Abortion has probably existed for as long as self-conscious animals have existed - pregnancy may be part of a species natural life cycle, but not every individual who becomes pregnant wants to remain that way and some will go to great lengths in order to end a pregnancy.

In The Angel of Ashland: Practicing Compassion and Tempting Fate, Vincent J. Genovese writes:

Contrary to popularly held beliefs, abortion is not historically steeped in illegality. In colonial America there were actually no written laws banning abortion. It was rather loosely controlled by common law (unwritten laws handed down over generations). Abortion was permitted so long as it was done before quickening occurred. Quickening referred to that point in time when a woman could feel movement of the fetus (usually around the fifth month).

It's only to be expected that something so common, so widespread, and so old would also have enjoyed at least some legal sanction — or at least implicit sanction — for at least as much time as it has been illegal. Many people regard prostitution as immoral and something that should be criminalized, but it has often been entirely legal — even in America.

Why shouldn't abortion be the same? Why would anyone be surprised that has been entirely legal at times, unless they are simply incapable of understanding positions contrary to their own? Abortion today is supposed to be legal and with few overt restrictions for the first two trimesters. Is it all that coincidental that this corresponds to the period of time before "quickening" usually occurs?

 

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