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In reply to the discussion: Scalia Suggests Women Have No Right to Contraception [View all]happyslug
(14,779 posts)The movement to ban abortion came out of the Medical Community NOT the Religious community in the mid 1800s. Doctors wanted to replace mid-wives when it came to birth of children, but child birth and abortions had NEVER been part of the medical community (That was the area of expertise of Mid-wives NOT doctors).
In a case from the 1830s, a doctor observed that when the births in his hospital was done by mid wives, they had a much higher rate of SURVIVING then if the birth was supervised by Student Doctors. He determined the cause was that the Student Doctors went to the area where the births occur directly from the morgue and other areas where the students were taught about the human body. The head doctor also noticed that if the student doctors did NOT come from the morgue or other parts of the hospital, the rate of child deaths were almost the same as with the midwives. The head doctor then started to insist that his student doctors wash their hands with a disinfection agents, and notice after he had the student doctors use the disinfection agent the death of new born babies dropped to a level BELOW the mid wives. He apparently was about to impose the rite of cleaning on the mid wives (and some indication the mid wives started to imitate the student doctors once they saw the drop in deaths) but the rest of the medical community said his policy violated the rules of medicine. Since the head doctor could NOT show HOW the use of disinfection agents caused the drop in deaths, it was unsupported by medical evidence and thus banned by most doctors and medical associations. Pasteur's research on germs would be 50 years in the future thus the medical community of the 1830s had NOT yet embraced the germ theory of disease. The Medical community was fully embraced by the "Humor" theory of disease, that had been the basis of medicine since the time of ancient Greece. The head doctor observation was thus rejected as unscientific.
I mention the above situation to show that while Mid Wives did most births (And abortions) till the mid 1800s, the Medical community wanted control of both and did so by making abortions illegal EXCEPT WHEN MEDICALLY NEEDED (and that need was to be determined by the doctor, whose judgement was NOT to be questioned, i.e. if you wanted an abortion you had to go to a doctor not a mid wife, mid wives could NOT give medical justification but a doctor could by just saying the abortion was medically needed).
The movement by the medical community to take over births and abortions in the mid 1800s did not at first involve the churches, but as the medical community started to show that "Quickening" was not a distinct act, but just part of the process of development of birth, it undermined traditional Western justification for abortion. i.e. until the fetus had quicken, it was not "ensouled" and thus NOT a human being. For this justification to exist, one has to view quickening as some act like birth of the child or even conception of the child. The Medical community attack on quickening (To justify its take over of births and abortions) undermined 2000 years of justification for abortion in the first two trimesters. This attack on the traditional justification undermined churches teaching on when an abortion was NOT a killing of a human being. Based on what the medical community was showing as to how fetus developed, the next clear cut off from being a human being was conception. Thus the churches, as the result of the Medical Community justification to take over births and abortions, had to review their traditional attitude to abortion and dropped the quickening cut off and replaced it with the conception cut off. The Catholic Church adopted this change in 1870, it was NOT the first church to make all abortions murder, but its change had huge impact on abortion laws. The movement prior to 1870 was to adopt what the medical community wanted, it have sole power to do and justify abortions. After 1870 the movement was to make all abortions illegal UNLESS clearly medically necessary (i.e. a doctor's opinion was NO longer good enough, he had to justify the abortion based on facts not just his personal opinion).
I bring this up, for abortion has a long history, even within the Catholic Church. St Augustine justified abortion if done before quickening, this was supported by St Aquinas (Through both called all abortions a sin, it was NOT the mortal sin of murder till 1871 in the Catholic Church). The key wording was NOT that the fetus was "alive" but if it was a human being. It is murder to kill a Human being (Except by accident or in self defense) but it is NOT murder to kill something that is "alive" but is NOT a human being.