Dangers of Abortion in Angus McLaren's Article 'Illegal Operations: Women, Doctors and Abortion'

Dangers of Abortion in Angus McLaren's Article 'Illegal Operations: Women, Doctors and Abortion'

Angus McLaren, author of “Illegal Operations: Women, Doctors, and Abortion” demonstrates the life of an abortionist in the late 1800’s to the mid 1900’s. McLaren explains a series of affairs in detail with many different abortionists. Since abortion was illegal at the time, many women consulted midwives, or took the procedure of abortion among themselves, this at times resulted in their death.

The articles purpose is to use legal sources to explore the decision to abort while the state, and the professions took a serious interest in the fertility control decisions of women. What is being argued is the fate of women burdened with unwanted pregnancies whose well-being was placed at risk by the law.

Midwives, herbalists, and masseuses performed most abortions. Therefore, most of these people were convicted. Most women supported other abortionists, but in some cases women would accuse others of aborting or attempting to abort. McLaren argues that abortions came only to the attention of authorities when something went wrong. This supports her feelings that women’s well-being was jeopardized around this particular time, especially poor, or single women. For example, single, or poor women were reported more often than private patients by hospital staff. McLaren also mentions that women were not given the opportunity to abort properly by professionals and therefore conducted their own operations, or visit a midwife, or herbalists.

McLaren accuses doctors of neglecting women who wanted to abort because of the responsibility that came with the operation. All doctors couldn’t legally perform the operation; other professionals and t...

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...you don’t have any self-respect why should others respect you. Another factor that I feel was ignored was that women were well aware of the consequences that followed abortion or the attempt to abort, so if you’re aware of the consequences of your own actions, you hold complete responsibility. The impression you get from reading this article is that women irresponsibly got pregnant without any regard for the consequences, then took matters into their own hands, and finally had no choice but to see a professional.

The problem with the author’s argument is that the only way to agree that the well-being of women was jeopardized is to be a pro-abortionist. If a pro-abortionist reads the article, it’s only obvious that they’ll agree that women were mistreated at this time. Wouldn’t a pro-abortionist expect all the proper treatment for a woman who chooses to abort?