An 1845 ad for "French Periodical Pills" warns against use by women who might be "en ciente [sic]" ("enceinte" is French for "pregnant"). |
Access to abortion continued, despite bans enacted on both sides of the
Atlantic Ocean, as the disguised, but nonetheless open, advertisement of abortion services, abortion-inducing devices, and abortifacient medicines in the
Victorian era would seem to suggest.
[ Histories of Abortion. (n.d.) Retrieved January 11, 2006.] Apparent print ads of this nature were found in both the
United States,
["Product Advertisements." (n.d.) The Library of Congress: American Women. Retrieved June 2, 2006. ] the
United Kingdom,
and
Canada.
[McLaren, Angus. (1978). Birth control and abortion in Canada, 1870-1920. Canadian Historical Review, 59(3), 319-40. Retrieved June 3, 2006.] A
British Medical Journal writer who replied to
newspaper ads peddling relief to women who were "temporarily indisposed" in 1868 found that over half of them were in fact promoting abortion.
A few alleged examples of surreptitiously-marketed abortifacients include "Farrer's Catholic Pills", "Hardy's Woman's Friend", "Dr. Peter's French Renovating Pills", "
Lydia Pinkham's Vegetable Compound",
[Black, Barbara. (2000, November 27). Women win back reproductive rights. North Shore News. Retrieved March 16, 2006. ] and "Madame Drunette's Lunar Pills".
s which claimed to treat "female complaints" often contained such ingredients as
pennyroyal,
tansy, and
savin. Abortifacient products were sold under the promise of "restor[ing] female regularity" and "removing from the system every impurity."
In the vernacular of such advertising, "irregularity," "obstruction," "menstrual suppression," and "delayed period" were understood to be
euphemistic references to the state of pregnancy. As such, some abortifacients were marketed as
menstrual regulatives.
"Old Dr. Gordon's Pearls of Health," produced by a
drug company in
Montreal, "cure[d] all suppressions and irregularities" if "used monthly".
[McLaren, Angus, & Tigar McLaren, Arlene. (1997). The Bedroom and the State: The Changing Practices and Politics of Contraception and Abortion in Canada, 1880-1997. Toronto, ON: Oxford University Press.] However, a few ads explicitly warned against the use of their product by women who were expecting, or listed
miscarriage as its inevitable side effect. The copy for "Dr. Peter's French Renovating Pills" advised, "...pregnant females should not use them, as they invariably produce a miscarriage...", and both "Dr. Monroe's French Periodical Pills" and "Dr. Melveau's Portuguese Female Pills" were "sure to produce a miscarriage".
F.E. Karn, a man from
Toronto, in 1901 cautioned women who thought themselves pregnant not to use the
pills he advertised as "Friar's French Female Regulator" because they would "speedily restore menstrual secretions".
|
"Dr. Miller's Female Monthly Powders" ad copy reprinted in an 1858 article condemning such advertising. |
Such advertising did not fail to arouse criticisms of
quackery and
immorality. The safety of many nostrums was suspect and the
efficacy of others non-existent.
, in a
New York Herald editorial written in 1871, denounced abortion and its promotion as the "infamous and unfortunately common crime"so common that it affords a lucrative support to a regular guild of professional murderers, so safe that its perpetrators advertise their calling in the newspapers".
Although the paper in which Greeley wrote accepted such advertisements, others, such as the
New York Tribune, refused to print them.
, the first woman to obtain a
Doctor of Medicine in the United States, also lamented how such ads lead to the contemporary synonymity of "female physician" with "abortionist".
The
Comstock Law made all abortion-related advertising illegal in the United States (see
history of abortion law).
Madame Restell
A well-known example of a Victorian-era abortionist was
Madame Restell, or Ann Lohman, who over a forty year period illicitly provided both surgical abortion and abortifacient pills in the northern United States. She begun her business in
New York during the
1830s, and, by the
1840s, had expanded to include
franchises in
Boston and
Philadelphia.
It is estimated that by 1870 her annual expenditure on advertising alone was $60,000.
