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Abortion Rites: A Social History of Abortion in America

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While not a history scholar, I would consider myself an amateur student of history. As I read and study history, I purposely aim for breadth. Focusing on one specific area of historical reading gives good depth, but often that depth is obtained with blinders to other formative areas that impacted that particular area of study. It is for that reason that I read a variety of histories--theological, religious, national, regional, political, ecclesiastical, military, and topical. Because of that broad base I may not have depth of knowledge in a particular area, but I tend to be pretty well versed in the big-picture.

With that understanding as background, I was surprised to realize how little I knew about the history of abortion in America. To be perfectly frank, the entry point of my mental reference for abortion has always been Roe v. Wade. My typical thinking has been that Roe v. Wade came as a direct result of the feminist movement and so-called sexual revolution of the 1960s. In a way it did, but as Marvin Olasky points out in this book, the history tells a much deeper story.

The history which Olasky terms "an early American quilt of death," begins in colonial America in 1629. Of course, records are scarce and the connection between them can easily be misinterpreted, but Olasky links together early court testimonies that weave a sordid tale of infanticide and pregnancy concealment. The crimes appeared to be rare, but were common enough that laws were enacted to legislate against them and prescribe punishments for them. It is interesting that the men involved were often held more culpable than the women.

While tracing the history of abortion in America is the backdrop, the author has a purpose in mind. His desire is to show the relationship between legislation and abortion. The goal of the book is to show that legislation, while necessary, is not the primary deterrent for abortion. As abortions increased exponentially in antebellum America, legislation began to proliferate. In the post-war years, zealous application and enforcement of the new laws began to have an effect, but at best, the effect was limited and temporary.

Through the use of historical records, Olasky shows that abortions are only decreased through a combination of legislation and compassionate prevention. Unlike politically liberal methods of prevention (birth control and sex education), Olasky's methods are primarily related to prenatal care such as crisis pregnancy centers, job training for single mothers and halfway homes for mothers in trouble.

Not only does this book provide historical context to the abortion question, it is also for those who have a sincere desire to see the number of abortions in America reduced. Political conservatives who are frustrated with the current rollback of pro-life legislation can take comfort in the fact that legislation is, at best, only part of the solution. Legislation can only be minimally impacted by most people, but anyone can directly impact the life of unborn children and troubled mothers by volunteering at a local crisis pregnancy center or providing some other kind of prenatal care. It will make a difference--history bears it out.

The description of the condition said "Fair" but it was like new when it came in the mail.
A very informative read on the history of abortion in America. The author goes through the years of progression of abortion. Very detailed and factual with lots of citation. I would suggest this book to anyone who wishes to educate themselves on the topic of abortion in America, whether they be pro-choice or pro-life.

I bought this book because it appeared to offer a comprehensive, honest look at the times before the Supreme Court set limits on state abortion restrictions.

I also bought it, frankly, because it cost a little over half the price of historian James Mohr's Abortion in America. Abortion in America: The Origins and Evolution of National Policy (Galaxy Books)

For others interested in an unbiased look at this issue, don't make the mistake I did. This book is written from a "right-to-life" perspective.

That isn't to say that it doesn't contain some interesting information - probably true, in most cases. But the bias begins to appear fairly early in the text when the use of opinionated language goes from a subtle subtext to what appears to be the purpose of the book. The last chapter consists of advice to those seeking to make abortion a crime or, in the author's words, to "save unborn babies."

But on both counts - history and advice - there seems to be a gap between the content of this book at the vehement rhetoric of the anti-abortion movement, at least as the latter is portrayed in the media and voiced to me personally in a few awkward encounters.

The theme of the book up to its last chapter is to acknowledge what most of the movement people don't do - namely the consistently widespread availability of abortion everywhere among all social and economic classes. It also acknowledges that the passage of the first anti-abortion laws in the 19th century had little affect.

But these things aren't related to the reader in a neat package. Virtually every page after the first chapter contains quotes, in the grandiose prose of the post-Civil War era, about the "debauchery" and "infamy" of those "disgraced" and "fallen" women who flocked to doctors to procure "the murder" of their "helpless unborn babes."

Many of these quotes seem to be included not for their information value but as a means of asserting that the anti-abortion laws of the 1800s were designed to protect the embryo or fetus. But none cited in the book explicitly do. Rather, the gratuitous excess of these phrases seems to reflect the language of the moralists of the day as well as the views of the writer.

The treatment of women in this book would be comic of it didn't accurate reflect common opinion at the time. Women are seen here as either wicked harlots and procurers or as helpless victims of false promises, "seduction," and "betrayal," rarely as people who exert influence over others, let alone themselves. Considerable attention, in fact, is given to an early anti-abortion crusader, Dr. Horacio Storer, who professed the belief that women were inherently unfit for "any responsible effort of mind." Women, he argued, suffered from "transient insanity" that put them in a state of "actual derangement" during puberty and menopause, at the time of menstruation and from the onset of pregnancy to the end of lactation.

A Catholic-basher, Storer also lamented that the nation depended on the defective gender for the settlement of territories west of the Mississippi. He is quoted: "Shall they be filled with our children or by those of aliens? This is the question that our own women must answer; upon their loins depends the future destiny of the nation."

Among others credited with keeping the 19th century anti-abortion crusade on course is the infamous Anthony Comstock who, as head of the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice, promoted a series of anti-obscenity statutes adopted in several states and commonly known as the "Comstock Laws."

Anthony Comstock: his career of cruelty and crime; a chapter from The champions of the Church

These aren't admissions one would expect in a book written to advance the "right-to-life" effort. And neither is the end of the book, which consists of suggestions meant to assist the cause. There the writer seems to concede that the goals of the ideologues are out of reach and that compromise might be the way to go.

The movement is flawed, in other words, but he supports it.

There is much that is interesting and informative in this book - provided you can get through the jumble of flamboyant 19th century prose that overwhelms everything else. But it is diminished by the fact that its purpose is to assist right-to-lifers in formulating more reasonable, history-based arguments.

Abortion in America: The Origins and Evolution of National Policy (Galaxy Books) If you are looking for an unbiased historic reference, James C. Mohr's Abortion in America is the gold standard.