Abortion Was Far From Illegal in the Past
and was enacted in response to a scandalous preacher (History-Repeat-6 Minute Read)
The fundamental human right to an abortion is under egregious attack in America.
From Alabama’s 99-year sentences, to Texas’s ridiculous deputisation of, well pretty much anyone in the world, to Mississippi’s 15-week challenge in the Supreme Court — hardcore religious conservatives want to strip women of their rights as soon as they can.
It’s also probably worth mentioning that from 2011 to 2020 alone, 480 different abortion restricting laws were passed in the US, too.
Oh, and 21 states have so-called “trigger bans” that will automatically criminalize abortions the second Roe v. Wade gets overturned — if that dreaded day ever comes to pass.
But it got me wondering a few things:
How many Americans actually want to overturn Roe v Wade? (Turns out that’s a minority 32% of all Americans and surprisingly, only 46% of Republican-leaning individuals)
When was abortion first addressed in US law? (We’ll explore that shortly)
Did switching on CERN in 2008 actually launch us into the dystopian timeline forever condemning our eternal souls to years of fat pumpkiny ridiculousness? (TBD)
The second question ended up being an incredibly interesting rabbit hole, to say the least.
We could all make a reasonable guess religious groups have a hand in any anti-abortion movements and legislation across the country.
But the fact the original law was passed in direct response to a priest’s heinous actions was probably a bit surprising.
Here’s what happened.
Rewind to Quononoquett
Back in the very beginnings of the country many lovely people call home, abortion law essentially copied what existed in England already.
That is, they were essentially legal, commonly practiced, and not a very controversial issue. At least in comparison to the outrage of the divisive topic today.
The main contention of anyone getting an abortion was it had to take place before the “quickening” — that’s what they called the time beginning when the mother feels a baby’s first kicks inside the womb.
Usually, this happens anywhere between 14 to 26 weeks into pregnancy, with mothers who’ve given birth previously often experiencing it sooner.
This legal environment all changed in 1821 in the bumfuzzled little mispronounced state we call Connecticut.
The story essentially goes like this.
From Yale to Fail
A man named Ammi Rogers was born in 1770, grew up, went to Yale, and did what any bright young prospect who wanted to become rich did at the time — he became a preacher.
But for an educated priest from a good upbringing, Ammi was no friend to the religious establishment. While he was initially ordained in 1794, the Episcopal ministry in Connecticut later banned him from practicing.
Why?
Because he advocated for something that's somehow-still-a-f*cking-issue today — he strongly believed in the separation of church and state.
But much like Dr. Phil, a lack of an official license didn’t stop him from preaching to those who would listen.
According to law professor Lolita Buckner Inniss — who studied this case intensely — Ammis was also known to be a bit of a ladies man. Especially among his female congregants.
Who needs Tinder when you’re a big morally ambiguous fish in a small pond?
It’s the age-old classic tale of a rebellious anti-authoritarian Casanova cowboy preacher. If the movie doesn’t exist already, I’m sure Netflix will produce it in a month or two.
But the tale of the free-thinking free-swinging religious Casanova Rogers didn’t end up well, in case you didn’t guess already.
Tending to his Frock
When he was around 50 years old, Rogers was called to one of his congregant's death beds. An elderly lady wanted some bedside comfort (not a pun) in her parting hours.
She also had a beautiful granddaughter, Asenath Smith, who was either 17 (according to court records) or 21 (according to census data).
At some point in 1817, the beautiful Asenath became pregnant with you-know-who as the father.
But as any upstanding religious leader would do, he flat out denied any responsibility. He only relented after Asenath was already experiencing the “quickening” and agreed to marry her — if she had an abortion first.
He first tried inducing an abortion with “medicine,” likely a form of ergots or cantharides (I’ll pretend I know what those are). After that failed, he moved on to using a mechanical “tool” that ended up with the same result.
The family’s physician was soon called in a short while later and Asenath sadly endured a completely avoidable stillbirth from the abortion attempts.
