buckeye-elo@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
wrote:
> PART 6
> EARLY AMERICA
> ***, MARRIAGE, CHILDREN, GAYS, LESBIANS, BOYS AS GIRLS, ABORTION,
> BREECHING, FAMILY AND OTHER MYTHS
>
>
> ABORTION:
>
> A matter of historical fact, abortion were perfectly legal in this
country
> at the time of the framing of the Constitution, its ratification,
framing
> of the BORs and their ratification. Abortion remained legal for approx
100
> year after that, and was perfectly acceptable to the churches of the
day,
> so long as such took place before the "quickening" which usually was
arou=
nd
> the 4th or sometimes 5th month.
>
> Interesting side note as to why pressure was finally mounted to declare
> such illegal is that it was pure politics. The relatively new AMA wanted
=
to
> drive mid wives out of business, wanted to force doctors to join their
> organizations, so they began courting politicians with money etc. Said
> politicians then passed laws that made wet nurses illegal, abortions
> illegal, unless performed by a doctor or at his advice, etc.
> Here is one source:
>
> Abortion in America: The Origins and Evolution of National Policy, by
Jam=
es
> C. Mohr. Oxford University Press, (1978 -- hardback, 1979--paperback)
> ISBN 0-19-502616-0
>
> Chapters are as follows:
> Abortion in America, 1800 - 1825
> The First Wave of Abortion Legislation, 1821 - 1841
> The Great Upsurge of Abortion, 1840 - 1880
> The Social Character of Abortion in America, 1840 - 1880
> The Transitional Legislation of, 1840 - 1860
> The Physicians Crusade Against Abortion, 1857 - 1880
> Public Opinion and the Abortion Issue, 1860 - 1880
> Anti-Abortion Legislation, 1860 - 1880
> Anti-Abortion as American Policy, 1880 -1900
>
> Appendices
> Case Studies from Medical Publications Involving Abortions in
the
> United States, 1839 - 1879
> Case Studies from Medical Publications Involving Abortions in
the
> United States, 1880 - 1900
>
> Anti-Abortion Activity on the part of State and Local Medical Societies.
>
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D
>
> Another source is:
>
> Intimate Matters, A History Of ***uality In America, by John D'Emilio &
> Estelle B. Freedman, Perennial Library (1988)
>
> --------- ----------- --------- ----
>
> Although few women left records of their abortion experiences, other
> sources suggest that the incidence of abortion increased significantly
in
> the nineteenth century. Estimates by reformers show that between 1800
and
> 1830, one abortion occurred for every twenty-five to thirty-five live
> births. By the 1850s the pro****tion had increased to as many as one
> abortion per every five to six live births. Some doctors pointed to
higher
> rates of stillbirths as proof that more women were using abortifacients.
=
It
> is possible that abortion began to supplant infanticide as a last resort
> for women who could not raise children. In at least one city,
infanticide
> rates decreased markedly during the late nineteenth century.(25) Many
> doctors attributed the increase in abortions to married women who wished
=
to
> limit family size, rather than to the traditional clients, unmarried
women
> seeking to avoid the stigma of illegitimate birth. As one professor of
> medicine explained in 1857, abortion now involved not only those "who
have
> been deceived and ensnared by the seducer" but also "the virtuous and
the
> intelligent wife and mother." A re****t issued by the Michigan Board of
> health in 1878 estimated that one-third of all pregnancies in the state
> ended in abortion, and that seventy to eighty percent were secured
> by "prosperous and otherwise respectable married women." (26)
>
> In the early nineteenth century, neither doctors, women, nor judges
> necessarily condemned these practices as long as they were performed
with=
in
> the early months of pregnancy. According to the prevalent doctrine of
> "quickening," life did not begin until a woman felt the fetus move
within
> her, **after about three months.** (EMPHASIS MINE ) Laws enacted
between
> 1820 and 1840 to regulate abortion retained the quickening doctrine. . .
> Even when the state did prosecute for illegal abortion, the courts
remain=
ed
> tolerant, as was the case in Mass., where not one conviction resulted
from
> thrity-two abortion trials between 1849 and 1857. Between 1860 and 1890,
> however, forty states and territories enacted antiabortion statues, many
=
of
> which rejected the quickening doctrine, placed limitations on
> advertisements, and help transfer the authority for abortion from women
to
> doctors. (27) The new antiabortion laws, like the Comstock Act placed
> obstacles in the way of controlling reproduction, but women and married
> couples attempted to overcome them.
