Even if the abortion rates nowadays are constantly rising due to the high efficiency of medical procedures, the history of abortion dates back at least four millenia. Archelogical manuscripts of ancient China and Egypt contain the first laws about reproductive regulation which allowed abortion in rare cases and with the help of abortifacient herbs. On the other hand, strict penalties were used when pregnancy was stopped by a women without the consent of her husband.[1]
Citizens of ancient Rome and the Greek poleis were not new to prenatal interruption of human life either. On the contrary, a wide range of abortion methods were developed and used commonly. Even the writings of well known Philosophers, such as Plato, Hippocrates and others, present a vast variety of techniques to induce planned miscarriages. Examples include eating Silphium (undefined historical herb) or Birthwort (or Aristolochia), using curettes, fasting, making herbal baths and tightening the abdomenal area to expel the dead limbs of the unborn.[2] Still, the interruption of pregnancies was most commonly practiced in the world of prostitution and was looked down upon from the Roman state as a bad example for society in general and as an infringement on parental rights. Thus, temporary exile was a common punishment for doctors and midwifes who gave liquids containing abortifacient plants, especially in the first months of pregnancy before the first movements of the unborn could be felt.[3]
This trend would not stop even during medieval times until the modern era. Especially the 19th century was a time of strict regulations against abortion from conception until birth due to a high death rate of surgical abortions and the demonization of “backstreet abortionists”. Even with the rise of early feminism in the late 19th and the early 20th century there were feminist activists that opposed abortion like Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony because it would not solve its root causes in society.[4]
The history of abortion of our times begins in the 1920s and 30s with the first mass fabrications of abortion pills under various companies and the first laws consenting to abortion for the protection of the mothers life. The first country in European territory was the RSFSR in 1920, which gave place to the liberalization in many Eastern European countries in the 1950s.[5] Nazi Germany used abortion for eugenic reasons, such as disabled children and the offspring of “non-aryan” population. [6] Most Western European countries – starting from Great Britain – liberalized abortion in the 1970s, 80s and 90s as one of the results of the protests of 1968. Recently, the French state in 2024 decided to include abortion in their national constitution as a civil right.
[1] Joffe, Carole (April 3rd, 2009): Abortion and Medicine: A Sociopolitical History. Management of Inintended and Abnormal Pregnancy: Comprehensive Abortion Care (pp. 1-9). https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/9781444313031.ch1.
[2] Klotz, John William (1973): A Christian View of Abortion
[3] Sallares, J. Robert (2003): “abortion”, in Hornblower, Simon; Spawforth, Anthony (eds.), The Oxford Classical Dictionary (3rd ed 19).
[4] Anthony, Susan B. (1869): The Revolution. https://web.archive.org/web/20190319124548/http:/www.prolifequakers.org/susanb.htm.
[5] Heer, David (1965): Abortion, Contraception, and Population Policy in the Soviet Union (pp.531-539).
[6] Trials of War Criminals Before The Nurenberg Military Tribunals Unter Control Council Law No. 10 (1947): https://www.loc.gov/item/2011525364_NT_war-criminals_Vol-IV (pp. 609f).