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Abortion History

"I think it’s safe to say that the entire abortion industry is based on a lie … I am dedicated to spending the rest of my life undoing the law that bears my name."Roe v. Wade¹

—Norma McCorvey, "Jane Roe" of Roe v. Wade

The 1973 Roe v. Wade decision imposed abortion-on-demand throughout the United States. But that decision did not mark the beginning of abortion in mainstream society. In fact, the history of abortion reaches back not just decades, but centuries, and even millenniums. To comprehend the issue of abortion completely, we must understand its historic context.

From Ancient Times

Abortion was present even in ancient times. Under Roman rule "[n]ot only [was] … abortion permitted; [but also] infanticide. The shriveled remains of exposed babies could be found in every countryside of the [Roman] Empire…"² Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun referred to this culture in Roe v. Wade: "Greek and Roman law afforded little protection to the unborn … Ancient religion did not bar abortion."³

Limited records indicate that early Americans used abortion as well. "Solid statistics concerning early abortion and unwed pregnancy are unavailable," Dr. Marvin Olasky writes in Abortion Rites: A Social History of Abortion in America, "but I have looked at enough pre-1800 records of infanticide and abortion to see a pattern." Samplings of those records include a 1648 execution for infanticide in Massachusetts, a 1652 conviction for intention to abort in Maryland, abortifacient use in the 1680s, and a 1719 murder of a newborn in New York. Additionally, in a study of colonial Massachusetts records, only about 2 percent of all children were illegitimate, yet 90 percent of murdered newborns were illegitimate.⁴

But overall, in America’s early years abortion was recognized as a negative phenomenon and an attack on human life. To combat this, early American colonies adopted laws drawn from English common law, which declared abortion prior to quickening (feeling life) a misdemeanor, and after quickening a felony. In 1869, the British Parliament passed the "Offenses Against the Persons Act." It pushed the felony punishment back to fertilization—the point at which scientific evidence proved life begins. During the same time period, every existing state passed its own law against abortion.⁵

Foundations for the 20^th Century

As the legal system increasingly recognized the sanctity of life in the 19^th century, philosopher Thomas Malthus developed his theories on population growth and economic stability. He took a very different perspective. In An Essay on the Principle of Population, Malthus wrote: "All children born, beyond what would be required to keep up the population to a desired level, must necessarily perish … we should facilitate … the operations of nature in producing this mortality."⁶

Margaret Sanger was an avid follower of Malthus. She embraced his view that the weak should be purged from society to maintain order.

"The most merciful thing a large family can do to one of its members is to kill it."

—Margaret Sanger, founder of Planned Parenthood⁷

In The Pivot of Civilization, she "unashamedly called for the elimination of ‘human weeds,’ for the cessation of charity, for the segregation of ‘morons, misfits, and the maladjusted’ and for the sterilization of ‘genetically inferior races.’"⁸ Sanger also endorsed the euthanasia, sterilization, abortion and infanticide programs of Hitler’s Third Reich.⁹

n 1916, Sanger founded the Planned Parenthood Federation of America—which called for legalized abortion. Her anti-family, pro-promiscuity, pro-contraceptive and pro-abortion views slowly grew in popularity and acceptance throughout the first half of the century.

In 1939, Sanger outlined her plan to eliminate the Black community. She argued that:

The most successful, educational appeal to the Negro is through a religious appeal. We do not want word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population, and the minister is the man who can straighten out that idea if it ever occurs to any of their rebellious members.¹⁰

Kinsey’s Contributions

Throughout the 20^th century, Planned Parenthood gained ground, and Alfred Kinsey’s fraudulent theories on human sexuality afforded legitimacy to Planned Parenthood and its allies. Kinsey’s studies, Sexual Behavior in the Human Male and Sexual Behavior in the Human Female, were published in 1948 and 1953 respectively.

Kinsey argued that children are sexual from birth, and he "proved" his theory through data gathered during the systematic sexual abuse of children. Not only was Kinsey a "sadomasochistic homosexual on a perverted mission," he also advocated an "amoral new order—possible only if human life is unhinged from the divine." Kinsey promoted, with the "fraudulent data of his ‘studies,’ the abandonment of absolutes in the social or juridical reasoning of America’s Judeo-Christian moral system."¹¹

Together, the agendas of Malthus, Sanger, Kinsey—and other militant pro-abortion groups such as the National Association for Repeal of Abortion Laws (NARAL)¹² and the Population Council—slowly permeated American culture and led to the Supreme Court’s fateful decision in 1973.

The Decision that Changed a Nation

Although abortion spans history, the 20th century response is unique. Now, not only does the government allow abortion, it has placed its stamp of approval on the practice of killing the unborn. It has allowed a largely unregulated industry to be built upon the premise that life in the womb has no value.

In 1955, Planned Parenthood held a secret abortion conference,¹³ which declared war against the "epidemic" of "back-alley" abortions. It claimed that thousands of women were dying from botched abortions occurring on the black market. And the only way to save women’s lives was to decriminalize abortion.¹⁴

Dr. Melvin Schwartz, an early abortion-rights proponent, strove to further the cause by advocating the removal of moral considerations from the medical field. In an editorial urging Missouri to decriminalize abortion, he wrote:

The decision should be a medical one … In Missouri we live under many antiquated laws written by non-medical zealots who have confused medical necessity with their own interpretation of the moral values of the day. The result of the decision can have a tremendous effect on the physical and psychological well-being of the pregnant woman involved. The decision is … not theological—not political.¹⁵

Lobbying efforts by pro-abortion groups began to gain ground in the late 1960s and early 1970s. By April 1970, one-fifth of the states had approved measures allowing abortion—in extreme conditions only. However, New York, California, Hawaii and Alaska had more liberal laws. In fact, California’s loose interpretation of "mental health" essentially allowed abortion-on-demand.¹⁶

"Our nationwide policy of abortion-on-demand through all nine months of pregnancy was neither voted on by our people nor enacted by our legislators."

