When Abortion Was a Crime: Women, Medicine, and Law in the United States, 1867-1973 (Paperback)

by Leslie J. Reagan (Author) "home and the medical office..." (more)
Key Phrases: criminal abortion cases, criminal abortion laws, therapeutic abortion committees, New York, United States, Chicago Times (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
In 1900, women attempted to induce abortions by inserting knitting needles, crochet hooks, hairpins, scissors, chicken feathers and cotton balls into their uteruses. In 1917, black women "pinned their faith on... [the] ingestion of... starch or gunpowder and whiskey." Reagan, an assistant professor of history, medicine and women's studies at the University of Illinois, dedicates her disturbing work on abortion in America before Roe v. Wade to "the lives of... women who died trying to control their reproduction." She chronicles the covert efforts and subsequent prosecution of doctors and midwives, and of unmarried women and their lovers (while married women made up the majority of clientele and were accused of "race suicide," they were pursued less often). Reagan has her work cut out for her: Though the law forbade abortions, she writes, "some late-nineteenth-century doctors believed there were two million abortions [performed] every year." And then, as now, debate raged: though some doctors disagreed, the Journal of the American Medical Association declared itself against abortion in the case of rape since "pregnancy is rare after real rape." For those who take legal abortion for granted, Reagan's work is an eye-opener.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From School Library Journal
YA?Most books written about this subject focus on the post-Roe v. Wade period. Reagan relates heart-wrenching stories of women who survived abortions and those who did not. She includes narratives from physicians, midwives, husbands, and boyfriends. The stories of poisonous potions drunk by women in an attempt to "open up the womb" remind readers that reliable birth control and pregnancy tests are recent developments. The author's research for this book comes from the Chicago AMA archives beginning in the mid-1800s when the organization led the way to criminalize abortion. Reagan utilized court records, police reports, medical literature of the day, and coroners' reports. The result is a scholarly chronicle of abortion in a large city. Containing 112 pages of endnotes and bibliography, and a 20-page index, this is a well-researched, organized, and interesting look at the inception and expansion of women's reproductive freedom as a political issue. After reading it, YAs will be better informed about the complexities of this ever-controversial subject.?Nancy Karst, Fairfax County Public Library, VA
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: University of California Press (September 21, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0520216571
• ISBN-13: 978-0520216570
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #241,880 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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  #10 in	Books > Professional & Technical > Law > Perspectives on Law > Gender & the Law
  #10 in	Books > Nonfiction > Law > Perspectives on Law > Gender & the Law
  #24 in	Books > Nonfiction > Women's Studies > Abortion & Birth Control

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

43 of 46 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars When abortion was a crime, September 2, 2004

By	book lover (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews

In summary:
*Don't read this book if you are pro-life and you want data to support your beliefs.
*Do read this book if you are pro-choice and you want data to support your beliefs.
*Do read this book if you need to do historical research on abortions and if you need specific examples of how abortions were performed in the early 1900's.

****
Most of the reviewers who have given this book a negative review seem to be pro-life and seem to be basing their opinion off of their political beliefs. I can see why they're disappointed. With a title like: When Abortion Was A Crime, they were probably expecting something that would support their political beliefs. If you want to read a book to support your pro-life beliefs, don't read this one. It is very obviously pro-choice.

Reagan starts off with a premise that although the law and the church were against abortion, women in the general public were not. She covers historical periods both before and after birth control was widely available. Before birth control was available, the majority of women who had abortions were married and already had children. Some of them felt like they had no other option than to abort a child. If they had sex with their husband, they would eventually get pregnant. If they got pregnant, how would they feed their eleventh child?

I read this book for a specific reason. I was trying to find out what a woman experienced if she had an abortion in 1910. This book was perfect for that. It talked about the different options she had available (midwives and doctors), the different procedures she could have gone through. Before I read this book, I thought that all experiences with abortion when abortion was illegal were similar to what women went through in the fifties. Highly illegal, dangerous, and dirty. I was quite surprised to find out that between 1900 and 1920 fewer women died from abortions than in 1950, and that number was adjusted for population growth. The women still died in 1910. It was still a dangerous procedure, and a doctor could still perforate a woman's uterus, pull out her intestines and kill her while performing an abortion. The woman could still die of septic infection. But there were much better places to go earlier in the century because the public was more accepting.

40 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Powerful Work of History, May 6, 2003

By A Customer

This is elegant historical scholarship that is informative and compelling. I was struck by the way the author used the voices of so many people--women, legal authorities, doctors and journalists to explain not only the legal history of abortion but so much about American history and about women's lives. I'm sorry some other reviewers seem compelled to push their politics rather than describe the book--perhaps they didn't bother to read it. The book is well documented and a model for how to write and explain women's lives.

39 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book will remind you of why you became pro-choice, February 29, 2000

By	L. Conrad (IN, United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book is an absolute must for anyone with an interest in the history of abortion in the US. Leslie Regean goes into great detail about the developments of the anti-abortion movement and how this effected women, doctors, and midwives throughout US history. She includes specific stories, court and hospital documents, as well as evidence for the changing roles of reproductive medicine for women. This book is just plain amazing. I cannot stress enough how important it is for all pro-choicers to read this book. You will be reminded of how important it is to keep abortion legal and how our struggles for choice are not through.