The Pros And Cons Of Abortion

Women who sought abortion prior to legalization either had it really easy or found their experience to be rough. Before abortion was legal, women went through many different channels to get it done, even if that meant doing it themselves. Performing the abortion themselves offered a few complications, such as death of the mother or the operation not being done completely. One of the ways women put themselves in harm’s way was through ingesting Savin which is the oil derived from Junipers. Consequently, if too much was ingested, the mother would die (Lecture).Women were able to even get an abortion from their physician without telling him/her what the real cause was. Since there was no definitive way of testing for pregnancy other than Quickening-

Medical manuals such as Domestic Medicine by William Buchan, were also found in the homes of Colonial women. In these manuals, many methods were found on how to unblock menses as well as explicit descriptions of home abortion methods. This loophole allowed women in late term pregnancies to try much riskier actions that are still frowned upon by doctors today, including: falling, vigorous exercise, strong hitting of the stomach and jumping, just to name a few (WA 206-207). Sadly, if the attempt was not successful, women would do just about anything to not keep the baby. Like some women today, many Colonial women would abandon their babies at Safe Havens (like a church) but some would leave them on random streets. Since the economy was terrible when the Civil War ended, babies ended up in dangerous places like gutters, dumpsters and rivers. The American Foster Care system was actually built off of women abandoning children to Orphanages who ultimately ended up on trains heading West, after the Civil War. Many women would also kill their child most likely by smothering or

Abortions were usually very expensive depending on the tending physician. The prices could fluxuate depending on the economic class of the mother, or even the father (WA 209-210). The first state to prohibit abortion was Connecticut until 1900 when every state had made abortion illegal. Men and women were given the recommendation to become/stay abstinent to prevent unwanted pregnancies, but that didn’t work out so well for couples of any age group. Young couples waited to get married because they could not afford a dowry or other expenses but wound up engaging in premarital sex without birth control due to the long wait for marriage. A married white woman who held the job and brought home the money to the household were the ladies getting the most abortions because they could quite literally not afford to give up their job. Single white women also had a large number of abortions but not as many as single black women. Since most single black women had lost their jobs, they would have their children but married black women used abortions just like white married women (ADGD