History of Abortion in the United States

974 Words2 Pages

Before 1820 abortion was legal and practiced, despite the fact that it was a dangerous procedure and more often than not resulted in the death of the mother. it wasn't until after 1821 that abortion started to become regulated and laws were set in place (lewis 2011). in 1879 the first law to be set up was in Connecticut, it was targeted towards merchants that sold poisons to cause miscarriages and drugs to prevent pregnancy and banned the use of the products. By the late 1800s even though abortion was illegal in most states it was still done under the table. Most people didn't get persecuted for illegally performing an abortion, mostly because of a lack of proof that the abortion was performed. the fetus was often disposed of and without it there was no proof of an abortion. most of the time the only way an abortionist could be convicted was if the woman was injured or died during the procedure, other than that it was next to impossible for someone to be convicted (Macadam 2001). in 1967 colorado and callifornia became the first states to legalize abortion, and in 1973 the supreme court made abortion legal across the united states (McBride 2006). the 1965 Griswold v. Connecticut court case was a landmark case it involved the connecticut law from 1879 that banned the use of any drug used for birth control. the supreme court ruled that the use of contraceptives is protected under the right to marital privacy and government intrusion in the matter is unconstitutional. this right to decide whether or not to have a child applied only to married couples, the 1972 Eisenstadt v. Baird case changed that. in 1967 William Baird, after giving a lecture, gave a condom and a box of Emko Vaginal Foam to an unmarried 19 year old woman and ... ... middle of paper ... ...“How State Governments Are Regulating Away Abortion“. 17 january. http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-01-17/how-state-governments-are-regulating-away-abortion (DATE) glorasb. 2013 “The ‘hospital admitting privileges’ fraud” 6 november. http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/11/06/1253661/-The-hospital-admitting-privileges-fraud (DATE) Lohr, Kathy. 2013. “Clinics Close As Texas Abortion Fight Continues” 25 October. http://www.npr.org/2013/10/25/240547579/clinics-close-as-texas-abortion-fight-continues (DATE) Dudley, Jonathan. 2012.”How Evangelicals Decided That Life Begins at Conception” 5 November. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jonathan-dudley/how-evangelicals-decided-that-life-begins-at-conception_b_2072716.html (DATE) Andrusko, Dave. 2006. “Our Leader, Henry Hyde” May. http://www.nrlc.org/archive/news/2006/NRL05/EditorialPage2.html (DATE)

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