United States’ law concerning women’s reproductive rights has a long and
complicated history. In particular, American law regarding abortion is informative
for understanding changes in how the issue has been viewed by Americans over the
last two centuries. Congressional hearings on Abortion and the status of the unborn
in the early 1970s [Y4
I89/2:Ab7/pts.1-4] offer a clear example of the insight that
government documents can give into this controversial and historically complex issue.
Abortion was legal in the early 19th century. Most recipients of the procedure were middle-aged, married women who had abortions to keep family size down, as there were no reliable means of birth control to fall back on. During this time abortion was viewed as a private family issue, not a medical one. The growth of the medical profession in the mid-19th century began to challenge the familial conception of abortion. During the 1860s and 70s the medical profession successfully lobbied to criminalize the procedure. Despite this, abortion remained a widespread procedure. But with key medical discoveries such as antisepsis and antibiotics, the procedure came to be most successful when performed by a physician. The medical re-imagining of abortion moved the act from the private to the public sphere.
In 1973 the Roe v. Wade decision repositioned abortion in the private sphere, placing decisions on the procedure in the hands of the women and families by granting abortion rights under the legal provision of privacy. Published a year prior to Roe, Not the Law’s Business, holds an essay on the repercussions of criminalizing abortion. The essay is indicative of how, for a brief time in the 1970s, the abortion issue was framed as a gender and class issue. This view of abortion is in stark contrast to the moral framework under which it is viewed today.
Image featured in Congressional Hearings on S.J. Resolutions 6, 10, 11, 91, 119, and 130 [Y4 I89/2:Ab7/pts.1-4]
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