Recently, during my daily TikTok therapy scroll, I stumbled upon this video about why abortion was first outlawed:
TikTok user @ava_quick explained how, at school, she learned that abortion was never illegal until the 1860s — the same time period when slavery was abolished. And, since white men were losing their slaves, they wanted more kids to do free work for them. So, she came to the realization that abortion was never really about murder.
This really left me curious to know more and — because the TikTok had over eight million views — I assumed others might be curious as well.
Before we dive into the specific claims made in the TikTok, let's discuss the history of abortion in general. BuzzFeed spoke to law professor, historian, and author Mary Zeigler who said abortion methods have been around for centuries, in almost every culture and civilization. "If we zoom in on the United States, until the late nineteenth century, most states did make abortion illegal, but only later in pregnancy — at the point of quickening, when fetal movement could be detected," she explained.
In 1857, a doctor named Horatio Storer led the American Medical Association (AMA) in a campaign to criminalize all abortions. While Storer did argue in favor of life beginning at fertilization and not quickening (when fetal movements can be felt), one of his main agendas was to prove that physicians were superior to midwives and other practitioners who were competing for business at the time. "The argument that abortion was murder — and that it was immoral — was central to Storer's campaign. However, the campaign had self-interest. Talking about abortion allowed doctors like Storer to claim that they were better informed and had more moral scruples," she said, adding that Storer was Harvard-educated.
But, that wasn't Storer's only reason for wanting to criminalize and outlaw abortion. He also enacted racial bias. He thought that wealthy, educated white women were the main people having abortions because he believed low-income immigrants had more children in general. "Storer wanted the law to ensure that more of the 'better class of women' would have children. This effort was very successful. By the time he retired in the 1870s, virtually every state criminalized abortion — unless a woman's life was at risk," Zeigler told BuzzFeed.
So, now that we have a brief overview of the history of abortion, let's talk about what was discussed in the TikTok and if there may be any truth to it.
There is a correlation in the time period of the abolition of slavery and the outlawing of abortion, just as the TikTok suggests. And, Zeigler said it is possible that some Southerners may have supported the movement to criminalize abortion on the basis that they could have more children do work for free.
However, she believes that the leaders of the movement had different agendas. "The forces behind the criminalization of abortion began work in the Northeast, not the South. Those in the South upset about the abolition of slavery were focused on the creation of a peonage sharecropping system, centered on segregation, that would function almost identically to slavery," she said.
In summary, there may be some truth to the TikTok. But, the movement to make abortion illegal was being pushed mainly on behalf of the AMA and Storer trying to prevent wealthy, educated white women from having control over their own body.
And, if we are discussing morals, someone arguing that an outlaw of abortion would lead to a "better class of women" is pretty contradicting if you ask me! Anyway, I hope this post was informative in some way. Special thanks to Mary Zeigler for her professional insight.
