From the mid-nineteenth to mid-twentieth centuries, industrialization and expansion changed the face of American society. The rise of poverty and class disparities encouraged social reformers to try and better the nation. Members of these reform organizations attacked prostitution, illegitimate pregnancy, marriage, and a myriad of other social “ills.” While men commuted to work, Victorian middle-class homes became the domain of women, who entertained guests, educated and raised the children and governed the family's social life. These “white” middle class values were hard to practice in the West where populations of white men far outnumbered women and Hispanic male culture dominated the region. Motivations for patriarchal power and sexual pleasure
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By the end of the nineteenth century, the quickening doctrine was no longer the key to abortion law and the determination of when life begins. The American Medical Association (AMA) played a major role in the movement to redefine the moment of animation and restrict abortions. The twentieth century, marked by increasing urbanization, industrialization, immigration, and eugenics, fueled a reproductive control regime that pressured middle-class white women to reproduce robustly. As non-marital sex and pregnancy became more common during the later postwar period), it became increasingly difficult to for politicians to sequester and punish girls and women with middle-class affiliations. The physicians' motivation was not concern for the fetus. The physicians gained status and power from the restriction of abortion; they emerged from the century as the only abortion authority. “Male physicians and psychiatrists, claimed that illegitimacy reflected a mental not environmental or biological disorder and was, in general, a symptom of individual, treatable neuroses.” (16) These professionals also believed an unwed mother had indulged in intercourse and become pregnant because she was subnormal, suggesting an identity of mental degeneracy for unwed pregnant women. The physicians capitalized on eugenics and collective fear among the most powerful section of the population — the law makers. Physicians were empowered by the sole ability to grant abortions, emerged as primary care givers, and successfully lobbied state legislatures for the alterations in law that allowed them to fill those
By the end of the nineteenth century, the quickening doctrine was no longer the key to abortion law and the determination of when life begins. The American Medical Association (AMA) played a major role in the movement to redefine the moment of animation and restrict abortions. The twentieth century, marked by increasing urbanization, industrialization, immigration, and eugenics, fueled a reproductive control regime that pressured middle-class white women to reproduce robustly. As non-marital sex and pregnancy became more common during the later postwar period), it became increasingly difficult to for politicians to sequester and punish girls and women with middle-class affiliations. The physicians' motivation was not concern for the fetus. The physicians gained status and power from the restriction of abortion; they emerged from the century as the only abortion authority. “Male physicians and psychiatrists, claimed that illegitimacy reflected a mental not environmental or biological disorder and was, in general, a symptom of individual, treatable neuroses.” (16) These professionals also believed an unwed mother had indulged in intercourse and become pregnant because she was subnormal, suggesting an identity of mental degeneracy for unwed pregnant women. The physicians capitalized on eugenics and collective fear among the most powerful section of the population — the law makers. Physicians were empowered by the sole ability to grant abortions, emerged as primary care givers, and successfully lobbied state legislatures for the alterations in law that allowed them to fill those