One ad for Restell's medical services, printed in the
New York Sun, promised that she could offer the "strictest confidence on complaints incidental to the female frame" and that her "experience and knowledge in the treatment of cases of female irregularity, [was] such as to require but a few days to effect a perfect cure".
[Olasky, Marvin. (1988). Prodigal Press: The Anti-Christian Bias of American News Media. Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway Books: Retrieved June 1, 2006.] Another, addressed to
married women, asked the question, "Is it desirable, then, for parents to increase their families, regardless of consequences to themselves, or the well-being of their offspring, when a simple, easy, healthy, and certain remedy is within our control?"
[Watkins Richardson, Cynthia. (2002). In the Eye of Power: The Notorious Madam Restell. Khronikos. Retrieved June 1, 2006.] Advertisements for the "Female Monthly Regulating Pills" she also sold vowed to resolve "all cases of suppression, irregularity, or stoppage of the menses, however obdurate."
Madame Restelle was an object of criticism in both the respectable and
penny presses. She was first arrested in 1841, but, it was her final arrest by
Anthony Comstock which lead to her
suicide on the day of her trial
April 1,
1878.
Natural abortifacients
|
Art from a 13th-century manuscript features a herbalist preparing a concotion containing pennyroyal for a woman. |
Botanical preparations reputed to be abortifacient were common in
classical literature and
folk medicine. Such folk remedies, however, varied in
effectiveness and were not without the risk of
adverse effects. Some of the
herbs used at times to terminiate pregnancy are
poisonous.
Soranus offered a number of recipes for herbal bathes, rubs, and
pessaries.
In
De Materia Medica Libri Quinque, the Greek
pharmacologist Dioscorides listed the ingredients of a draught called "abortion wine" "
hellebore,
squirting cucumber, and
scammony " but failed to provide the precise manner in which it was to be prepared.
[Riddle, John M. (1992). Contraception and Abortion from the Ancient World to the Renaissance. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.] Hellebore, in particular, is known to be
abortifacient.
[ Hurst, W. Jeffrey. & Hurst, Deborah J. (2000). Hellebore. Ancient Medicine/Medicina Antiqua. Retrieved June 7, 2006.] A list of plants which cause abortion was provided in
De viribus herbarum, an
11th-century herbal written in the form of a
poem, the authorship of which is incorrectly attributed to
Aemilius Macer. Among them were rue,
Italian catnip,
savory,
sage,
soapwort,
cyperus, white and black hellebore, and
pennyroyal.
The Greek
playwright Aristophanes noted this aspect of pennyroyal much earlier, in 421 AD, through a humorous reference in his
comedy,
Peace. [Young, Gordon. (1995). Lifestyle on Trial. Metro. Retrieved June 7, 2006.] King's American Dispensatory of
1898 recommended a mixture of
brewer's yeast and pennyroyal tea as "a safe and certain abortive". More recently, two women in the
United States have died as a result of abortions attempted by pennyroyal, one in 1978 through the consumption of its
essential oil and another in 1994 through a tea containing its
extract.
Birthwort, a herb used to ease
childbirth, was also used to induce abortion.
Galen included it in a potion formula in
de Antidotis, while Dioscorides said it could be adminstered by mouth, or in the form of a
vaginal pessary also containing
pepper and
myrrh.
[Riddle, John M. (1997). Eve's Herbs: A History of Contraception and Abortion in the West. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.]Pliny the Elder cited the refined oil of
common rue as a potent abortifacient.
Serenus Sammonicus wrote of a concoction which consisted of rue,
egg, and
dill. Soranus, Dioscorides,
Oribasius also detailed this application of the plant. Modern scientific studies have confirmed that rue indeed contains three abortive compounds.
