Abortion rights are health care rights

Abstract

Historical perspective on abortion in the United States The practice of abortion is deeply rooted in American history. The practice of “restoring the menses” was prevalent among European colonists, Indigenous tribes, and enslaved Africans, with many women using herbal recipes shared by mothers, aunts, daughters, and sisters (1). Even health manuals that provided guidance were published. By the mid-18th century, premade abortifacients were available in New England and sold by traveling salesmen (1). Induction of miscarriage was considered part of a woman’s self-care regimen and was acceptable up to the point of “quickening,” when the fetus first kicks — only then was abortion considered illegal and immoral (2). The first laws banning the use of abortifacients after quickening were passed in the 1820s and 1830s, with the intent to protect women from potentially poisonous remedies for so-called “menstrual obstruction” and the men who coerced their use (1). By the 1840s, women received abortion care through mail-order pharmacy or by procedural specialists (3). The American Medical Association (AMA) started the antiabortion movement in 1857 to wrest control of reproductive health from the purview of midwives. Criminalization of abortion at every stage, except for those deemed medically necessary by a physician, restricted clientele from the midwives and homeopaths who previously dominated maternal health and women’s health care (3). Female physicians were initially […]