History of abortion law debate

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In the earliest written sources, abortion is not considered as a general category of crime. Rather, specific kinds of abortion are prohibited, for various social and political reasons. In the earliest texts, it can be difficult to discern to what extent a particular religious injunction held force as secular law. In later texts, the rationale for abortion laws may be sought in a wide variety of fields including philosophy, religion, and jurisprudence. These rationales were not always included in the wording of the actual laws.

Contents

Ancient sources

Many indigenous people have had access to herbal abortifacients, [1] [ page needed ] [2] emmenagogues, and contraceptives, which had varying degrees of effectiveness. Some of these are mentioned in the earliest literature of the ancient world. However, citations for abortion related matters are scarce in the earliest written texts.

Social considerations

In the ancient world, discussions of offspring limitation, whether through contraception, abortion, or infanticide, were often linked with discussions about population control, [3] [ better source needed ] the property rights of the patriarch, [4] and the regulation of women engaged in unsanctioned sex. [5] Cicero explains:

"I remember a case which occurred when I was in Asia: how a certain woman of Miletus, who had accepted a bribe from the alternative heirs and procured her own abortion by drugs, was condemned to death: and rightly, for she had cheated the father of his hopes, his name of continuity, his family of its support, his house of an heir, and the Republic of a citizen-to-be." [6]

Families wealthy or poor may have had different reasons for practicing offspring limitation. The wealthy may have been concerned about breaking a large inheritance into numerous smaller portions for many heirs. A poor family may have been unable to feed a large number of children. [7]

Aristotle held positions which align with twentieth-century eugenics arguments. In his view, abortion and infanticide were permissible when they accorded with the welfare of the state. He advocated mandatory exposure (to the elements) of children born with 'deformities,' and deemed abortion advisable when a couple had exceeded a quota of children, or when a couple had conceived passed their optimal childbearing age, [8] [9] as he believed that the eudaimonia of the individual was entwined with the welfare of the state. Plato held views similar to Aristotle's.

In Hindu scriptures, the matter is interpreted as reflecting a concern for the preservation of the male seed of the three "pure" castes, with the meaning of one word associated with abortion, bhrūṇahan, being "the killer of a learned Brahmin".[ citation needed ] Offspring limitation facilitated the financial stability of the influential families, preserving social order, and the males of these castes were required to perform important religious rituals. [10] While caste mixing was severely condemned, abortion was not recommended, and the texts elaborated a complex set of rules for the social integration of people born of such unions.

Of some concern in all these discussions is the ability of the woman to conceal her pregnancy in the early stages, and to terminate an unwanted pregnancy through the use of herbs [5] or, more rarely, crude surgery. Since menses may be interrupted by medical conditions other than pregnancy, a woman taking an emmenagogue could not necessarily be accused of attempting abortion, even if she did lose a fetus with the bringing on of stopped menses. Therefore, social control of childbirth, essential to the preservation of the social order, could only effectively be exercised after quickening. While the issue of child sacrifice may be included in such discussions, as part of a larger discussion of social attitudes toward children, it is a matter separate from abortion.[ according to whom? ] In general, anything sacrificed to the gods is sacrificed precisely because it is valued by society and is therefore deemed an appropriate gift to the gods.[ citation needed ]

Religious and philosophic considerations

It was not until the Axial Age that religious text began to include explorations of more philosophic concepts, which often involved considerations of the nature of man, which in turn involved considerations of the nature of the soul. There were three main views that had various impacts on the question of abortion: a belief that this material world is accompanied by an incorporeal one, a belief that matter is an illusion and everything is incorporeal, and a belief that everything, including the soul is material in nature. The ancient Egyptians developed a complicated five part version of the nature of man, including both a soul (similar to a modern ghost) and a spirit (similar to the Buddhist stream of consciousness). [11] The later Vedic literature, the Atharvaveda and Upanishads, held a doctrine of a World soul and an eternally reincarnating soul that enters the new physical body at conception. [12] At times, these two kinds of soul were believed to be of the same substance. Many Greeks believed in panpsychism (that all things have an individual soul), while others believed that individuals emanate from a World soul, made of a different substance; and it is possible that Plato believed in elements of both. [13]

