Abortion In The 1800s

Abortion

Have you ever stopped to think about how many children there are in the world without a family or home? In the United States abortion was used up until the 1880s (Abramson). By this time most of the states had banned abortion unless it was to save the life of the mother (Abramson). With the decline in the birthrate of whites in the 1800s, the United States government feared a “race suicide” (Abramson). The government wanted United States born women to reproduce to save them from this fear (Abramson). Women still had abortions performed on them while it was illegal (Abramson). Though for these women it was hard to find a safe abortion and even then trying to find someone to perform the abortion depended on the women’s economic situation, her race, and where she lived

Women of the time whom had money could hire a physician for a extremely high fee, but the women who lacked the funds for the procedure were left with back alley amateurs (Abramson). Women who had the back alley abortions were at a great risk for infection that could lead to their death (Abramson). When poor women couldn’t find a willing soul to perform the procedure they turned to self abortion (Abramson). Many of these women used techniques such as inserting a knitting needle or the one that is normally heard of, a coat hanger into the vagina and uterus (Abramson). They would pour the instruments with dangerous solutions or they would swallow strong medications to prevent them from feeling the intense pain they would feel while performing this procedure themselves (Abramson). Due to the criminalization of abortion many women were subject to depression, shame and fear (Abramson). Prohibiting abortions cause a heavy toll to be taken on women’s lives and health. Unofficially many deaths were attributed to these unsafe and illegal abortions (Abramson). There hasn’t been an exact number found of how many deaths were caused by these half fast illegal abortions