Abortion became an issue in the late 1800s. Abortions started with women in late 1800s from Europe and the U.S who was providing abortion and training to others, with legal prohibition due to women’s health. “In 1803, Britain first passed anti-abortion laws”. The U.S followed behind Britain's example and started to outlaw abortion. Around the 1800 states believed that abortions being illegal was necessary to save the life of a women. Having an abortion became a crime and sin around the 19th century.
Having an abortion was seen as a deadly procedure. Many people saw the abortion law as not an effective way to protect the women or help them, but to control and restrict them. Some felt that by making abortions illegal was a violation against women’s rights. Women started to find other ways to get rid of bearing a pregnancy.
Some women went to the extreme and went through dangerous methods just to get rid of the child. If you had the money to, women would go to other countries and pay for easy and safe procedures. To try to stop the women, the doctors would sometimes overcharge the women for the procedure. For example the author says “some report that when women were unable to afford this heavy price, some male abortionists insisted on having sexual relations before performing the abortion.” Both are examples of the extreme, dangerous methods women underwent when dealing with unwanted pregnancies.
Without legalized abortion, women were living in a world where they were denied their own personals rights. Women who wanted to get abortion couldn’t because their states banned abortions, but it didn’t stop women from getting abortions. the author suggest that “The Center for disease control and prevention estimates that in 1972 alone 130,000 women obtained illegal or self induced procedures, 39 of whom died.” Just because the laws told them know , women still believed that they had the right to do what they pleased with their bodies. If their state said no they were willing to travel to other countries to get the procedures.The author reveals that “Just over 100,000 women left their own states to obtain a legal abortion.” This shows that women were determined to get their abortion no matter how far they had to go to get an abortion.
Around this time an important case that spark a lot controversy. It started with an case in Texas Roe vs. Wade. This cased in the late 1900 started an huge debate for women's rights and how they are not taken serious. Its started with an women by the name of Jane Roe, unmarried women from Texas wanting to get an safe abortion and was denied because it was against the law. The author argues “Texas law made it felony to abort a fetus unless on medical advice for the purpose of saving the life of the mother.” Roe respond was suing Henry Wade the district attorney of Dallas county, who enforced the law of denying her, her abortion. Roe claimed that was not endangered, that she could not afford to travel out of the state and have a right to terminate her pregnancy in a safe medical environment. So she took it to the supreme court and sued wade because she felt that that Texas law was going against her privacy. The author notice that “Contesting that the statue on the grounds that violated the guarantee of personal liberty and the right to privacy implicitly guaranteed in the first, fourth, fifth, ninth, and fourteenth amendment.” As they were denying her the abortion, they didn’t look on how they was also taking away her constitutional rights. On January 22,1973 7-2 voted in her favor on the rights of women to privacy. The court ruled in her favor because Texas law violated the due process clause of the 14th amendment. This case help a lot of women in different states that abortion was illegal in.