Believers in transmigration of souls had varying opinions. Buddhism rejected the Hindu notion of an eternal soul atman, positing an ephemeral "stream of consciousness" that enters the physical body at conception. [10] Judaism and Islam also taught various forms of pre-existence of a soul created by God, but believed in only one earthly incarnation, and that the soul enters the body at conception.[ citation needed ] Plato believed that the pre-existent soul enters the body at first breath.[ citation needed ]

The Stoics considered the fetus to be a part of the woman's body and held that the soul (the pneuma) enters the body when the newborn takes its first breath. Even then, the Stoics believed the child is neither rational being nor moral agent until 14 years of age. [8] Aristotle proposed a theory of progressive ensoulment, stating that the fetus acquired first a vegetative soul, then an animal soul, then a rational soul, with the male providing the "rational soul" that animated the fetus at 40 days after conception. [14] Opinion in the Islamic world differed as to whether the soul was "blown into" the fetus at 40 days or 120. [15] Anglo-Saxon medical texts held that a fetus was "a man without a soul" until after the third month. [5]

Generally, the question of the morality of abortion involved the question of the nature of the "animating principle", usually called the "rational soul", when the animating principle entered the body, whether it was an integral part of the bodily form and substance, whether it was pre-existent and subject to reincarnation or pre-existence, and whether a reincarnating soul might suffer as a result of the abortion. On these bases, some societies allowed infanticide of the newborn prior to its first breath (Stoic) or first nourishment (Germanic tribes), while some had differing laws for abortion depending on whether quickening had occurred.

Hippocratic Oath

The Hippocratic Oath is a code of professional conduct that can be compared with a set of similar edicts set down by Confucius. [16] It is often cited as evidence of abortion attitudes in ancient Greece.

In Roe v. Wade, the US Supreme Court questioned the validity of this source, noting that "the Oath originated in a group representing only a small segment of Greek opinion and that it certainly was not accepted by all ancient physicians." [17] }}

The clause referencing abortion has been questioned on a number of grounds. Authorship of this and other sections has been questioned as the language reflects Pythagorean influence; it has been suggested that he is specify that he would not give a pessary to a woman because that would abrogate the husband's prerogative in the matter, [18] and is at odds with Hippocrates' own conduct when asked by a friend to provide an abortion for her slave girl whom the kinswoman had been using as a prostitute. He describes the kind of abortion he prescribed, and records no indication of his opinion of the slave's profession. [19] Elsewhere, he gives instruction on how to cause an abortion through blood-letting.

The earliest texts[ which? ] almost uniformly preach respect for human life; but a reading of these passages must be balanced with passages meting out harsh and often horrific punishment for social transgressions of lower caste individuals against the upper castes. In Rome, the Twelve Tables were published only in response to "demands of the people". [20]

The value of a human being varied according to rank and social circumstances. (Thus, even an upper class male might be considered a mere boy until well into his later years; with the term "boy" having a meaning similar to slave.) [21] A slave woman might be punished by her master if he disapproved of her abortion, regardless of who the father was, because she destroyed his property. The monetary value of human beings is reflected in the value of fines paid for personal crimes, which varied in accordance both with the rank of the offender and of the victim. In Lev. 27:6, an infant of one month or less has no monetary value.

Religious law

There are no prohibitions of abortion in the Confucian texts, nor mention of it in the earliest Vedas. While there is no direct mention of abortion in the Bible, Exodus 21:22–24 states that a man who causes a woman to miscarry may be fined. The same passage states in contrast, that murder is punishable by death. Most Jewish writers allowed abortion to save the mother's life, and hesitated to impose civil laws against abortion, feeling that most women would ignore them. [22] The Talmud deems the fetus to be part of its mother and has no "juridical personality". [23] There is also no direct mention of abortion in the Qu'ran, although based on Qur'an 23:12–14, most jurists agree that abortion is acceptable up to 120 days after conception. [15]

While the earliest Vedas have no mention of abortion, later scripture condemns it as one of the vilest of crimes, resulting in loss of caste and thus loss of liberation from samsara. [10] Despite such harsh condemnation, the penalty for abortion is the withholding of water libations from the woman; while the abortionist may lose caste and, with it, opportunity for liberation from samsara. [10]

In Buddhism, the oldest Theraveda texts condemn abortion but do not prohibit or prescribe penance. In later texts, a Buddhist monk who provides abortion is "defeated" – excluded from the religious community – if the fetus dies. If the mother dies but not the fetus, this is only a grave sin, because he had not intended to kill her.

