Women's Role In Abortion

Women have played an important role in abortion by challenging public policies and often risked life to fight for their reproductive rights, yet it was with the help of the medical establishment which ultimately played an important role in the history of abortion. By seeking out those who performed illegal abortions, it was their job to warn of the dangers of abortion and create new laws which enforce those codes. Yet, if many physicians didn 't perform illegal abortions, they would still be unsafe for women and, as a result, many laws that are in place today would not be there to protect individuals and physicians or appropriately serve justice to those who break those laws described in the chapters. In the early 1900 's women talked …show more content…
Elena Root was one of many women who would campaign for the education of midwives. Dr. Root suggested that medical students “attend births in the homes of poor patients”3 due to the fact that they were lucky to attend one birth while attending medical school. Root also suggested “training and testing of midwives before licensing them”4 requiring them to not only register with the Chicago Medical Inspector but to keep case books beginning in 1896. Also standing up for the training of midwives was Grace Abbott who believed that improving their skills would improve both the maternal and infant health of the foreign-born community. Many of these new regulations would be set forth by the death of Anna Johnson in 1915, who committed suicide in her physician 's office after an illegal abortion was performed. The second anti-abortion campaign would develop a three-pronged strategy in order to re-educate society about the immorality and dangers of abortions. By eliminating abortionists from the medical profession and moving focus from state legislature to the local level, new laws could be enforced. Within this new strategy, physicians were expected to assist government agencies in suppressing abortion practices. Women were to be reported upon arriving in a physician 's office with problems stemming from an illegal abortion. They were not only investigated, but humiliated by having their sexual matters exposed publicly and was also required to make a dying declaration. If the doctors helped the patient and did not notify authorities, they became suspect as well. Abortionists were no different than a prostitute. Both exploited their “skill” for gain and “associated with illicit sexuality”.5 Whereas a woman “prostitute” degraded herself for men, an abortionist degraded himself (and the medical profession) for the woman. As dangerous as abortion was, it was still less disturbing than a craniotomy which was done at the time of delivery where the child would be pulled