[ Hurst, W. Jeffrey. & Hurst, Deborah J. (2000). Rue (Ruta Graveolens). Ancient Medicine/Medicina Antiqua. Retrieved April 22, 2006.] |
Cyrenian coin with image of silphium. |
The ancient Greeks relied upon the herb
silphium an abortifacient and contraceptive. The plant, as the chief export of
Cyrene, was driven to
extinction, but it is suggested that it might have possessed the same abortive properties as some of its closest extant relatives in the
Apiaceae family. Silphium was so central to the Cyrenian economy that most of its
coins were embossed with an image of the plant.
Tansy has been used to terminiate pregnancies since the
Middle Ages.
[Mitich, Larry W. (1992). Intriguing World of Weeds: Tansy. Journal of Weed Technology, 6, 242-244.] It was first documented as an
emmenagogue in
St. Hildegard of Bingen's De simplicis medicinae.
A variety of
juniper, known as
savin, was mentioned frequently in
European writings.
In one case in
England, a
rector from
Essex was said to have procured it for a woman he had impregnated in 1574; in another, a man wishing to remove his girlfriend of like condition recommended to her that
black hellebore and savin be boiled together and drunk in
milk, or else that chopped
madder be boiled in
beer. Other substances reputed to have been used by the English include
Spanish fly,
opium,
watercress seed,
iron sulphate, and iron chloride. Another mixture, not abortifacient, but rather intended to relieve
missed abortion, contained
dittany,
hyssop, and hot water.
The root of worm
fern, tellingly called "prostitute root" in the
French, was used of old in
France and
Germany; it was also recommended by a Greek physician in the
1st century. In
German folk medicine, there was also an abortifacient
tea, which included
marjoram,
thyme,
parsley, and
lavender. Other preparations of unspecificied origin included crushed
ants, the saliva of
camels, and the tail hairs of
black-tailed deer dissolved in the fat of
bears.
[ London, Kathleen. (1982). The History of Birth Control. The Changing American Family: Historical and Comparative Perspectives. Retrieved April 22, 2006 from the Yale University web site.]The
history of abortion law dates back to ancient times and has impacted men and women in a variety of ways in different times and places. Historically, it is unclear how often the ethics of
abortion (induced abortion) was discussed, but under
Christian influence the West generally frowned on abortion. In English common law and early American common law abortion was legal if performed before "quickening." By the late 19th century many nations had passed laws that banned abortion. In the later half of the
20th century some nations began to legalize abortion. This controversial subject has sparked heated debate and in some cases even violence.
Antiquity (prehistory to 476 AD)
Some previous
civilizations are thought to have tolerated even late-term abortions. There were also opposing voices, most notably
Hippocrates of Cos and the
Roman Emperor
Augustus. In contrast to their pagan evironment, Christians generally shunned abortion, drawing upon the Bible and early Christian writings such as the
Didache (circa 100 A.D.), which says: "... thou shalt not murder a child by abortion nor kill the infant already born."
[Didache. (c. AD 70"160). Retrieved June 3, 2006.] Saint Augustine refers to Exodus when he says that abortion is murder:
*"And if men strive together, and hurt a pregnant woman, so that her fruit [children] come out, and yet no harm follows; the one who hit her shall surely be fined, according as the woman's husband shall impose upon him; and he shall pay a fine as the judges determine. But if any harm follows, then you shall pay life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth." (Bible, Exodus 21:22-23)
*"The fetus in the womb is . . . an object of God's care," and, "We say that women who induce abortions are murderers, and will have to give account of it to God." (Athenagoras, late 2nd century)
*"In our case, murder being once for all forbidden, we may not destroy even the fetus in the womb." (Tertullian, late 2nd century)
*"There are women who . . . [are] committing infanticide before they give birth to the infant." (Minucious Felix, early 3rd century)
*"Those . . . who give drugs causing abortion are [deliberate murderers] themselves, as well as those receiving the poison which kills the fetus." (Basil, 4th century)
*"They drink potions to ensure sterility and are guilty of murdering a human being not yet conceived. Some, when they learn that they are with child through sin, practice abortion by the use of drugs. Frequently they die themselves and are brought before the rulers of the lower world guilty of three crimes: suicide, adultery against Christ, and murder of an unborn child." (Jerome, 4th century)
*"But who is not rather disposed to think that unformed fetuses perish like seeds which have not fructified ... And therefore the following question may be very carefully inquired into and discussed by learned men, though I do not know whether it is in man's power to resolve it: At what time the infant begins to live in the womb: whether life exists in a latent form before it manifests itself in the motions of the living being. To deny that the young who are cut out limb by limb from the womb, lest if they were left there dead the mother should die too, have never been alive, seems too audacious. Now, from the time that a man begins to live, from that time it is possible for him to die. And if he die, wheresoever death may overtake him, I cannot discover on what principle he can be denied an interest in the resurrection of the dead." (
Saint Augustine in Enchiridion early 5th century)
Middle Ages (476 AD to Renaissance)
*
1140 - The
monk John Gratian completed the
Concordia discordantium canonum (Harmony of Contradictory Laws) which became the first authoritative collection of
Canon law accepted by the
Church. In accordance with ancient scholars, it concluded the moral crime of early abortion was not equivalent to that of
homicide.