Generally, most texts allow abortion to save the woman's life.

Ecclesiastical courts in Europe

Following the decline of the Roman Empire, Ecclesiastical courts held wide jurisdiction throughout Europe. Their purpose was to instruct and correct, rather than to punish, and therefore imposed sentences of penance, rather than corporal punishment. [24] The Church treated the killing of an unformed or "unanimated" fetus as a matter of "anticipated homicide", with a corresponding lesser penance required, [25] while late abortion was homicide.

One of the earliest Churchmen, Tertullian, believed that the soul of the fetus is generated by the parents along with the generation of the new body. This viewpoint, later known as traducianism, was deemed unsatisfactory by St. Augustine, as it did not account for original sin. Basing himself on the Septuagint version of Exodus 21:22, he deemed abortion, while deplorable, to be less than murder. He also affirmed the Aristotelian view of delayed hominization. St. Fulgentius opposed abortion even for the purpose of saving the woman's life, saying: "But let the child be brought to term and baptized and saved from perdition." [26]

The Venerable Bede, in the Penitential ascribed to him by Albers c. 725, upheld the 40-day distinction, prescribing a one-year penance for abortion before the 40th day, and added that it makes a difference whether the woman was simply in financial desperation, or had conceived out of "harlotry". After 40 days the penance was 7⁠1/2⁠ years, the same as for homicide. [27]

In the twelfth century, in the Decretum Gratiani,

Gratian, and the medieval canon law generally, merely followed the prevailing scientific view of the period that quickening represented the time at which the fetus was "vivified," defined as the time at which it was "ensouled." [28]

A century later, St. Thomas Aquinas upheld delayed hominization: "seed and what is not seed is determined by sensation and movement." [29]

In 1588, Pope Sixtus V adopted a papal bull adopting the position of St. Thomas Aquinas that contraception and abortion were crimes against nature and sins against marriage. This verdict was relaxed three years later by Pope Gregory XIV, who pronounced that abortion before "hominization" should not be subject to ecclesiastical penalties that were any stricter than civil penalties (Codicis iuris fontes, ed. P. Gasparri, vol. 1 (Rome, 1927), pp. 330–331).

Secular law

Historian Jeffrey H. Reiman writes: "The earliest laws of relevance to abortion were not concerns with the voluntary termination of pregnancy by the pregnant woman. They were rules providing compensation for the death of a fetus resulting from an assault on a pregnant woman. Their goal appears to have been, not to protect the rights of fetus, but to protect the rights of fathers." [30] For example, the Code of Hammurabi and the Book of Exodus in the Hebrew Bible provide for penalties for an assault causing miscarriage. [31] The first law prohibiting voluntary abortion appear to be the Middle Assyrian laws, about 500 years after the Code of Hammurabi. These laws provided for impalement and no burial for a woman who "has a miscarriage by her own act." Middle Assyria permitted the infanticide of children by fathers, so this harsh law "was not meant to protect fetuses" but rather "appears rather to have been aimed at keeping the decision about which offspring live or die in the hands of their fathers." [31]

The Zend Avesta imposes a sentence of Peshôtanu (200 lashes) on a woman who, out of fear of discovery, "brings on menses" when conception occurs out of wedlock, with no mention of a penalty for the male. [32] The Code of the Assura, c. 1075 BC has penalties for several different types of abortion crimes: if a woman aborts against her husband's wishes, if a man causes an abortion in any woman at the first stage of pregnancy; if a man causes an abortion in a harlot. In the first case, the woman is to be crucified; in the second, the man is fined two talents; and in the third, the man is to make restitution for a life. [33]

