How Did Women Find Abortions Before Roe v Wade


Everyone knows there were a lot of abortions before Roe. The question is who did them and how did women find out where they could get an abortion. Some estimate between 20% and 30% of pregnancies were terminated by abortions all the decades when it was illegal. An article by a couple of doctors written a few years ago explains the underground world of abortions back then.

One of the doctors said it was ministers who made the arrangements for women. Ministers called to schedule and gave instructions on where and when to see the doctor. They were, he thinks, ministers from liberal branches of Christianity. To put this in context, several Protestant denominations supported abortion rights during most of those decades--including the huge Methodist denomination. So, in helping women many preachers could be open about doing this and run into no problem with the congregation. Christianity Today had articles regularly endorsing abortion rights. My guess is all across the Northern half of the U.S. there was support from preachers.

How could there have been so many abortions when it was illegal? Preachers were part of the answer. Abortion prohibition did not have universal public support. Police officers and sheriffs belonged to these same churches.  

The second doctor practiced in North Carolina. Abortions were legal there but required extra signoffs for several years. Yet, thousands of women there could not get the signatures, did not know they could get them or wanted to keep their pregnancy very private. These women often had "back alley" abortions. One technique, which the doctor said was very reliable at removing the fetus, was to enter the uterus and leave some man-made object, like a piece of sponge from the operating room. Once the object was there, it caused an infection. The infection killed the fetus and it was ejected. But women often got very sick, many died and they filled wings of hospitals.

The doctors also mentioned the other kinds of people doing abortions, nurses and midwives. Some of them were very good at it and became busy. I've already discussed The Story of Jane, a book about a group in Chicago that did 10's of thousands of illegal abortions under the code name "Jane." Jane received referrals from many sources including churches, nurses, doctors, social workers, etc.

Abortions went on during the time before Roe. They are still going on.

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