Before Roe v. Wade: attitudes against abortion developed slowly in America, but by 1900, every state in the Union had anti-abortion laws. it took a liberal onslaught (and Roe v. Wade) to reverse this.(HISTORY--PAST AND PERSPECTIVE)(Viewpoint essay)

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Pro-abortion forces typically exaggerate the number of abortions performed prior to legalization and paint a dreadful historical picture where millions of desperate women met their demise at the hands of quack abortionists until legalization made the procedure safe. Pro-life proponents often labor under a misconception that abortion was always illegal and rare in this country.

The truth, however, is much more complex. American policies and attitudes about abortion evolved steadily from an early 18th-century position that tolerated limited abortion based upon English common law, to a position that later proscribed abortion in almost every case by the end of the 19th century. This legal and social evolutionary process, which reflected American attitudes about abortion, was finally turned on its head nearly 100 years later with the controversial 1973 Roe v. Wade decision.

Common-law Era

During the early years of the national republic, abortion was governed by English common law that established the beginning of life at the precise moment when fetal movement was first perceived in the womb. This phenomenon was referred to as "quickening," which generally occurred near the midpoint of pregnancy. Common law did not formally recognize the existence of life, or even the existence of a fetus, until the pre-born child's movements were made manifestly apparent.

There was a practical element to this primitive standard--there were no reliable pregnancy tests in 18th-century America, and the movement of a pre-born child was the only sure way to establish that a pregnancy actually existed. In the absence of modern scientific knowledge, the question of when life began was reduced to observing movement in the womb. As a result, actions that terminated pregnancy prior to quickening were not considered criminal under common law even if it was determined that those actions resulted in abortion of a fetus. Without absolute proof of the existence of a fetus, American women were legally free to terminate a pregnancy prior to quickening.

In 1812, a case came before the Massachusetts Supreme Court in which a man named Isaiah Bangs was charged with administering an abortifacient, an agent that causes abortion. He had in tact done so, but the charges were ultimately dismissed since it could not be determined whether the act had occurred prior to quickening.