While there were no laws against abortion in Ancient Rome, the Twelve Tables did allow for infanticide through exposure in cases of unwanted female newborns, and mandated that children born deformed also be exposed. In 211 AD, at the intersection of the reigns of Septimius Severus and Caracalla, abortions which violated the father's rights or the mother's duties were punished by temporary exile. [34]

The Visigothic Code had a system of punishments similar to that of the Zend Avesta, with 200 lashes for a woman causing her own abortion, or for a male slave performing an abortion on a freeborn woman, but with various fines in all other circumstances. [35]

In 9th century England, King Alfred's laws laid down the wergeld to be paid in compensation for various murders: If a man slay a woman with child, he shall pay full wergeld for the woman, and half wergeld for the dead fetus, in compensation for the husband's material loss. [36]

In the Middle Ages, German women were allowed to expose their newborns. [37]

English common law

Starting with Leges Henrici Primi, around 1115, abortion was treated as a misdemeanour prior to "quickening", accruing a penalty of 3 years' penance, or as a "quasi homicide" after quickening. It is believed that abortion cases were usually heard in ecclesiastical courts, which dealt with matters of morality,[ citation needed ] rather than in secular courts, which dealt with breaches of the King's peace. The punishment for the capital crime of homicide was therefore not applied. Drawing on William Staunford, Edward Coke first formulated the born alive rule in Institutes of the Lawes of England , drawing on the established definition of Murder in English law that the victim be "a reasonable creature in rerum natura. This formulation appeared in William Blackstone's commentaries and in Bouvier's Law Dictionary. Henry Bracton considered abortion to be homicide. [38]

Modern codification

Some have claimed that scientific knowledge of human fertilization [39] was used to justify the stricter abortion laws that were codified during the nineteenth century. This ignores other, perhaps more salient, aspects of the history of abortion law. The historical debate about vivification, animation, and delayed hominization were debates about when the fetus could be considered a "reasonable creature" – a human being  – not simply when it had physical life; and this is what quickening was said to signify. [ citation needed ]

The process of criminalizing abortion, however, can be placed in a broader context whereby professional associations began to employ licensing procedures as a means of driving "irregulars" out of practice in fields as diverse as medicine and architecture. [40] Toward the end of the eighteenth century, medical associations began to co-operate "in vigorous measures for the suppression of empiricism, and the encouragement of regular practitioners" [41]  – that is, for the suppression of medicine based on practice, such as herbalism and midwifery, and the promotion of medical science based on theory – and also began to assist in the regulation, restriction, and commercialization of reproduction products such as pessaries, condoms and abortifacients. [42] Science-based medicine at the time was based on humorism, a theory that had not changed since Galen's day, and relied to some extent on dangerous practices such as bloodletting, purging, and the extensive use of mercury, a toxin. Public backlash forced a temporary retreat, with licensing regulations being repealed during the next few decades.

In 1857, a more successful campaign was launched. The newly formed American Medical Association

"were motivated to organize for the criminalization of abortion in part by their desire to win professional power, control medical practice, and restrict their irregular competitors, including homeopaths, midwives, and others. Hostility towards feminists, immigrants, and Catholics fueled the medical campaign against abortion and the passage of abortion laws by state legislatures. [43]

Despite a flurry of well-publicized inquests beginning with the turn of the nineteenth century, prosecutions for abortions usually proceeded only in response to a woman's death. In addition to the abortionist, unmarried men whose lovers had died were increasingly prosecuted as well, the reasoning being that only his refusal to marry could have driven a woman to abortion. [43]

Related Research Articles

Numerous religious traditions have taken a stance on abortion but few are absolute. These stances span a broad spectrum, based on numerous teachings, deities, or religious print, and some of those views are highlighted below.

