Initial Criminal Abortion Statutes by State

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English common law demarcation of the quickening for criminality of homicidal acts against unborn children to become outdated faster than the court systems could adapt.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.