Womans Corner: Abortion
Abortion Timeline
by Debbie, aka AlbertaRose
The earliest anti-abortion laws were intended to protect women from untrained abortionists. Not to absolve consenting partners of responsibility, and NOT AS A FORM OF "BIRTH CONTROL".
Records indicate abortions occurred unregulated during the 1800s, and the number of deaths caused by complications from illegal and unsafe abortions is impossible to determine. By the end on the 19th century, abortion was criminalized.
| 1821 | America’s first statutory abortion regulation is enacted in Connecticut in order to protect women from abortion inducement through poison administered after the fourth month of pregnancy. |
| 1856 | Leading pro-life advocate Dr. Horatio Storer establishes a national drive by the American Medical Association (AMA) to end legal abortion. First trimester abortion at this point (in most states) is legal or a misdemeanor. |
| 1873 | The Comstock Act bans access to information about abortion and birth control. |
| 1890 | Abortion is regulated by statutes advocated by the AMA, and abortion is permitted upon conferral of one or more physicians who believe the procedure is necessary to preserve the life of the mother. |
| 1959 | The American Law Institute (ALI) proposes a model penal code for state abortion laws. The code advocates legalizing abortion for reasons including the mental or physical health of the mother, pregnancy due to rape and incest, and fetal deformity. |
| 1961 | Vacuum aspiration-style abortion spreads throughout Europe and is considered safer than traditional methods. |
| 1961 | -- President Kennedy creates the Presidential Advisory Council on the Status of Women and calls for the repeal of abortion laws. |
| 1963 | The Society for Human Abortion (SHA) is established in San Francisco. SHA challenges the law by openly providing information on abortion and contraception. |
| 1967 | Apr. 25: Colorado Gov. John A. Love signs the first "liberalized" ALI-model abortion law in the United States, allowing abortion in cases of permanent mental or physical disability of either the child or mother or in cases of rape or incest. Similar laws are passed in California, Oregon, and North Carolina. |
| 1967 | Abortion is classified a felony in 49 states and Washington D.C. Dr. Leon Belous is convicted for referring a woman to an illegal abortionist -- a case leading to a 1969 California Supreme Court decision in favor of the right to choose abortion. |
| 1970 | Abortion activist Dr. Jane Hodgson is convicted in Minnesota for performing an abortion on a 23 year-old woman. The judge does not submit the case to the state Supreme Court. |
| 1970 | -- Apr. 11: New York allows abortion on demand up to the 24th week of pregnancy, as Gov. Nelson A. Rockefeller signs a bill repealing the state’s 1830 law that banned abortion after quickening except to save a woman’s life. Similar laws are passed in Alaska, Hawaii, and Washington state. |
| 1970 | Hawaii becomes the first state to allow abortions performed before 20 weeks of pregnancy, thereby repealing its criminal abortion law. Soon after, New York State repeals its criminal abortion law. |
| 1971 | Apr. 21: The U.S. Supreme Court rules on its first case involving abortion in United States v. Vuitch, upholding a District of Columbia law permitting abortion only to preserve a woman’s life or "health." However, the Court makes it clear that by "health" it means "psychological and physical well-being," effectively allowing abortion for any reason. |
| 1971 | -- Norma McCorvey, an unmarried pregnant woman in Texas, challenges a state law that makes it a crime for a doctor to perform an abortion unless a woman’s life is at stake. To protect her privacy, McCorvey is listed as "Jane Roe" in all court documents. The case took three years to reach the United States Supreme Court. In the meantime, McCorvey had given birth. |
| 1972 | By year’s end a total of 13 states have an ALI-type law. Four states allow abortion on demand. Mississippi allows abortion for rape and incest [1966] while Alabama allows abortion for the mother’s physical health [1954]. However, 31 states allow abortion only to save the mother’s life. New York repeals its 1970 abortion law but Gov. Rockefeller vetoes the repeal. |
| 1972 | Eisenstadt v. Baird: The Supreme Court invalidates a Massachusetts law prohibiting the distribution of contraceptives to unmarried people. The constitutional right to privacy extends to the reproductive decisions of both married and unmarried people. |
| 1973 | Jan. 22: The U.S. Supreme Court issues its ruling in Roe v. Wade, finding that a "right of privacy" it had earlier discovered was "broad enough to encompass" a right to abortion and adopting a trimester scheme of pregnancy. In the first trimester, a state could enact virtually no regulation. In the second trimester, the state could enact some regulation, but only for the purpose of protecting maternal "health." In the third trimester, after viability, a state could ostensibly "proscribe" abortion, provided it made exceptions to preserve the life and "health" of the woman seeking abortion. Issued on the same day, Doe v. Bolton defines "health" to mean "all factors" that affect the woman, including "physican, emotional, psychological, familial, and the woman’s age." |
| 1973 | -- Roe v. Wade: The Supreme Court’s decision legalizes abortion under the constitutional right to privacy and gives women across the country an absolute right to abortion in the first three months of pregnancy. |
| 1973 | -- The Comstock Act prohibiting information on abortion is repealed. (State laws banning contraception remain.) Abortion under "certain" conditions is allowed in 14 states; four states guarantee a woman the choice of pregnancy termination. |
| 1973 | -- In a separate case, Doe vs. Bolton, the Supreme Court votes 7-2 to invalidate Georgia law that required a woman to get approval from three physicians before having an abortion. |