The abortion debate is a longstanding and contentious discourse that touches on the moral, legal, medical, and religious aspects of induced abortion. In English-speaking countries, the debate most visibly polarizes around adherents of the self-described "pro-choice" and "pro-life" movements. Pro-choice supporters uphold that individuals have the right to make their own decisions about their reproductive health, and that they should have the option to end a pregnancy if they choose to do so, taking into account various factors such as the stage of fetal development, the health of the woman, and the circumstances of the conception. Pro-life advocates, on the other hand, maintain that a fetus is a human being with inherent rights that cannot be overridden by the woman's choice or circumstances, and that abortion is morally wrong in most or all cases. Both terms are considered loaded words in mainstream media, where terms such as "abortion rights" or "anti-abortion" are generally preferred.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abortifacient</span> Chemical substances that can terminate a pregnancy

An abortifacient is a substance that induces abortion. This is a nonspecific term which may refer to any number of substances or medications, ranging from herbs to prescription medications.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Unborn Victims of Violence Act</span> Law that recognizes an embryo or fetus as a legal victim

The Unborn Victims of Violence Act of 2004 is a United States law that recognizes an embryo or fetus in utero as a legal victim, if they are injured or killed during the commission of any of over 60 listed federal crimes of violence. The law defines "child in utero" as "a member of the species Homo sapiens, at any stage of development, who is carried in the womb."

Abortion in Sweden was first legislated by the Abortion Act of 1938. This stated that an abortion could be legally performed in Sweden upon medical, humanitarian, or eugenical grounds. That is, if the pregnancy constituted a serious threat to the woman's life, if she had been impregnated by rape, or if there was a considerable chance that any serious condition might be inherited by her child, she could request an abortion. The law was later augmented in 1946 to include socio-medical grounds and again in 1963 to include the risk of serious fetal damage. A committee investigated whether these conditions were met in each individual case and, as a result of this prolonged process, abortion was often not granted until the middle of the second trimester. As such, a new law was created in 1974, stating that the choice of an abortion is entirely up to the woman until the end of the 18th week.

Abortion in Germany is illegal, but nonpunishable during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy upon condition of mandatory counseling. The same goes later in pregnancy in cases that the pregnancy poses an important danger to the physical or mental health of the pregnant woman. In the case that the abortion is because of a rape, counseling is not mandatory. The woman needs to receive counseling, called Schwangerschaftskonfliktberatung, at least three days prior to the abortion and must take place at a state-approved centre, which afterwards gives the applicant a Beratungsschein.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ensoulment</span> The time the soul enters the body

In religion and philosophy, ensoulment is the moment at which a human or other being gains a soul. Some belief systems maintain that a soul is newly created within a developing child; others, especially in religions that believe in reincarnation, believe that the soul is pre-existing and enters the body at a particular stage of development.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of abortion</span>

The practice of induced abortion—the deliberate termination of a pregnancy—has been known since ancient times. Various methods have been used to perform or attempt abortion, including the administration of abortifacient herbs, the use of sharpened implements, the application of abdominal pressure, and other techniques. The term abortion, or more precisely spontaneous abortion, is sometimes used to refer to a naturally occurring condition that ends a pregnancy, that is, to what is popularly called a miscarriage. But in what follows the term abortion will always refer to an induced abortion.

Fetal rights are the moral rights or legal rights of the human fetus under natural and civil law. The term fetal rights came into wide usage after Roe v. Wade, the 1973 landmark case that legalized abortion in the United States and was essentially overturned in 2022. The concept of fetal rights has evolved to include the issues of maternal substance use disorders, including alcohol use disorder and opioid use disorder. Most international human rights charters "clearly reject claims that human rights should attach from conception or any time before birth." While most international human rights instruments lack a universal inclusion of the fetus as a person for the purposes of human rights, the fetus is granted various rights in the constitutions and civil codes of some countries.

In pregnancy terms, quickening is the moment in pregnancy when the pregnant woman starts to feel the fetus's movement in the uterus. It was believed that the quickening marked the moment that a soul entered the fetus, termed ensoulment.

