Abortion in the United States

In the first half of the nineteenth century, American women encountered relatively few legal and practical obstacles to obtaining an abortion, partly owing to the fact, no doubt, that theirs was a young and rapidly expanding nation where moral ideas retained a certain fluidity. Abortion legislation was slow in coming also because of the significance attached to the notion of quickening. Many ordinary people, and indeed professionals, felt that there was no moral principle involved until such time as the mother felt the child move within her. As a consequence, publishers of medical dictionaries could list methods designed to produce a self-induced abortion without attracting criticism. In 1821, Connecticut became the first state to enact law dealing with abortion, although its primary concern was to control the distribution of poisonous substances by apothecaries to women ‘quick with child’, who were not themselves indictable. Other states, for example Iowa in 1832, Missouri in 1835, and Ohio in 1841, also adopted similar measures, but only as minor insertions in omnibus legislation, and these remained largely unenforced.

It is possible to discern a significant change in the pattern of abortions after the middle of the century. There is evidence to suggest that the practice of abortion had become so widespread that as many as 20 per cent of pregnancies were being terminated, with practitioners like the infamous Madame de Restell running highly lucrative businesses. Furthermore, there was a change in the type of woman seeking abortion.