The Criminalization of Abortion Began as a Business Tactic

[steve2470]

https://www.history.com/news/the-criminalization-of-abortion-began-as-a-business-tactic

If you opened up the Leavenworth Times, a Kansas newspaper, in the 1850s, you’d see an ad for Sir James Clarke’s Female Pills. These pills, the advertiser bragged, were ideal for bringing on women’s periods—and were “particularly suited to married ladies.”

Then there was Madame Costello, a “female physician” who took out an ad in the New York Herald in the 1840s. She advertised to women “who wish to be treated for obstruction of the monthly period.”

Both ads ran in plain sight, among advertisements for real estate and hair tonics. Both advertised abortions. And for a reader of the time, neither would have raised an eyebrow. Pregnancy was dangerous, and the consequences faced by unwed mothers were severe.

Though the 19th century is seen as a time of more restrictive sexual mores, abortion was actually common: according to at least one estimate, one in every five women at the time had had an abortion. Abortifacients were hawked in store fronts and even door to door. Vendors openly advertised their willingness to end women’s pregnancies. And in private, women shared information about how to prevent conception and induce miscarriages.

[lindysalsagal]

1. Sure as hell it's not in the bible.