abortion

=**Abortion in Early American History**=

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Abortion is closely rooted in the ideas of human rights. [Isn't the concept of human rights of a rather modern date?] The question has always been who has those rights, the child bearing mother or the unborn child [I think you are mistaken here! B.F.]. In respect to abortion in American history, Legal Rights were initially rooted in English Common Law through the Late 19th Century. There was little known knowledge of the exact moment of when a child was conceived. The law was a follows, abortion prior to quickening, or feeling life, was a misdemeanor, after quickening was a felony (Willke, 2006). In the early 1800s scientists discovered that life began at fertilization. In 1869 ‘Offenses Against the Persons Act’ was passed by British parliament. The individual states in the US began to follow the British example and Passed Laws against abortion (Review, 1979). =====

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In 1973 a landmark decision was made in regard to abortion laws in the case Roe v. Wade. The United States Supreme Court ruled, in Justice Harry Blackman’s words, the "right of privacy, whether it be founded in the Fourteenth Amendment's concept of personal liberty and restrictions upon state action, as we feel it is, or, as the District Court determined, in the Ninth Amendment's reservation of rights to the people, is broad enough to encompass a woman's decision whether or not to terminate her pregnancy” (Roe v. Wade, 2007). =====

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In the second half of the 19th century abortion was the solution that women chose in response or little or no knowledge of birth control. As Margareta Sanger notes in her 1917 article “The Case for Birth Control” “[K]knowledge of the methods of controlling birth was accessible to the women of wealthy while the working class women were deliberately kept in ignorance of that knowledge” (Sanger, 2002). This suppression of knowledge was supported by the Comstock Act “… which made it illegal to send any ‘obscene, lewd, and/or lascivious’ materials through the mail, including contraceptive devices and information. In addition to banning contraceptives, this act also banned the distribution of information on abortion for educational purposes” (Comsotck Laws, 2009). Margareta Sanger was arrested under this Act for her article “The Case for Birth Control”. =====

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Women would feel it necessary to abort children for many reasons. A primary known reason for abortions was to keep from birthing children outside the constraint s of marriage. Many married couples simply could not afford to support children that the produced. Many women of similar circumstance wrote letters to Margareta Sanger in an appeal for help. “…I tried a number of times last year not to overbreed the world myself but you can’t imagine how luckless I am” (Peiss, 2002). =====

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What little information the general public had about abortion came mostly from news papers. Countless ads were posted in the paper offering different means for abortion in many round about ways. Women were offered pills and special visits that promised to cause an abortion. “Therefore ladies who desire an increase of family should not use them. If after this caution any lady in a certain situation should use them, she must hold herself responsible for the abortion which will surely follow” (French Periodical Pills, 1845). These types of ads were also considered illegal under the Comstock Act. In the mid to late 1800’s Ann Lohman, known as Madame Restell served as a mid-wife and abortionist. She found much of her success from her extensive advertising. It is estimated that in 1870 her advertising expenditures reached $60,000 (Histroy of Abortion, 2009). =====

Medical History
In early American history there were two main practices used to induce abortions. One method was through the use of abortifacients and through the use of midwives. All of these methods were very dangerous and often times caused the death of the women who were terminating their pregnancy. In 1869, Eugene Caves reported the death “Double Murder “ as he phrased it, of a fifteen your old girl. Through the use of a mid-wife and abortifacient pills she attempted to abort her fetus. Like many other women of the time, her efforts resulted not only the abortion of her fetus but her imminent death (Caves, 2002).