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Abortion Should Not Be Legal

Decent Essays

Skylar Brister, Michael Clemmons, Ebony Moore
Johnson
TOK
10.30.15
Abortion
Abortion has been around for thousands of years. Abortion was legal in the United states from the time the first settlers arrived. Abortion was legal until in the mid-1800s laws were beginning to be passed to make abortion illegal. All surgical procedures during the mid to late 1800s were extremely dangerous due to the lack of sterilized equipment and the untrained physicians who performed the procedures. The mortality rate of mother and infant during the birthing process was ridiculously high without today 's technology. Like every outlawed thing in the world, there was a back alley market for outlawed abortion procedures. The strongest force behind the repealing of the laws that made abortion illegal was the doctors who wanted to establish for themselves exclusive rights to practice medicine. These doctors wanted to prevent midwives, apothecaries, and homeopaths from competing for payment and patients.
In 1910, all but one state had made abortion a criminal act except for in the scenario where an abortion was necessary to save the mother’s life, in that case, it was considered a “physician 's only” decision. Even though abortion was made illegal, many women still sought abortions, therefore the abortion rate did not decrease. Between the time period of 1880 to 1973 thousands of women were harmed during or from illegal abortions. Some people were fortunate enough to get safer yet still illegal

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