> Intimate Matters, A History Of ***uality In America, by John D'Emilio &
> Estelle B. Freedman, Perennial Library (1988) pp 65-66.
>
-------------------------------------------------------------------------=
-----------
>
> In the absence of any legislation whatsoever on the subject of abortion
in
> the United States in 1800, the legal status of the practice was governed
=
by
> the traditional British common law as interpreted by the local courts of
> the new American states. For centuries prior to 1800 the key to the
common
> law's attitude toward abortion had been a phenomenon associated with
norm=
al
> gestation known as quickening. Quickening was the first perception of
fet=
al
> movement by the pregnant woman herself. **Quickening generally occurred
> near the midpoint of gestation, late in the fourth or early in the fifth
> month, though it could and still does vary a good deal from one woman to
> another.** (EMPHASIS MINE) The common law did not formally recognize
the
> existence of a fetus in criminal cases until it had quickened. After
> quickening, the expulsion and destruction of a fetus without due cause
was
> considered a crime, because the fetus itself had manifested some
semblance
> of a separate existence: the ability to move. The crime was
qualitatively
> different from the destruction of a human being, however, and punished
le=
ss
> harshly. Before quickening, actions that had the effect of terminating
wh=
at
> turned out to have been an early pregnancy were not considered criminal
> under the common law in effect in England and the United States in
1800.'
> Abortion in America: The Origins and Evolution of National Policy, by
Jam=
es
> C. Mohr. Oxford University Press, (1978 -- hardback, 1979--paperback)
pp
> 3-4
>
-------------------------------------------------------------------------=
--------
> Carol Lee Smith contributed the following:
>
> Quickening: "Mothers who have already felt movement in a previous
> pregnancy are usually able to perceive quickening earlier (at
> approximately 16 weeks) while first time mothers feel it a bit later (at
> 18 weeks).
>
> Pregnancy is 10 lunar months long, approximately 280 days. 16 wks would
> equal four lunar months and 18 would be half way thru the 5th lunar
month.
>
> quickening:
>
> forgot to include the url:
> http://www.parentsplace.com/pregnancy/trimester2/qa/0,3105,13224,00.html
>
> 16 weeks from LMP would be about 14 weeks
>
> 12 weeks would be a full three LUNAR months. 16 weeks would be four
full
> LUNAR months.
>
> 14 weeks would be smack dab in the middle of the fourth lunar month.
>
> As the website I posted indicated, many women, especially those pregnant
> for the first time, have difficulty distingui****ng between bowel
rumblings
> and fetal rumblings.
>
> ***************************************************************
> You are invited to check out the following:
>
> The Rise of the Theocratic States of America
> http://members.tripod.com/~candst/theocracy.htm
>
> American Theocrats - Past and Present
> http://members.tripod.com/~candst/theocrats.htm
>
> The Constitutional Principle: Separation of Church and State
> http://members.tripod.com/~candst/index.html
>
> [and to join the discussion group for the above site and/or Separation
of
> Church and State in general, listed below]
>
> HRSepCnS =B7 Hampton Roads [Virginia] SepChurch&State
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HRSepCnS/
>
> [Its not just Hampton Roads folks who are members, there are members
from
> all over the US and a couple from overseas as well]
>
> ***************************************************************
> . . . You can't understand a phrase such as "Congress shall make no law
> respecting an establishment of religion" by syllogistic reasoning.
Words
> take their meaning from social as well as textual contexts, which is why
=
"a
> page of history is worth a volume of logic." New York Trust Co. v.
Eisne=
r,
> 256 U.S. 345, 349, 41 S.Ct. 506, 507, 65 L.Ed. 963 (1921) (Holmes, J.).
> Sherman v. Community Consol. Dist. 21, 980 F.2d 437, 445 (7th Cir. 1992)
> . . .
> ****************************************************************
> USAF LT. COL (Ret) Buffman (Glen P. Goffin) wrote
>
> "You pilot always into an unknown future;
> facts are your only clue. Get the facts!"
>
> That philosophy 'snipit' helped to get me, and my crew, through a good
> many combat missions and far too many scary, inflight, emergencies.
