A Not So Brief History of Abortion

Ebers Medical Papyrus includes herbal contraceptive, suppositories, and the “first recorded evidence” of induced abortion.

Aristotle advocates inducing abortion “before sense and life have begun in the embryo” if conception occurs in excess of the limit (of population)

Abu al-Hasan al-Tabib, a Persian physician, advocated abortion for pregnancies of girls under 15 because of the uterus size and risk to girl’s health.

U.S medical world looks very different from Europe. Many health practitioners practice “physik”, folk medicine, and some communities’ medical practice are women led

Russia first country to allow abortion on demand.

Germany, Mexico, Iceland, and Sweden are next countries in line after Russia to legalize abortion- but do not provide abortion on demand. Some legalize in cases of rape and incest, others cite grave danger to the mother as legal reasons.

The American Law Institute (ALI) drafts a model state abortion law to make legal abortions accessible

Colorado legalized some abortions, with 14 states following- all with strict conditions.

Canada passed the Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1968-69, which began to allow abortion for selective reasons

The Indian Parliament under the Prime Ministership of Indira Gandhi, passes Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act 1971 (MTP Act 1971). India becomes one of the earliest nations to pass this Act. The Act gains importance, considering India had traditionally been a very conservative country in these matters. Most notably no similar Act in several US states exists around the same time.

U.S Supreme Court rules that a woman’s right to privacy includes her right to decide, so long as it’s balanced against the state’s two legitimate interests- prenatal life and women’s health- meaning states can ban or restrict abortion after “viability” except when necessary to save the individual’s life.

Hyde amendment, a legislative rider, prevents federal Medicaid fund from being used to pay for abortion, except in the cases of rape or incest

France first country to legalize RU-486

A Chinese record documents the number of royal concubines who had abortions in China

Hippocratic Oath prohibits the administration of an abortive suppository or pessary. That statement will be mistranslated and selectively interpreted for centuries to come. Other parts of the Hippocratic treatise prescribe abortions using manual manipulation

Mishnah, a written account of Jewish law mentions “root potions” and abortions and says “man is commanded concerning propagation but not woman” suggesting that though men have the responsibility of spreading their seed, women don’t hold the responsibility of letting them take root.

Scientific Revolution forces women into the hypothetical limelight of reproduction. Church laws will follow suit, claiming the use of abortifacients to be a “quasi homicide” and mortal sin.

Sir Edward Coke formulates the "born alive rule", in common law, which holds that various criminal laws, such as homicide and assault, apply only to a child that is "born alive".

During the fight for women's suffrage in the U.S., some notable first-wave feminists, such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Mary Wollstonecraft, opposed abortion

German Nazi Regime considers abortion of an Aryan pregnancy a capitol offense punishable by death, but allows for abortions in the case of deformity of disability.

The Birth Control Federation of America, founded by Margaret Sanger, became Planned Parenthood. In early years P.P will oppose abortion, with one early brochure declaring “Abortion is wrong way to limit family size.” Today P.P is largest U.S provider.

According to Center For Reproductive Rights, 61% of the world’s people live in countries where induced abortion is permitted either for a wide range of reasons or without restriction as to reason. In contrast, 26% of all people reside in countries where abortion is generally prohibited.

The World Health Organization publishes Guttmacher Institute declaration that nearly half of all abortions worldwide are unsafe, 98% of unsafe abortions occur in developing countries, that as a whole over half (56%) of the abortion in the developing world are unsafe, compared with 6% of abortions in the developed world being considered unsafe.