The History of Abortion

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Abortion is a medical practice to terminate a woman's pregnancy in the first 3 months. The history of abortion starts father before the pinnacle case of Roe v Wade in 1973. The supreme court made it legal to get an abortion and this is seen as an important turning point for the american health care policies for women. Before this court case to render it legal it had been performed for thousands of years and in every society known. It was legal when settlers first came to the united states before the Constitution abortion was openly advertised and performed on a regular basis. Abortion makes its history back to the mid 1800s when states started to make abortion illegal. The fear that the states had in the 1800s were that the population would be dominated by the children of immigrants which had higher birth rates. In the 1800s mostly all surgical procedures including abortions were seen to be extremely risky. Hospitals that provided such services were not common and all the antiseptics were unknown. The most respectable doctors had little to no knowledge about this procedure. Due to the lack of technology in that time period the maternal and infant mortality rate was extremely high. Yet, the dangers of abortion were the same dangers that other legal surgeries also had. Scientific methods to help this practice began to be a popular subject. Technologies were invented to prevent infection and the medical practices began to become safer. At this time the women that needed to get abortions had to go to illegal practitioners to get this procedure. The term used was “back alley” abortions due to the prohibition of abortion from the 1800 to the 1973 court case. Back alley abortions were dangerous and in most cases deadly whereas in a legal...

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... Casey in 1992 prevented and restricted abortions from fetuses that can live outside the womb known as pre-viability abortions. Also the restriction of timing on abortion came to a decision when a restriction can prevent abortion after the first trimester in non medically necessary procedures. Not all women feel that abortion is the best choice but all women have a choice to decide whether they want to or not. Abortion is a simple procedure which terminates pregnancies. Through time around the world this procedure has been a part of our health care. Options do exist for women that do not want to be impregnated and get an unplanned pregnancy such as adoption or keeping the child. Statistically 43% of American women will have one or more abortions during their lifetime which calculates to an estimated million times per year which shows the great demand for abortion.

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