>
> It has also played a significant role in helping me to expose the
> plethora of radical Christian propaganda and lies that we find at
> almost every media turn.
>
> *****************************************************************
> THE CONSTITUTIONAL PRINCIPLE:
> SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE
>
> http://members.tripod.com/~candst/index.html
> ****************************************************************
I tried sending this before but the effort failed. I hope this gets
through. Part of a paper I wrote 20 years ago on Women in Medicine.
Hubbard C. Goodrich
Abortion was a common method used to limit family size or to escape
the shame of a 'sinful' act. Though frowned upon, abortion was
considered neither illegal nor immoral until the 1800s. Of the 32
accused abortionists brought to trial between 1849-58 in Boston, no one
was convicted. If quickening was detected, any act to abort might be a
misdemeanor if anything. It has been estimated that 20% of all
pregnancies ended in induced or accidental abortion during the first
half of the 1800s and 25% by 1850. Any warnings about abortion were
directed to the very real dangers to the mothers, not the unborn fetus.
Poisons were used with the idea that you take just enough to kill the
fetus but not the mother. As the chemicals were impure and dosages
inexact, many mothers died. The first law passed in 1821 in Connecticut
was specifically designed to protect the mother and was against the use
of chemicals to halt a pregnancy, not abortion itself.
After 1830 there was an apparent explosion in the use of abortion. It
must have been a desperate decision especially for married women whose
primary goal, they were told, was to be the moral guardian of children,
family and society. Poor women were especially despairing referring to
pregnancy as the "curse of God". One child or two might be acceptable
but the annual progression of pregnancy, birth and child care in the
midst of poverty already on the edge of survival was more than many
wished to accept. Mothers had to nourish and house their children. Each
birth diminished food and shelter available to all. A new child often
meant pu****ng the oldest out into the streets to live as it might. If
employable, a seasonally incapacitated wife provided less income to the
family already facing economic disaster. (Husbands like as not were
down at the local saloon.) Prostitution and thievery obviously were
often seen as more appealing than starvation. Even though the wealthy
could usually find a sympathetic doctor to help them with their
problems, women at all social levels resorted to unknown home
concoctions, foreign instruments, and exercises to abort an unwanted
child. Newspapers were filled with advertisements for potions one could
take to solve a "woman's complaint", "menstrual blockage", and as a
"sure cure for ladies in trouble". For a fee, a consultation would see
to your private needs.
Ann T. Lohman was an especially well known doctress of abortion. (See
also Madam Castello [f 1841] and Madam Demain [f 1842].) Ann Trow
Lohman [1812-78] advertised in the papers as "Madam Restell" and
offered to cure women's diseases. She was born in England and moved to
NYC in 1831. By 1836 she was advertising patent medicine and
anti-conception information. She had a thriving business and became
quite wealthy. She advertised as a doctress which made it very
difficult for regular women doctors who wanted to set up medical
practice and advertise and attract patients. In 1841 Ann was arrested,
tried and convicted for an abortion that apparently led to the death of
the mother. She continue in practice and was tried again in 1847, and
again in 1855. Ann eventually committed suicide.
Efforts were made and techniques suggested before the Civil War on the
ways to limit the number of offspring. With the invention of vulcanized
rubber (1840s), condoms and diaphragms were becoming more common for
the well-to-do but there was no quality control and their reputations
suffered. The strength of objections to abortion increased. Doctors
were especially vocal in establi****ng their authority over any medical
problem. They did not like to see untrained people performing
procedures they thought fell within their province. They strove to
legislate away the practice of abortion (and also prostitution,
****ography etc) as a moral crusade. Only doctors, they argued, had the
knowledge and training to decide who should or should not have an
abortion.
Dr. Horatio Storer was a leading advocate for the criminalization of
abortion. Starting in 1857 he led the national drive by the AMA to pass
legislation against abortion. He used "ethnic death" as a tactic to
frighten those who believed poor immigrants were out-populating
Anglo-Americans. Forty anti-abortion statutes were passed. It was not
really a moral issue. Each law had a "therapeutic" exception which
allowed regular doctors to perform abortions based on their best
medical judgement. Only the poor suffered as the wealthy continued to
find reasons for obtaining abortions as a therapeutic release from
distress.
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