The born alive rule is a common law legal principle that holds that various criminal laws, such as homicide and assault, apply only to a child that is "born alive". U.S. courts have overturned this rule, citing recent advances in science and medicine, and in several states feticide statutes have been explicitly framed or amended to include fetuses in utero. Abortion in Canada is still governed by the born alive rule, as courts continue to hold to its foundational principles. In 1996, the Law Lords confirmed that the rule applied in English law but that alternative charges existed in lieu, such as a charge of unlawful or negligent manslaughter instead of murder.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christianity and abortion</span> Christian denominational views on the issue of abortion

Christianity and abortion have a long and complex history. Condemnation of abortion by Christians goes back to the 1st century with texts such as the Didache, the Epistle of Barnabas, and the Apocalypse of Peter. In later years some Christian writers argued that abortion was acceptable under certain circumstances, such as when necessary to save the life of the mother, but these views did not become accepted teachings until some denominations changed their views in the 20th century. The Bible itself does not contain direct references to abortion.

In Judaism, views on abortion draw primarily upon the legal and ethical teachings of the Hebrew Bible, the Talmud, the case-by-case decisions of responsa, and other rabbinic literature. While most major Jewish religious movements discourage abortion, except to save the life of a pregnant woman, authorities differ on when and whether it is permitted in other cases.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Beginning of human personhood</span> Opinion as to the time when human personhood begins

The beginning of human personhood is the moment when a human is first recognized as a person. There are differences of opinion about the precise time when human personhood begins and the nature of that status. The issue arises in a number of fields, including science, religion, philosophy, and law, and is most acute in debates about abortion, stem cell research, reproductive rights, and fetal rights.

Muslim views on abortion are shaped by Hadith, as well as by the opinions of legal and religious scholars and commentators. The Quran does not directly address intentional abortion, leaving greater discretion to the laws of individual countries. Although opinions among Islamic scholars differ over when a pregnancy can be terminated, there are no explicit prohibitions on a woman's ability to abort under Islamic law.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hinduism and abortion</span>

Abortion in Hinduism, while generally considered reprehensible by traditional Hindu scriptures and the guiding precept of non-injury, can be interpreted equivocally within the vast spectrum of Hindu beliefs and texts and ultimately depends on individual context. The Mahanarayana Upanishad lists abortion with actions such as breaking one's vow of chastity. Some Hindu scriptures assert that "abortion is a worse sin than killing one's parents" and another text says that "a woman who aborts her child will lose her status". In general, Hinduism teaches the guiding principle of Ahimsa, abstention from causing harm or injury to all living beings, which serves as the root of the ethic of non-violence. However, in the modern context, individual decision-making may be guided by this precept of least harm as it relates to fetus, parents, and society.

Christianity and abortion has a long and complex history. There is scholarly disagreement on how early Christians felt about abortion. Some scholars have concluded that early Christians took a nuanced stance on what is now called abortion, and that at different and in separate places early Christians have taken different stances. Other scholars have concluded that early Christians considered abortion a sin at all stages; though there is disagreement over their thoughts on what type of sin it was and how grave a sin it was held to be. Some early Christians believed that the embryo did not have a soul from conception, and consequently opinion was divided as to whether early abortion was murder or ethically equivalent to murder. Some early Christian texts nonetheless condemned abortion without distinction: Luker mentions the Didache, Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian, and Saint Basil. Early church councils punished women for abortions that were combined with other sexual crimes, as well as makers of abortifacient drugs, but, like some early Church Fathers such as Basil of Caesarea, did not make distinction between "formed" and "unformed" fetuses.

The official teachings of the Catechism of the Catholic Church promulgated by Pope John Paul II in 1992 oppose all forms of abortion procedures whose direct purpose is to destroy a zygote, blastocyst, embryo or fetus, since it holds that "human life must be respected and protected absolutely from the moment of conception. From the first moment of his existence, a human being must be recognized as having the rights of a person – among which is the inviolable right of every innocent being to life". However, the Church does recognize as morally legitimate certain acts which indirectly result in the death of the fetus, as when the direct purpose is removal of a cancerous womb. Canon 1397 §2 of the 1983 Code of Canon Law imposes automatic excommunication on Latin Catholics who actually procure an abortion, if they fulfill the conditions for being subject to such a sanction. Eastern Catholics are not subject to automatic excommunication, but by canon 1450 of the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches they are to be excommunicated by decree if found guilty of the same action, and they may be absolved of the sin only by the eparchial bishop. In addition to teaching that abortion is immoral, the Catholic Church also generally makes public statements and takes actions in opposition to its legality.

