History of abortion - Women

May 22, 2012


		1 Introduction 2 Ancient (Prior to 476AD) 3 Pre-industrial 4 Post-industrial 5 See also 6 External links

Women's Health Women

History of abortion

Wikipedia

The history of abortion dates back to ancient times and has impacted men and women in a variety of ways in different times and places. Historically, it is unclear how often the ethics of abortion (induced abortion) was discussed, but under Christian influence the West generally frowned on abortion. By the late 19th century many nations had passed laws that banned abortion. In the later half of the 20th century some nations began to legalize abortion. This controversial subject has sparked heated debate and in some cases even violence.

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Ancient (Prior to 476AD)

There is anthropological evidence that abortion has been practiced beginning in Ancient_history|ancient times. Before the Middle Ages, women induced abortion with sharpened sticks, poisonous herbs, abdominal pressure, special exercises, and other techniques. Some ancient texts contain specific recipes for abortion or even descriptions of specialized medical instruments designed to remove a fetus from the womb. Some previous civilizations are thought to have tolerated even late-term abortions.

There were also opposing voices, most notably Hippocrates of Cos and the Roman Emperor Augustus. In contrast to their pagan evironment, Christians generally shunned abortion, drawing upon the Bible and early Christian writings such as the Didache (circa 100 A.D.), which says: "... thou shalt not murder a child by abortion nor kill the infant already born." http://www.ewtn.com/library/PATRISTC/ANF7-17.TXT. But Saint Augustine refers to Exodus when he says that abortion is not murder:

"And if men strive together, and hurt a pregnant woman, so that her fruit children come out, and yet no harm follows; the one who hit her shall surely be fined, according as the woman???s husband shall impose upon him; and he shall pay a fine as the judges determine. But if any harm follows, then you shall pay life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth." (Bible, Exodus 21:22-23)

"The fetus in the womb is . . . an object of God's care," and, "We say that women who induce abortions are murderers, and will have to give account of it to God." (Athenagoras, late 2nd century)

"In our case, murder being once for all forbidden, we may not destroy even the fetus in the womb." (Tertullian, late 2nd century)

"There are women who . . . are committing infanticide before they give birth to the infant." (Minucious Felix, early 3rd century)

"Those . . . who give drugs causing abortion are deliberate murderers themselves, as well as those receiving the poison which kills the fetus." (Basil, 4th century)

"They drink potions to ensure sterility and are guilty of murdering a human being not yet conceived. Some, when they learn that they are with child through sin, practice abortion by the use of drugs. Frequently they die themselves and are brought before the rulers of the lower world guilty of three crimes: suicide, adultery against Christ, and murder of an unborn child." (Jerome, 4th century)

"But who is not rather disposed to think that unformed fetuses perish like seeds which have not fructified ... And therefore the following question may be very carefully inquired into and discussed by learned men, though I do not know whether it is in man's power to resolve it: At what time the infant begins to live in the womb: whether life exists in a latent form before it manifests itself in the motions of the living being. To deny that the young who are cut out limb by limb from the womb, lest if they were left there dead the mother should die too, have never been alive, seems too audacious. Now, from the time that a man begins to live, from that time it is possible for him to die. And if he die, wheresoever death may overtake him, I cannot discover on what principle he can be denied an interest in the resurrection of the dead." (Augustine of Hippo|Saint Augustine in Enchiridion early 5th century)

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Pre-industrial

1140 - The monk Gratian (jurist)|John Gratian completed the Concordia discordantium canonum (Harmony of Contradictory Laws) which became the first authoritative collection of canon law accepted by the Roman Catholic Church|church. In accordance with ancient scholars, it concluded the moral crime of early abortion was not equivalent to that of homicide.

c. 1200 - Pope Innocent III wrote that when "quickening" occurred, abortion was homicide. Before that, abortion was considered a less serious sin.

1307–1803 - According to English common law, abortion prior to fetal movement or "quickening" was not punished.

c. 1395 - The Lollards, an English proto-Protestant group, denounce the practice of abortion in The Twelve Conclusions of the Lollards

1588 - Pope Sixtus V aligned Roman Catholic Church|church policy with St. Thomas Aquinas' belief that contraception and abortion were crimes against nature and sins against marriage.

1591 - Pope Gregory XIV decreed that prior to 116 days (~17 weeks), church penalties would not be any stricter than local penalties, which varied from country to country.

1820–1900 - In the largely protestant U.S., through the efforts primarily of physicians in the American Medical Association and legislators, most abortions in the U.S. were outlawed.

1861 - The Parliament of the United Kingdom|British Parliament passes the Offences Against The Person Act, which outlaws abortion.

1869 - Pope Pius IX declared that abortion under any circumstance was gravely immoral, and that anyone who participated in an abortion in any material way had by virtue of that act separated themselves from the church (excommunicated themselves).

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Post-industrial

1920 - Vladimir Lenin|Lenin legalized all abortions in the Soviet Union.

1935 - Iceland became the first Western country to legalize therapeutic abortion under limited circumstances.

1936 - Joseph Stalin reversed Lenin's legalization of abortion in the Soviet Union to increase population growth.

1938 - In Britain, Dr. Alec Bourne aborted the pregnancy of a young girl who had been raped by soldiers. Bourne was acquitted after turning himself into authorities. The legal precedent of allowing abortion in order to avoid mental or physical damage was picked up by the Commonwealth of Nations.

1967–1969 - Britain (1967) and Canada (1969) legalized abortion in extremely limited circumstances. California and Colorado (1967) become the first U.S. states to legalize abortion.

1969–1973 - The Jane Collective operates in Chicago offering illegal abortions.

1970 - New York (state)|New York legalizes abortion, to much opposition, primarily from African-American activists.

1971 - Lorraine Rothman invents the Del-Em, a safe, cheap suction device for early abortions.

1973 - The Supreme Court of the United States|U.S. Supreme Court declares all the individual state bans on abortion to be unconstitutional, effectively legalizing abortion and superseding the authority of local elected legislatures.

1973–1980 - France (1975), West Germany (1976), New Zealand (1977), Italy (1978), and the Netherlands (1980) legalized abortion in limited circumstances.

1979 - People's Republic of China enacts its one-child policy, making some women have to choose to undergo an abortion rather than violate the policy.

1983 - Ireland, by popular referendum, amends its Constitution to recognize "the right to life of the unborn."

1988 - France legalizes the "abortion pill" mifepristone (RU 486).

1999 - In the U.S., Congress of the United States|Congress passes a ban on partial-birth abortion, which President Bill Clinton vetoes.

2003 - The U.S. enacts a federal ban on partial-birth abortion, signed into law by President George W. Bush.

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