History of Abortion
- It’s important to know the history of something. It allows us to look at an issue not from a surface level, but to dive deep and perhaps have a better understanding.
- Has been widely practiced in history
- However condemned in Ancient Greece and Rome. Prior to Christianity. So we can’t use the argument that people of faith want to put their morals on society.
- There were debates then. Aristotle thought it was fine but also believed in exposing offspring for the good of society if they had any kind of defect. “Nothing new under the sun”
- Plutarch the philosopher described the decline of Greek civilization in Pulibus
- “One remarks nowadays over all Greece such a low birth rate and in a general manner such depopulation that the towns are deserted and the fields lying fallow, although this country has not been ravaged by war or epidemic.”
- Hippocrates wrote in the original oath “I will give not give a woman an instrument to produce abortion.
- Abortion in the United States
- Legal until “quickening”, a subjective term used to describe when a pregnant woman could feel the fetus moving, which happens around 16 weeks’ gestation. Because of a lack of medical knowledge they thought that this was when the baby’s life began.
- A little science. The human heart starts beating at 22 days after conception.
- In a CNN article written by Jessica Ravitz she states:
- “There was a time when abortion was simply a part of life in the United States. People didn’t scream about it in protest, and services were marketed openly”
- Let’s replace that with slavery, or child labor, or any of the societal ills that we have laws against today…
- What we are talking about is not an abstract concept. This struggle at the very core, is about human life.
- We need to ask ourselves, if it wasn’t about human life, would there be such an intense struggle?
- Even without the science that we have today that shows life in the womb, a heartbeat can be picked up on ultrasound six weeks after conception. A good sonographer can sometimes pick it up as early as five weeks and six days, even without what we have today, people realized that aborting children had a huge societal effect.
- Legal until “quickening”, a subjective term used to describe when a pregnant woman could feel the fetus moving, which happens around 16 weeks’ gestation. Because of a lack of medical knowledge they thought that this was when the baby’s life began.
For more engaging videos regarding protecting life at all stages – especially before birth – check out more episodes of Life Grounded!