Woe is He
Conanicut society was outraged.
Newspapers couldn’t let the headlines be buried. A rebellious preacher, a young seamstress, a sex scandal, and death? You couldn’t write a better headline if you tried, let alone a morbid joke about walking into a bar.
But there was a problem (not for Rogers) — the courts had very few existing laws to actually charge the preacher with.
In the end, after a brief period where he fled, Rogers was arrested for a high crime and a misdemeanor.
The first trial ended up being thrown out, as Rogers convinced Asenath and her sister not to testify against him. Whether that convincing involved kidnapping or further promises of marriage won’t ever be known for sure.
Either way, the case was dismissed without their testimony.
But the prosecutors weren’t finished, they launched another trial where this time the witnesses were there — and they recanted any negative statements about Rogers.
For justice’s sake, the court chose to ignore that normally-crucial part. In this case, they relied on previous statements given to authorities instead and convicted him based on that.
Ammi Rogers was sentenced to 2 years in prison for sexual assault in 1820 — something almost unheard of at the time given the legal patriarchal system of the era.
A New Age of Ridiculous Laws is Birthed
A short year later, the Connecticut General Assembly passed a bill outlawing medicinal abortion for those “quick with child.”
It specifically targeted those who provided the drugs rather than the women themselves. But even all those years ago, the law still only applied to women after “the quickening.”
Which, again, is in the 4th to 5th-month range in typical pregnancies. Any abortions before that period essentially remained legal and common practice, often performed by physicians (good), midwives (good), or snake-oil salesmen (bad).
Regardless, the seeds of panic were planted and spread throughout the young country.
Bills to ban abortions were enacted in 10 of the 26 states within only two decades of the first Connecticut law.
As for Rogers, he spent the rest of his life preaching he was railroaded and unfairly prosecuted by a lifelong rival. He also wrote no less than 6 full heavily biased memoirs saying just how innocent he was.
Fast Forward
The origins of the modern laws of abortion in the US are somewhat ironic, heinous, and controversial.
To think a preacher was able to force and coerce a young woman, likely against her will, to conduct an abortion with rudimentary unsafe methods just to secretly maintain his reputation in the community is absolutely appalling, to say the least.
But what is even more appalling is how these laws evolved over time.
Instead of being like most of the developed world, or even 98% of all countries that allow some form of legal abortion, America’s potentially permanently minority party is dead-set on getting their way.
And this horrifying-to-the-rest-of-the-world way is clearly against the will of the American people themselves.
The polls show it. The voters show it. The ex-president even suggested using the service himself, as if we have to pretend the proudly lifelong philanderer never did.
It’s a large minority voting block of similar-minded individuals, coerced by decades of being told what to think by religious billionaires, that feel their way is the only way to live.
A way set so far in the past, they’re not just trying to set the country backward a few decades to a time before Roe v. Wade, they want to take America back to the dark ages.
And the thing is, they probably don’t even know it.
But with Trump’s successful court stacking, an impossible to overcome filibuster, and gerrymandering not seen since the 60s, they just might get their way.
But hey, even if their own laws deprive them of essential services (read: human rights) like this, at least wealthy moralless snake oil senators will be able to travel to Mexico whenever they need them.
After all, “Winter is coming.”
Sooner than we think.
J.J. Pryor
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Photo Credit: By Nazim Coskun on Unsplash
You have penned a wonderful history of a complicated subject. In Ireland, before abortion became legal, women with money just flew to England for a vacation. When I was growing up, women with money had a procedure called a D & C. Women without money often died from using smake oil salesmen. Republicans believe in smaller government, except when it concerns women's rights, voting rights for people of color, or Democrats, then they want the full force of the Federal government to intervene. Huge military budgets are OK, any social programs that might help people are NOT OK. We are still blockading Cuba fearful of an invasion of socialists who might spread the ideas of universal health care, paid paternity leave, and free school lunches for children in need. America as "THe City on the Hill" has become if it ever was, The City in the Cesspool.