—President Ronald Reagan, Abortion & the Conscience of the Nation, 1984.

In 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its Roe v. Wade decision. The woman at the center of the lawsuit, Norma McCorvey ("Jane Roe"), had challenged Texas’ abortion law in 1969. At the time, she was pregnant and wanted an abortion—which was illegal. According to McCorvey, political opportunists grabbed hold of her case in an effort to further their pro-abortion agenda.¹⁷

The court’s decision in Roe’s favor rested on two premises: a woman’s "right to privacy," and the belief that the beginning of life cannot be pinpointed. Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun wrote the majority decision in Roe v. Wade, stating, "We need not resolve the difficult question of when life begins. When those trained in the respective disciplines of medicine, philosophy and theology are unable to arrive at any consensus, the judiciary, at this point in the development of man’s knowledge, is not in a position to speculate as to the answer."¹⁸

One observer wrote, "The Court’s majority dismissed the living individual within the womb as ‘potential’ life, worthy of the ‘interest’ of the state but meriting no protection from it … In other words, under Roe a developing child may be killed at any point in the pregnancy, since the child is not recognized as a ‘person’ by the Supreme Court."¹⁹

Key Abortion Court Cases²⁰

Jane Roe v. Dallas District Attorney Henry Wade, Jan. 22, 1973: Declared that the 14th Amendment guarantees a woman's "right to privacy"; held that the fetus is not a person and the decision to abort should be left up to a woman and her doctor.

Mary Doe v. Georgia Attorney General Arthur K. Bolton, Jan. 22, 1973: Restricted the scope of permissible state regulation and overturned a law requiring abortions to be performed only in hospitals. Abortion could be performed "in light of all factors-physical, emotional, psychological, familial, and the woman's age-relevant to the well being of the patient [mother]. All these factors may relate to health." ²¹

Planned Parenthood v. Missouri Attorney General John C. Danforth, July 1, 1976: Declared it unconstitutional to require doctors to exercise care to preserve fetal life; overturned a ban on saline abortions and a law which required a husband's consent to abortion.

Connecticut Social Services Commissioner Edward W. Maher v. Susan Roe, June 20, 1977: Declared that Medicaid should not pay for nontherapeutic elective abortions because the state has a legitimate interest in protecting life.

U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Patricia R. Harris v. Cora McRae, June 30, 1980: Stated that states are not obliged to fund "medically necessary" abortions for which federal funds are blocked by the Hyde amendment-also upheld as constitutional.

Missouri Attorney General William L. Webster v. Reproductive Health Services, July 3, 1989: Upheld Missouri's ban on using state facilities or employees to perform elective nontherapeutic abortions, as well as a requirement for medical tests to determine a fetus' viability.

Planned Parenthood v. Pennsylvania Gov. Robert P. Casey, June 29, 1992: The Court accepted a 24-hour waiting period, informed consent guidelines and parental consent in some cases. "It essentially … adopted a new 'liberty' standard. The above restrictions would not apply if they 'unduly burdened' her right to abortion." ²²

Roe placed the Court’s stamp of approval on "abortion-on-demand" throughout all nine months of pregnancy. Supposedly, abortion would become "safe and rare" because women would no longer die from "back-alley" abortions.

The Legacy of Roe v. Wade

In the more than 26 years since that Supreme Court decision, the phrase "rare abortion" has become a mockery. Over thirty-five million abortions have been recorded.²³ Original restrictions—such as limiting abortions in the second and third trimesters—have disappeared altogether. Further, one out of every three children conceived in America since 1972 has died a brutal death through abortion—more than six times the number of Jews that Adolf Hitler put to death in his Nazi concentration camps.²⁴

In addition, 45 percent of abortions in the U.S. in 1995 were repeats.²⁵ Even the pro-abortion Alan Guttmacher Institute (AGI) admits that the "reasons women give for having abortions include that they have had all the children they want, they want to delay the next birth, … they are estranged from or on uneasy terms with their sexual partner, and they do not want a child while they are in school or working."²⁶ Essentially, these elective abortions demonstrate that they use abortion as birth control.

Today, a misguided "abortion rights" mentality pervades America. Women demand their "right to choose." Americans recoil at even perceived restrictions on their freedom, so abortion advocates’ rallying cry of "rights" resonates throughout the country. Shirley Spitz, a supporter of abortion-on-demand, states, "Without freedom, women will always be shackled; we will always be second-class citizens."²⁷

By calling themselves "pro-choice," feminists avoid the label "pro-abortion" and manage to dodge the real issue. In his book, When Choice Becomes God, F. LaGard Smith asks, "Could it be that, deep down, feminists know they would lose the battle if it were fought on the turf of basic morality, and that the childlike response ‘But I want to do it!’ is all they can legitimately cling to?"²⁸

The U.S. Supreme Court has made a "right to abortion" the judicially created "law" of this land. But there is a law of nature and of nature’s God that supersedes even the Supreme Court. This law attests to the value and sanctity of life. Can one person’s right to do anything take precedence over another’s most basic right to live? The answer is obvious.

Today, clashes between the "pro-life" and "pro-choice" sides regularly capture the headlines. The debate over this issue has left our nation deeply divided. But when the last words of eloquent rhetoric are spoken, one must acknowledge that the conflict over abortion is about pitting a mother against her child. In the cacophony of voices arguing over "rights," the quiet consciences of those who stand for the sanctity of all life understand this is an assault on the most vulnerable—those who are too weak to defend their rights—as well as an exploitation of women.