Abortion In The 19th Century

Abortions have been around forever, but let’s set aside bias opinions and dive into the history and what it has become to today! Abortion is the practice of terminating a pregnancy and has been conducted using varying methods throughout the world’s history; not only the act itself but the laws prohibiting it. These laws covered incidents including assaults that lead to miscarriages as well as self-induced miscarriages. Over the century’s, abortion laws have fluctuated in severity as well as how well they are enforced. Pre-modern abortion is a common misconception that abortion laws are something of the 20th century unlike todays methods, pre modern societies used herbal remedies as well as specific activities to bring about the desired miscarriage.
Most of these abortion methods specifically tonics, featured Creyne: a plant that caused premature birth, as an active ingredient. As a time reference there are Sanskrit texts, dated 8th century, instructing women on how to perform abortions. Interestingly enough the first laws against abortion were not focused on the preservation of life nor the mother, but the preservation of social class or to protect the fathers’ rights. These ancient abortion laws echoed the sad truth that people believed if you had a higher social class your life was worth slightly more, and punishment for this “crime” was usually gauged by what the victims rank in society was. An example of this are the Vedic and Smriti laws of India are more in place to preserve the male seed of their upper casts, these laws are enforced by religious courts where they dictate punishments for the women and persons who performed the abortion. Although abortion was relatively accepted by many Pagan religions and societies, Christianity shunned it. With the rise of Christianity the views on abortion started to shift as the mother and unborn child became center of attention. These relatively new views are now the norm in today’s society where fathers have nearly no rights on the decision to abort an unborn child when in pre-modern history it was the complete reverse. Modern abortion in the 19th century brought a new influx of medicines.
Fortunately, with these advancements came more efficient ways of terminating a pregnancy. Ironically, at the same time Victorian Mortality surged! Under Victorian Morality, abortions became a taboo, leading to their ban in most English speaking countries. The first law to specifically outlaw abortions was the Malicious shooting or stabbing act of 1803. Under this legislation any woman who received an abortion as well as any persons were conducting the procedure was sentenced the death penalty or 14 years imprisonment. With the growth in medical development, women began getting abortions more often. The 19th century saw not only a rise in abortion rates but abortions increasingly punished. The first sign of Anti-Abortion campaign surfaced in the United States, starting the 1820’s within a decade there were states that made abortions as weighty as a felony. Surprisingly many feminist were against the legalization of abortions up until the beginning of the reform in the 1920’s. The first act forgiving a mother who got an abortion was the Infant Life Preservation Act, which excused a mother whose sole purpose of the abortion was to carry on her own
life. Views on abortion in the United States remained the same up until the 1960s, women began organizing liberation movements. These organizations, consisted of women as well as medical professionals, sway to make abortions legal; hoping with the legality it would bring safer options for women getting abortions. This finally began to draw attention to the numbers of women who risked their lives and freedom to get these procedures often in risky health situations. By the early 1970’s, over ten states reformed and four states repealed restrictive abortion laws, Hawaii was the first state to legalize abortion on demand. As abortion stands in 2015, many countries have legalized abortions requested on demand. Here in the United States, the fight to legalize abortions is still being fought on a state to state basis, with many states reforming their laws each year. As you can see, within this brief overview of the history as well as a brief overview of the current legal status of abortion, I believe in pro life although the facts in history support the legalization of abortion. Certain circumstances leads to many different outcomes which can affect your decision.