Prior to regulations being enacted, abortion was a relatively common process for women to practice. However, these methods were usually performed in a hazardous manner, leading to a high rate of death and complications. The first anti-abortion law was created to prevent women from harming themselves with these dangerous techniques; it was enacted in Connecticut in 1821 to stop the ingestion of poison as a method.
Following 1856, the American Medical Association (AMA) began labeling abortions as immoral and dangerous. Dr. Horatio Storer leaded the organization’s pro-life movement and aborting a child in the first trimester becomes a misdemeanor in several states. This was in part due to physicians wanting abortion to be an exclusive practice of their own, which would rid their competition of midwives, apothecaries, and more that provided alternative abortion methods.
A major leap in restricting women’s reproductive rights took form in the Comstock Act of 1873, which banned access to information about birth control and abortion, and the practices themselves. Many states began following regulations provided by the pro-life AMA and abortion becomes illegal with the exception of imminent danger to the mother. With heavy restrictions enforced, women were forced to resort to unsafe back alley abortions. Statistics estimated the number at 1.2 million per year.
Starting in 1963, these tight regulations began loosening with The Society for Human Abortion being established in San Francisco. Soon after, a third of the states repealed or modified their abortion laws with Hawaii being the first. Although liberalization of the practice was occurring, conservative states held firm to their pro-life stance. This culminated in the landmark Roe v. Wade Supreme Court case, which established abortion under right to privacy. It is a constitutional right for a woman to make her own medical decisions.
Though the Supreme Court ruled in favor of abortion, states were quick to place further restrictions once again. Congress passed the Hyde Amendment, in which Medicaid funds were forbidden to be used for abortion barring a few extreme exceptions such as rape or incest. A new Supreme Court Case in 1992, Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey, permitted states to regulate abortions prior to the fetus being viable. The effects of this ruling can be seen today as states are making it more difficult for women to obtain an abortion. Some are reducing their already scarce number of clinics, and passing laws that ban abortion early on in the gestational period.
Currently, there is another significant Supreme Court abortion case in process concerning such closings of vital abortion clinics. If the court upholds the Texas law in question, there could be all but ten clinics left in America’s largest state. The Supreme Court is expected to come to a decision in late June.