Abortion History in the United States

Abortion is certainly not a new topic and has been around for as along as women have been experiencing unwanted pregnancies. These situations have forced women of all ages, races, and cultures to seek treatment or attempt to treat themselves in order to terminate the pregnancy. In many cases, this unprofessional treatment led to infection, sterility, or even death as the techniques used were crude and hasty due to the illegality of the procedure. The first laws appeared in the early 1820s and regarded women who attempted to seek late term terminations. This law prohibited women to have a termination after the fourth month of gestation. Of course, laws did not prevent women from seeking illegal (or back alley) terminations or attempting to end the pregnancy by their own hand in their own home. It was not until the Comstock law came onto the books that advocates truly began to voice their opinions and concerns.

The Comstock law prohibited women from using any method of birth control. Additionally, the education and information of birth control methods and devices was banned. For this reason, pregnancy rates sky rocketed, many of which were unwanted pregnancies where the woman was unable or unwilling to carry the child to term. This law was later overturned due much protest and debate led by famous women’s rights activists, including Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Susan B. Anthony was against the Comstock law, but was strongly against abortions. Oddly enough, it was her actions that began the pro abortion case.

The most famous case in the history of the United States was the landmark Roe versus Wade decision made by the Supreme Court in the early 1970s. This decision granted a woman and her doctor the right to seek trminations within the first two trimesters of the gestation of her pregnancy. The case saw a single female residing in the state of Texas who sought a termination in order to end her unwanted pregnancy. Since the termination was for personal reasons instead of medical ones, she was denied an abortion, which the state of Texas deemed illegal.

Also read our article about Abortion Essays