The History of Abortion

By Sarah Payne

Pharmaceutical or medical: Involves taking medication up to 63 days gestation, though some states limit this to 49 days.

Efficacy rate of 97% Cost: $300-$800

In-clinic Abortions: Aspiration or vacuum

aspirations. Used up to 16 weeks.

D&E- or dilation and evacuation most commonly used after 16 weeks.

Cost: $300-$1700

What are the types of abortion?3 types of abortion are available in the United States:

All of these types of abortions are normally more expensive in a hospital setting

First abortion recorded was from the Egyptian medical text the Ebers Papyrus, in 1550.

Earliest abortion ban dates to 11th century BC

The original Hippocratic Oath prohibited physicians from inducing elective abortions.

Aristotle held that abortion was ethical if performed in the first trimester.

Surgical abortion was not documented until the 19th century.

Pharmaceutical-induced abortion has been documented for thousands of years.

-Abortion quick facts:

Abortion

around the

world

New York, Washington, Hawaii and Alaska

Oregon, California, Colorado, New Mexico, Kansas, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, North and South Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware.

Alabama and Massachusetts

Mississippi

Breakdown of English common law and individual states

prior to Roe v. Wade (1973)Illegal; misdemeanor charge

Abortion in the Intermountain WestRates of abortion per state: 2008 2010 2011

UTAH: 4,000 3,540 3,290

IDAHO: 1,800 1,740 1,680

WYOMING: 90 90 120

NEVADA: 13,450 11,850 11,290

MONTANA: 2,230 2,220 2,220

COLORADO: 15.960 15,060 14,710

ARIZONA: 19,500 15,180 16,100

NEW MEXICO: 6,150 5,630 5,180

United States Legislation 1821- Connecticut made a law that targeted

apothecaries that sold poisons to women for abortion purposes.

1873- Comstock Law is passed to supervise the morality of the public.

Various anti-abortion laws have been on nearly every state statute book since 1900.

English common law was the general practice prior to 1973, where an abortion was legal prior to the feeling of fetal movement.

Roe V. Wade, the famous case that made abortion legal in the US in 1973. It ruled that states must allow abortion in early pregnancy, but had power to impose restriction on later term abortion availability.

Prominent Faces of Abortion:

Gerri Santoro: a victim of domestic violence in her marriage, left to start a new life over for her daughters and herself. She died in 1964 while trying to obtain an abortion from her partner-because abortion was criminalized in CT where she lived. A picture taken by police during the discovery of her death and was released to the media. It showed her bent over with a bloody towel between her legs. She hemorrhaged during the amateur attempt and died as a result.

Sherry Finkbine- was having trouble sleeping

during her 5th pregnancy. She took thalidomide-a tranquilizer that was brought home from Europe by her husband. This drug is known to cause major deformities in children who’d been exposed during gestation. After petitioning to a 3-member medical board, she was granted approval for an abortion. Thinking that other women needed access to this same right, she took her story to a local paper, under the condition of anonymity. The local paper then exposed her, causing the board to withdraw their approval, and sending Mrs. Finkbine to Sweden to obtain the abortion.

Recent Stats on Abortion:-Compared with 2000: Total abortions decreased by 6%.

Abortion rate decreased by 7%

-In 2005 abortion rates in the US were higher than reported rates for Canada and Western European countries, but lower than China, Cuba and the majority of Eastern Europe.

-In 2010 unmarried women accounted for 85% of abortions

-In 2010 women who’d never had a prior abortion accounted for 55.6%, while women who had 1-2 prior abortions accounted for 36.7% and women with 3 or more previous abortions accounted for 7.7%.

-89-92% of abortions occur during the first trimester(prior to the 13th week of gestation).

-A total of 784,507 abortions were reported to the CDC in 2009. Of those, 8 women died of complications related to the abortion. The maternal mortality rate in 2009 was 15.5%- or 640,253 women died in childbirth, out of the 4,130,665 births.

Recent Stats on reasons for Abortion

Social implications of abortion

Donahue and Levitt Study:

Donohue of Yale, and Levitt of University of Chicago co-wrote a paper titled, “The Impact of Legalized Abortion on Crime” . The hypothesis of this paper is that states that legalized abortion resulted in a reduction of crime. The theory behind this is that children who are unwanted, or whose parents are unequipped to take care of them are more likely to become criminals. This was considered a valid theory across not only their study, but also studies in Canada and Australia. Most notably in the US, males aged 18-24 are most likely to commit crimes. After the legalization in 1973, there is a distinct decline in crime in 1992 and then another sharp drop in 1995. These would be the peak crime-committing years of unborn children. While correlation does not equal causation, this definitely holds some validity.

Steven Levitt: American Economist

John J Donohue III:American Economist and lawyer

Unique laws regarding abortionOften called TRAP laws, these are regulations applying only to abortion clinics or practitioners. These include mandatory admitting privileges to nearby hospital for any physician performing abortions in a clinic setting, or enforcing the same standards as ambulatory surgical centers.

March 2012: 20 States now require that a woman seeking an abortion must have an ultrasound. Critics of this law challenge the value of having a medically unnecessary procedure, and make a good case that the transvaginal ultrasound, necessary to see a fetus in early gestation, fits some states' legal definition of rape-further inhibiting a woman’s right to choose what happens to her body.

Some states have recently tried to make abortion illegal as soon as a heartbeat can be detected(as early as 6 weeks)- these laws limit access to abortion, because home pregnancy tests normally won’t read positive until about 6 weeks- making an abortion illegal before the woman even knows she’s pregnant.

The state of South Dakota requires that a woman obtain mandatory counseling from an anti-abortion clinic during the waiting period. These waiting periods are normally from 1-6 days and multiple states have adopted them as law prior to getting an abortion.

Ad Campaigns surrounding abortion

Recent changes implemented for safer abortions

-A recent initiative(called R3M) passed in Ghana was in response to the high maternal mortality and morbidity rates that were largely driven by unsafe abortion practices and poor post-abortion care.Providers exposed to the new training initiative recounted that they were more confident in providing a safe abortion. From a recent study on the providers it found that confident providers had almost 8 times the odds of providing a safe abortion, and they were more likely to provide safe follow up care.

Dr. Willie Parker- one of two doctors who performs abortions at Jackson’s Women’s Health Org.-the ONLY women’s health clinic in Mississippi where abortions are performed. Parker, who is a devout Christian, feels he is doing the right thing to help women in need. “I feel absolutely certain that it is never wrong to help someone. When a woman needs a good obstetrician, there is no shortage of folk standing in line to deliver her baby, but when a woman is pregnant and she does not want to be, she also needs the same quality and level of healthcare. Because abortion is healthcare. In that regard, I never question whether or not I am doing the right thing. As a thoughtful person, I am always looking at my life and looking at every decision that I make to think it through and to be committed with the most integrity that I can to what I am doing.”