Prenatal Matters

The nineteenth century was a time of rapid advancement in many areas of biological sciences. This caused the English common law demarcation of the quickening for criminality of homicidal acts against unborn children to become outdated faster than the court systems could adapt. State and territorial legislatures began to act by replacing the pseudoscientific quickening demarcation with statutory laws that criminalized fetal homicides and induced abortions from the moment of conception. This video steps through the years to summarize the initial criminal abortion and fetal homicide statute for each state and territory through July of 1868, when the Fourteenth Amendment to the US Constitution reached the threshold of state approvals for ratification. Each summary is accompanied by scans or microfilms of the original statutes.

In the 19th century, there was a major push by physicians within the United States to replace outdated English common law with modern statutory laws in regards to induced abortions. Though the procedures were always illegal, many states courts interpreted common law as applying only from the quickening (~16-18 weeks gestation) onward; however, rapid scientific discoveries during the century had relegated to premise of the quickening to little more than pseudoscience. This video progresses sequentially though time, presenting quotations by physicians regarding their disgust with induced abortions. The statements all appeared within medical textbooks or journals, and those making the statements often spoke as official representatives of medical associations that unanimously backed them.

During the nineteenth century, rapid advancements in science and medicine quickly shifted sentiment on induced abortions among physicians, legislators, and jurists, within the United States. This video progresses through several decades, summarizing rulings of state supreme court cases relating to criminal abortion before ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment. The earlier rulings were entirely based on English common law, as it existed upon American independence. Over the decades, courts began to reference newer statutory laws in rulings, or the rulings themselves led to the drafting of such laws. In some cases, new scientific knowledge on embryology influenced the rulings.