Foeticide, or feticide, is the act of killing a fetus, or causing a miscarriage. Definitions differ between legal and medical applications, whereas in law, feticide frequently refers to a criminal offense, in medicine the term generally refers to a part of an abortion procedure in which a provider intentionally induces fetal demise to avoid the chance of an unintended live birth, or as a standalone procedure in the case of selective reduction.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Born alive laws in the United States</span> Fetal rights laws in US

Born alive laws in the United States are fetal rights laws that extend various criminal laws, such as homicide and assault, to cover unlawful death or other harm done to a fetus in utero or to an infant that has been delivered. The basis for such laws stems from advances in medical science and social perception, which allow a fetus to be seen and medically treated as an individual in the womb and perceived socially as a person, for some or all of the pregnancy.

References

  1. ↑ Moerman, Daniel E. (1998). Native American Ethnobotany. Timber Press. ISBN   9780881924534.
  2. ↑ Mukherjee, Sobhan Kumar; Mitra, Sunit (March 2009). "Some abortifacient plants used by the tribal people of West Bengal". Natural Product Radiance. 8 (2): 167–171 – via ResearchGate.
  3. ↑ The Return of Quetzalcoatl – Chapter 17
  4. ↑ The kindness of strangers: the abandonment of children in Western Europe footnote 21, By John Boswell
  5. 1 2 3 Spivack, Carla, To Bring Down the Flowers: The Cultural Context of Abortion Law in Early Modern England. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1132482
  6. ↑ "In Defence of Cluentius", Cicero as cited in Greek and Roman Attitudes To Abortion at Google Docs
  7. ↑ Boswell, "The kindness of strangers: the abandonment of children in Western Europe", pg.14, footnotes 20, 21
  8. 1 2 Evangelos Protopapadakis, "Should the baby live? Abortion and infanticide: when ontology overlaps ethics and Peter Singer echoes the Stoics" in Ancient Culture, European and Serbian Heritage, Series: "Antiquity and modern world", Scientific Publications of the Serbian Society for Ancient Studies, Novi Sad 2010, v. IV, pp. 396–407, ISBN   978-86-910129-4-6. "Evangelos Protopapadakis, articles". Archived from the original on 2010-06-20. Retrieved 2010-10-07.
  9. ↑ Aristotle, "Politics", Book 7, 16, 20, as cited in Greek and Roman Attitudes To Abortion at Google Docs.
  10. 1 2 3 4 ABORTION FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF EASTERN RELIGIONS: HINDUISM AND BUDDHISM Constantin-Iulian Damian, Romanian Journal of Bioethics, pg. 128, Vol. 8, No. 1, January – March 2010 "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-09-03. Retrieved 2012-09-03.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  11. ↑ See Ghosts in ancient Egyptian culture
  12. ↑ "Hindus in America Speak out on Abortion Issues". September 1985.
  13. ↑ Panpsychism in the West [ permanent dead link ]
  14. ↑ "On the Generation of Animals". Archived from the original on 2016-11-17. Retrieved 2010-10-02.
  15. 1 2 "Al-Mawrid". Archived from the original on 2012-02-27. Retrieved 2012-07-11., Abortion, Tariq Mahmood Hashmi
  16. ↑ Principles and Practice of Confucianism in Medicine Today, By Dr. Khong Kok Sun
  17. ↑ Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 Archived 2001-11-30 at the Library of Congress Web Archives (1972). Findlaw.com. Retrieved 2007-01-26
  18. ↑ A Commentary and Translation, Prepared by Howard Herrell at
  19. ↑ Hippocrates, "On the Nature of the Child", as cited in Intercourse, conception and pregnancy. Cos, fourth century BC (Hippocrates, On the Generating Seed and the Nature of the Child 4–7, 13, 30.4=VII.474-80, 488–92, 536–8 Littré. Tr. I.M. Lonie. G, available at Archived 2018-08-08 at the Wayback Machine