* c.
1200 -
Pope Innocent III wrote that when "quickening" occurred, abortion was
homicide. Before that, abortion was considered a less serious
sin.
*
1307–
1803 - According to
English common law, abortion prior to fetal movement or "quickening" was not punished.
*c.
1395 - The
Lollards, an English proto-Protestant group, denounce the practice of abortion in
The Twelve Conclusions of the Lollards.
*
1487 -
Malleus Maleficarum (
The Hammer of Witches), a
witch-hunting manual, is published in
Germany. It accuses
midwives who perform abortions of committing
witchcraft.
[Kramer, Heinrich, & Sprenger, Jacob. (1487). Malleus Maleficarum. (Montague Summers, Trans.). Retrieved June 3, 2006.]*
1588 -
Pope Sixtus V aligned
Church policy with
St. Thomas Aquinas' belief that
contraception and abortion were crimes against
nature and sins against
marriage.
*
1591 -
Pope Gregory XIV decreed that prior to 116 days (~17 weeks),
Church penalties would not be any stricter than local penalties, which varied from country to country.
Early Modern (Reformation to Industrial Age)
*
1842 - The
Shogunate in
Japan bans induced abortion in
Edo. The law does not effect the rest of the country.
*
1861 - The
British Parliament passes the
Offences Against The Person Act which outlaws abortion.
*
1869 -
Pope Pius IX declared that abortion under any circumstance was gravely immoral (
mortal sin), and, that anyone who participated in an abortion in any material way had by virtue of that act
excommunicated themselves from the
Church. In the same year, the
Parliament of Canada unifies
criminal law in all
provinces, banning abortion.
*
1873 - The passage of the
Comstock Law in the
United States makes it a crime to sell, distribute, or own abortion-related products and services, or to publish information on how to obtain them (see
advertisement of abortion services).
*
1820–
1900 - In the largely
Protestant United States, through the efforts primarily of physicians in the
American Medical Association and legislators, most abortions in the U.S. were outlawed.
*
1850–
1920 - During the fight for
women's suffrage in the U.S., some notable
first-wave feminists, such as
Susan B. Anthony,
Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and
Mary Wollstonecraft, espoused
pro-life views.
[ O'Beirne, Kate. (2005, January 8). "America's Earliest Feminists Opposed Abortion." Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved March 16, 2006.]Modern (Post-industrial to present)
*
1920 -
Lenin legalized all abortions in the
Soviet Union.
*
1935 -
Nazi Germany amends its
eugenics law,
Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring, to promote abortion for women who have a
congenital and
genetic disorders.
[Facing History and Ourselves. (n.d.). Timeline: Hitler's Notion of Building a Racial State. Retrieved June 22, 2006.]*
1935 -
Iceland became the first Western country to legalize therapeutic abortion under limited circumstances.
*
1936 -
Joseph Stalin reversed Lenin's legalization of abortion in the Soviet Union to increase
population growth.
