Abortion History

History

Abortion has been in existence since the Ancient times and practiced by women all over the world. From primitive potions to barbaric tools and odd instruments, women resorted to painful, humiliating procedures in order to induce a miscarriage. When you take a look at the evolution of abortion, the reasons are clear WHY Hope Clinic was established and continues to exist today.

	2600 BC –First recorded recipe for an abortion producing drug.
	1850 BC –Egyptians record recipe for contraceptive pessaries, one made from crocodile dung.
	4th Century AD –St.Augustine lays down Catholic dogma sanctioning abortion up to 80 days for female fetus and up to 40 days for male fetus.
	13th Century AD -St.Thomas Aquinas states Catholic dogma justifying sexual intercourse only for procreation.
	1564 AD -Italian anatomist, Fallopius, discoverer of Fallopian tubes, publicizes condoms as anti-venereal disease devices.
	1588 – Pope Sixtus forbids all abortions.
	1591 – Pope Gregory XIV rescinds Pope Sixtus’ edict against abortion.
	1803 – Great Britain makes abortion a misdemeanor.
	1821 – Connecticut outlaws abortion after quickening, early abortions are legal.
	1860’s – All states pass comprehensive, criminal abortion laws. Most remain until 1973.
	1869 – Pope Pius IX forbids all abortions in exchange for France’s Napoleon III acknowledging papal infallibility. France’s population experienced a sharp decrease over the previous 60 years.
	1873 – Federal Comstock laws enacted prohibiting mailing or distribution of information on birth control and abortion.
	1879 – Margaret Higgins Sanger is born. She led the movement for birth control in the U.S.
	1882 – First “modern” birth control clinic in the world opens in Holland, sponsored by trade unions.
	1913 – Margaret Sanger arrested for violation of Comstock laws because of feminist birth control columns in, The Woman Rebel.
	1916 - Margaret Sanger & her sister, Ethel Byrne jailed for dispensing contraceptive information at first American birth control clinic in Brooklyn, NY.
	1924 – First scientific confirmation of women’s ovulatory and fertility cycle.
	1930 – Pope Pius XI affirms Catholic dogma that every act of sexual intercourse is a sin unless performed with a reproductive intent.
	1942 – Margaret Sanger’s Birth Control Federation of America becomes Planned Parenthood Federation of America.
	1956 – Dr. John Rock (a Catholic) and others developed the birth control pill. Their research was funded by two women.
	1960’s – FBI crime reports showed organized crime rings made enormous profits performing dangerous abortions. Any doctors caught performing a safe abortion were sent to prison, fined, and had their medical license taken away.
	1963 – Pope Paul IV issues encyclical Humanae Vitae condemning artificial birth control.
	1965 – In Griswold v. Connecticut, U.S. Supreme Court rules Connecticut’s law prohibiting birth control for married couples violates a newly defined right of marital privacy.
	1967 – Then-Governor Ronald Reagan of California signs the most liberal abortion law of the times allowing freedom of choice during the first 20 weeks of pregnancy.
	1970 – Hawaii, Alaska, and New York repeal criminal abortion laws allowing abortion in the first trimester.
	1970 – Belotti v Baird II decision allows states to require parental consent for abortion so long as there is a confidential judicial bypass.
	1972 – Supreme Court finds the right to privacy of unmarried persons violated by Massachusetts law against distribution of contraceptives in Eisenstadt v Baird. Justice Brennan in the majority opinion states that all Americans have a right to bear and beget children free from government interference.
	1973 – On January 22, 1973 the U.S. Supreme Court in a 7-2 decision, hands down Roe v Wade making a 1st trimester abortion a private decision between a woman & her physician. In the 2nd trimester states can put limitations on abortion with regard to the health of the pregnant woman. In the 3rd trimester states can make abortion illegal except to save the life of the woman.
	1973 – Indiana passes first call for a Constitutional Convention to ban abortion.
	1974 - Hope Clinic for Women in Granite City, IL, opens as one of the first abortion providers.
	1976 – Hyde Amendment is passed barring the use of federal Medicaid funds to provide abortions to poor women.
	1977 – A revised Hyde Amendment is passed which allows states to deny Medicaid funding except in cases of rape, incest, or severe and long lasting damage to the woman’s physical health. Rosise Jimenez, a 27- year-old mother on welfare, died of an illegal abortion as she could not afford to get a legal abortion due to the Hyde Amendment.
	1977 – First reported arson at an abortion clinic (in St. Paul, MN) and first know bombing of an abortion clinic (in Cincinnati, OH).
	1980 – 19 of the 34 states required have passed calls for a Constitutional Convention.
	1982 - Janyary, 1/3 of Hope Clinic destroyed by fire bomb.
	1982 - August, physician who owns Hope Clinic kidnapped along with his wife by three men calling themselves the Army of God. Both were held bound, blindfolded, and gagged on the dirt floor of an abandoned munitions bunker for eight days. All three men went to jail.
	1989 – Webster v Reproductive Health Services is handed down by Supreme Court allowing states to place increased restrictions on access.
	1991 – Supreme Court upholds Title X gag rule (restriction on mentioning abortion in federally funded clinics) in Rust v Sullivan. Congress votes overwhelmingly to overturn gag rule, but override of Pres. Bush’s veto fails narrowly.
	1993 – Newly inaugurated President Clinton reverses several anti-choice policies of Reagan & Bush administrations including gag rule.
	1993 – Dr.David Gunn is murdered by anti-choice fanatic in Florida. He is the first of a series of abortion providers shot in the following years.
	1994 – President Clinton signs Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE) making it a federal crime to interfere with the provision of reproductive health care.
	1994 – Dr. John Britton, Lt. Col. Jim Barrett, Shannon Lowney, and Leanne Nichols are murdered in shootings at three abortion clinics.
	1995 – U.S. clinical trials of mifepristone (RU486)
	1998 – 25 years of legal abortion in America.
	1999 - Hope Clinic moves to state-of-the-art building.
	2000 – FDA approves Mifeprex (RU486)
	2000 - Hope Clinic begins offering the abortion pill (Mifeprex).
	2004 - Hope Clinic turns 30 years old.