| 1974 | Federally funded research using fetal tissue is prohibited through the National Science Foundation Authorization Act. |
| 1976 | Congress passes the Hyde Amendment, banning the use of Medicaid and other federal funds for abortions. The legislation is upheld by the Supreme Court in 1980. |
| 1979 | Bellotti v. Baird: The Supreme Court invalidates a Massachusetts law requiring parental consent for abortions sought by women under age 18. Pregnant minors can petition a court for permission to have an abortion without parental notification. |
| 1979 | -- A Missouri requirement that abortions after the first trimester be performed in hospitals is found unconstitutional. Another law mandating parental consent is upheld. |
| 1980 | Harris v. McRae: The Supreme Court upholds the Hyde Amendment, a federal law banning the use of Medicaid funds for abortions except when necessary to save a woman’s life. |
| 1981 | In Bellotti vs. Baird, Supreme Court rules that pregnant minors can petition court for permission to have an abortion without parental notification. |
| 1983 | The court strikes down an Akron ordinance that requires doctors to give abortion patients antiabortion literature, imposes a 24-hour waiting period, requires abortions after the first trimester to be performed in a hospital, requires parental consent and requires the aborted fetus to be disposed of in a ?human? manner. |
| 1989 | Webster v. Reproductive Health Services: The Supreme Court upholds a Missouri law barring the use of public money, facilities or employees for abortions. This gives states significant rights to regulate abortion. The Court also orders doctors to test any fetus more than 20 weeks old for viability. It marks the first time the Supreme Court does not explicitly reaffirm Roe vs. Wade. |
| 1990 | Ohio v. Akron Center for Reproductive Health: The Supreme Court upheld a state statute requiring a physician to provide timely notice to one parent that a minor intends to have an abortion. Judicial bypass -- the means by which a minor may bypass the notice by demonstrating evidence of hardship -- is also declared constitutional. |
| 1992 | Planned Parenthood v. Casey: The Supreme Court replaces the trimester framework of its Roe v. Wade decision with the "undue burden" test -- states may enact abortion laws as long as they do not place substantial obstacles in the path of a woman seeking an abortion. Also, in Planned Parenthood vs. Casey, the court reaffirms Roe’s core holding that states may not ban abortions or interfere with a woman’s decision to have an abortion. The court does uphold mandatory 24-hour waiting periods and parental-consent laws. |
| 1993 | President Clinton lifts a rule that forbade doctors in federally-funded clinics from mentioning abortion as an option. He also repeals a ban on the use of fetal tissues in research. |
| 1993 | -- Abortion protestor Michael Griffin shoots Dr. David Gunn outside a clinic in Pensacola, Fla., during a March demonstration; he is later sentenced to life in prison. In August, Dr. George Tiller is shot in the arm while leaving a clinic in Wichita, Kan.; Rachelle ’Shelley’ Shannon is convicted and sentenced to 11 years in prison. |
| 1994 | Hyde Amendment: Congress changes the Hyde Amendment to allow states to pay for Medicaid abortions in cases of rape or incest, as well as to save the life of the mother. |
| 1994 | -- In July, Dr. John Bayard Britton and bodyguard are slain outside clinic in Pensacola, Fla., by former minister Paul J. Hill; Hill is convicted of murder and sentenced to death. In December, John Salvi walks into two Boston-area abortion clinics with a rifle and opens fire, killing two receptionists and wounding five others; he is sentenced to life in prison without parole, but he kills himself in prison in 1996. |
| 1995 | The abortion debate shifts to state bans on "partial-birth" abortions which generally include late-term abortions performed with the "dilation and evacuation" method. The 104th Congress passes HR 1833, a bill to outlaw such procedures. President Clinton later vetoes the legislation, saying it needed to allow for the procedure if needed to protect a woman’s health as well as her life. Congress fails to override the veto. |
| -- Norma McCorvey ("Jane Roe", who didn’t have an abortion because the court ruling came too late, is befriended by the national director of the anti-abortion group Operation Rescue, who baptizes her upon her conversion to Christianity. McCorvey declares that she is pro-life and regrets her role in the landmark case. | |
| 1997 | Two bombs blast outside an Atlanta building containing an abortion clinic; six people injured; the clinic is left in ruins and the blast blows out windows across the street. |
| 2003 | Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003: November of 2003, President Bush signs Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003: “I'm pleased that all of you have joined us as the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003 becomes the law of the land. (Applause.) For years, a terrible form of violence has been directed against children who are inches from birth, while the law looked the other way. Today, at last, the American people and our government have confronted the violence and come to the defense of the innocent child.” http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/11/20031105-1.html |
| Sources: Include, but are not limited to: CNN interactive, "The Evolution of the Abortion Debate" ABC’s The Century "Quarter Century Not Enough to Soothe Tempers," Constitutional Interpretation, Sixth Edition by Craig R. Ducat, The CFA -- Abortion, The Chicago Tribune, California Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League, National Right to Life. | |
We encourage everyone to educate themselves and others regarding the abortion / partial-birth abortion procedure. Please.
Two lives depend on it!
Never give up!