*
1936 -
Heinrich Himmler, Chief of the
SS, creates the "Reich Central Office for the Combating of Homosexuality and Abortion". Himmler hoped to reverse a decline in the "
Aryan" birthrate which he attributed to
abortion and
homosexuality.
[United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. (n.d.). Homosexuals: Victims of the Nazi Era. Retrieved June 22, 2006. ]*
1938 - In
Britain,
Dr. Alec Bourne aborted the pregnancy of a young girl who had been
raped by
soldiers. Bourne was
acquitted after turning himself into authorities. The
legal precedent of allowing abortion in order to avoid
mental or
physical damage was picked up by the
Commonwealth of Nations.
*
1938 - Abortion is legalized on a limited basis in
Sweden.
*
1948 - The
Eugenic Protection Act in
Japan increases the circumstances in which abortion is allowed.
[ Status of abortion in Japan. (1967). IPPF Medical Bulletin, 1(6):3. Retrieved April 12, 2006.]*
1967 - The
Abortion Act in
Britain legalizes abortion in extremely limited cases.
California and
Colorado also become the first
U.S. states to legalize abortion.
*
1969 -
Canada begins to allow abortion for selective reasons.
*
1969 - The ruling in the
Victorian case of
R v Davidson defines for the first time which abortions are lawful in
Australia.
*
1969–
1973 - The
Jane Collective operates in
Chicago offering illegal abortions.
*
1970 -
New York legalizes abortion, to much opposition, primarily from
African-American activists.
*
1973 - The
U.S. Supreme Court, in
Roe v. Wade, declares all the individual state bans on abortion during the first trimester to be
unconstitutional.
*
1973–
1980 -
France (
1975),
West Germany (
1976),
New Zealand (
1977),
Italy (
1978), and the
Netherlands (
1980) legalized abortion in limited circumstances.
*
1979 -
The People's Republic of China enacts a
one-child policy, leaving some women to either undergo an abortion or violate the policy and face economic penalties in some circumstances.
*
1983 -
Ireland, by popular
referendum, adds an
amendment to its
Constitution recognizing "the right to life of the unborn." As before, abortions have remained illegal in Ireland, except for urgent medical purposes to save a woman's life.
*
1988 -
France legalizes the "abortion pill"
mifepristone (RU-486).
*
1993 -
Poland bans abortion, except in cases of
rape,
incest, severe
congenital disorders, or threat to the life of the pregnant woman.
*
1999 - In the
United States,
Congress passes a ban on
intact dilation and extraction, which President
Bill Clinton vetoes.
*
2000 -
Mifepristone (RU-486) approved by the U.S.
Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
*
2003 - The U.S. enacts the
Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act and
President George W. Bush signs it into law. Three
appeals courts find the law to be unconstitutional. The
Supreme Court is set to review it in
2006.
*
Abortifacient*
Abortion*
Abortion law*
Contraception*
Gynaecology*
History of medicine*
Self-induced abortion*
Obstetrics*Critchlow, Donald T.
The Politics of Abortion and Birth Control in Historical Perspective (1996)
* Critchlow, Donald T.
Intended Consequences: Birth Control, Abortion, and the Federal Government in Modern America (2001).
* Garrow, David J.
Liberty and Sexuality: The Right to Privacy and the Making of Roe V. Wade (1998)
* Hull, N.E.H.
Roe V. Wade: The Abortion Rights Controversy in American History (2001). Legal history.
* Mohr, James C.
Abortion in America: The Origins and Evolution of National Policy, 1800-1900 (1979)
* Staggenborg. Suzanne.
The Pro-Choice Movement: Organization and Activism in the Abortion Conflict. (1994)
* Rubin, Eva R. ed.
The Abortion Controversy: A Documentary History (1994)
* Hull, N.E.H.
The Abortion Rights Controversy in America: A Legal Reader (2004)
*
Text of the Roe v Wade decision from Findlaw*
Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973) (full text with links to cited material)
*
A Brief History of Abortion*
Abortion in Law, History & Religion*
Surgical Instruments from Ancient Rome
