Notable Abortion Dates in the 20th Century:
Before the Paradigm-Shift, 1900-1950
Events listed are not necessarily the most important events of the 20th Century regarding abortion. They are, however, among the most interesting and thought-provoking.
To make it easier to follow themes, I've used color coding. Click on the colors in this paragraph for information about these themes. Pro-life efforts are in green. Maternal deaths are in red. Events that pushed us toward the current abortion regime are in orange. Information about mortality trends are in grey. Saline/instillation abortion trends are in purple.
1904 The Chicago Medical Society forms a Committee on Criminal Abortion, attempting to disseminate information about early prenatal development in the hopes that if women realized that the fetus was alive prior to quickening, they would be less likely to abort. The educational efforts spread nationwide, with many physicians reporting success. The Committee also cooperated with law enforcment in efforts to prosecute criminal abortionists. (LJR)
1910 Every state has anti-abortion laws except Ketucky whose courts judicially declare abortions to be illegal. 1912 The Chicago Medical Society expels Dr. George Lotz after he admitted his involvment in a fatal abortion. (LJR) 1915 The highly publicized death of Anna Johnson after an abortion by Dr. Eva Shaver in Chicago prompts public outrage and prosecution of criminal abortionists. Women's groups and public welfare organizations led the campaign. (LJR) 1917 Margaret Sanger launches The Birth Control Review, precursor to Family Planning Perspectives. * A study at the Washington University Dispensary in St. Louis found that of 51 women admitted for abortion complications, 24% had procured abortions from physicians, 24% from midwives. (LJR) 1918 The Chicago Examiner ran an expose of criminal abortion deaths, prompting a crackdown on abortionists. (LJR) 1920 Abortion is legalized in the Soviet Union. (LJR) 1921 Founding of American Birth Control League. * New York City counts a total of 144 deaths from all abortion (legal, illegal, and spontaneous)(MSC) 1922 Margaret Sanger publishes The Pivot of Civilization: "But there is a special type of philanthropy or benevolence...which strikes me as being more insidiously injurious than any other. This concerns itself directly with the function of maternity, and aims to supply GRATIS medical and nursing facilities to slum mothers. ...They are, we are informed, to ``receive adequate care during pregnancy, at confinement, and for one month afterward.'' Thus are mothers and babies to be saved. ... The effect of maternity endowments and maternity centers supported by private philanthropy would have, perhaps already have had, exactly the most dysgenic tendency. The new government program would facilitate the function of maternity among the very classes in which the absolute necessity is to discourage it." |
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1926 The dismembered body of 20-year-old Edith Green is found in cardboard boxes by the side of a little-used road between two cemeteries in Massachusetts. The medical examiner determined that Edith had been dismembered by "a skillful surgeon," and that she had died from abortion complications. Dr. Thomas E. Walsh and his wife were arrested for the death. (NYT)
1928 The first person Illinois sentenced to die in the electric chair is abortionist Dr. Amenti Rongetti. Rongetti had been convicted of murder in the abortion death of 19-year-old Loretta Enders.(NYT) * Founding of Birth Control Clinical Research Bureau, precursor to the Alan Guttmacher Institute.
1929 Margaret Sanger launches National Committee on Federal Legislation for Birth Control.
1932 A string of suspected abortion deaths in the Okhaoma City area (Mrs. Isobel F. Ferguson on April 14, Ruth Hall on April 15, Virginia Lee Wyckoff and Mrs. F. S. Roach on April 24, and 17-year-old Mrs. Frank Lee on April 25) leads to the arrest of surgeon Dr. Richard E. Thacker and his accomplice, Dr. J. W. Wilsiminger. (NYT)
1936 Abortion proponent Frederick Taussig publishes his wild guess that 200,000 to 1.2 million abortions are performed in the US per year, resulting in 5,000 to 10,000 maternal deaths. * New Jersey police uncover a "Birth Control Club," much like modern dental plans; in exchange for an annual fee, members recieved discounts on abortions. (LJR) * An anonymous call to the police raised suspicions after the burial of 32-year-old Rose Lipner. She was exhumed and an autopsy revealed that she had died of abortion complications. Dr. Maxwell Katz, who had signed Rose's death certificate, was arraigned for second-degree manslaughter. (NYT) |
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1938 Dr. Aleck Bourne is tried for performing an abortion on a teenage rape victim; he had deliberately orchestrated his arrest in order to challenge Brittish abortion laws. This approach succeeds in expanding grounds for "therapeutic" abortions to cases in which the doctor sympanthizes with the patient's situation, effectively establishing abortion on demand in England. (LJR)
1939 Rumanian abortionist develops instillation abortion method, in which chemicals are injected into the amniotic fluid to cause the baby to die and/or be expelled. * Birth Control Federation of America (precursor to Planned Parenthood) formed by merger of American Birth Control League and Birth Control Clinical Research Bureau. * The first "Therapeutic Abortion Committee" is formed at Harper Hospital in Detroit; the Committee reviewed cases in which abortion was recommended for medical reasons and thus prevented unnecessary abortions. This launched similar review committees across the country aimed at preventing unnecessary "therapeutic" abortions. (LJR)
1941 A blind abortionist, Mrs. Sarah Howe, was arrested after the death of her patient, Mrs. Helen Clark. Police had be watching Howe because they suspected that she was an abortionist. (NYT)
1942 Frederick Taussig recants his former abortion numbers and admits that it is impossible to support the claim that as many as 5,000 women die from abortions annually in the US. * Florence Nimick Schnoor, grand-niece of Andrew Carnegie and heiress to a Pittsburgh steel fortune, died of a botched abortion by an unknown person in New York City.(NYT) * Birth Control Federation of America changes name to Planned Parenthood Federation of America. * New York passes a law penalizing physicians for referring women to abortionists. (LJR)
1947 Dr. Paul Singer, a gynecologist, and Dr. Oswald Glasberg, a plastic surgeon, were sentenced to prison for the abortion death of 22-year-old Jane Ward, heir to the Drake Bakeries fortune. Glasberg later committed suicide in prison. (NYT)
1900 - 1950: Pre-Paradigm Shift
1950
- 1970: The Transitional Period
1970
- 1999: The Post-Legalization Era
Sources:
LJR - Leslie J. Reagan, When Abortion Was A Crime,
University of California Press 1997
RS - Rickie Solinger, The Abortionist: A Woman
Against the Law, University of California Press 1996
NYT - New York Times archives
MSC - Mary Steichen Calderone, "Illegal Abortion
as a Public Health Problem," AJPH, July 1960
Related Links
Abortion's
Roots in America
Evolution
of the Abortion Debate
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