The Social Circumstances that Criminalized Abortion in the 19th Century

Abstract

To say abortion is a controversial subject is an understatement. While there was no federal law against abortion in the 19^thcentury, the majority of the states in the U.S. introduced anti-abortion laws after the Comstock Laws outlawed the drugs and practices that made abortion possible in 1873.[1] Legal or not, women have been subject to unrelenting criticism regarding the termination of unwanted pregnancies for centuries. To form realistic conclusions about abortion in the 19^thcentury, it is essential to take into consideration far more than the dispute of morality. Regulation of abortive practices was, as this paper will indicate, less about medical safety and gestational awareness than sexual inequality and racial disparities; the aim of this research is to determine the social circumstances that influenced the conceptualization of abortion and inspired legal action against it.

[1] https://www.loc.gov/law/help/statutes-at-large/42nd-congress/session-3/c42s3ch258.pdf