  20. ↑ Edward Gibbon: The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Volume IV. Chapter XLIV : Idea Of The Roman Jurisprudence, as cited at
  21. ↑ The kindness of strangers: the abandonment of children in Western Europe, pg. 27–28, By John Boswell
  22. ↑ Abortion and Personhood: Historical and Comparative Notes, Dr. David L. Perry
  23. ↑ Notes on David M. Feldman, "This Matter of Abortion," ch. 9, Health and Medicine in the Jewish Tradition. L'Hayyim – to Life" (New York: Crossroad, 1986) as cited at Jewish Attitudes Towards Abortion Archived 2011-07-16 at the Wayback Machine
  24. ↑ Spivack, Carla, To Bring Down the Flowers: The Cultural Context of Abortion Law in Early Modern England, pg. 16–17. Available at SSRN:
  25. ↑ The Roman Catholic Church and Abortion: An Historical Perspective – Part II, Donald DeMarco, PhD
  26. ↑ ented a baptismal syringe, wherewith to baptize a fetus in utero in the event of a spontaneous abortion, a miscarriage. [ftn. 10: St. Fulgentius, De Fide 27, cited by E. Westermarck, The Origin and Development of the Moral Ideas (1908), vol. I, pp. 416–17 as cited by Jewish Attitudes Towards Abortion Archived 2011-07-16 at the Wayback Machine
  27. ↑ Abortion and Personhood: Historical and Comparative Notes, by Dr. David L. Perry
  28. ↑ ABORTION, BISHOPS, EUCHARIST, AND POLITICIANS: A QUESTION OF COMMUNION, Gregory Sisk, Charles J. Reid Jr., The Catholic Lawyer, Vol.43:255, 11/1/2004]
  29. ↑ as cited in WEBSTER v. REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH SERVICES, 492 U.S. 490 (1989)
  30. ↑ Jeffrey H. Reiman, Abortion and the Ways We Value Human Life (Rowman & Littlefield, 1999), pp. 15-16.
  31. 1 2 Reiman, Abortion and the Ways We Value Human Life, p. 16.
  32. ↑ Zend Avesta, Fargard 15 This is the same sentence imposed "when a man gives too hard bones or too hot food to a shepherd's dog or to a house dog".
  33. ↑ Ancient History Sourcebook: The Code of the Assura, c. 1075 BCE
  34. ↑ Hornblower, Simon; Antony Spawforth (1996). "abortion". The Oxford classical dictionary . Oxford: Oxford University Press. p.  1. ISBN   0-19-866172-X. OCLC   34284310.
  35. ↑ The Visigothic Code: (Forum judicum) ed. S. P. Scott
  36. ↑ Spivack, Carla, To Bring Down the Flowers: The Cultural Context of Abortion Law in Early Modern England. Available at SSRN:
  37. ↑ Westrup, C.W. (1944). Introduction to Roman Law. Oxford University Press, p. 249
  38. ↑ Henry de Bracton (1968) [c. 1250]. "The crime of homicide and the divisions into which it falls". In George E. Woodbine (ed.). On the Laws and Customs of England. Vol. 2. Translated by Samuel Edmund Thorne. p.  341. OCLC   1872.
  39. ↑ Garrison, Fielding (1921). An Introduction to the History of Medicine. Saunders. pp.  566–7. fetilization was discovered hertwig.
  40. ↑ Sociology of Professions: The Evolution of Landscape Architecture in the United States, C. Timothy Baird and Bonj Szczygiel, footnote 5, available at https://www.larch.psu.edu/files/active/0/sociology%20of%20professions.PDF Archived June 11, 2010, at the Wayback Machine
  41. ↑ Sullivan, James; Williams, Melvin E.; Conklin, Edwin P.; Fitzpatrick, Benedict, eds. (1927), "Chapter XIII. The Medical Profession.", History of New York State, 1523–1927 (PDF), vol. 5, New York City, Chicago: Lewis Historical Publishing Co., p. 2053, hdl:2027/mdp.39015028558818, Wikidata   Q114149630
  42. ↑ "Contraception and Abortion in 19th Century America", book review Journal of Social History, Fall, 1995 by Steven Mintz at
  43. 1 2 "Women and health in America: historical readings" By Judith Walzer Leavitt available at Google Books.
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