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When Abortion Was a Crime: Women, Medicine, and Law in the United States, 1867-1973, with a New Preface
The definitive history of abortion in the United States, with a new preface that equips readers for what’s to come.
When Abortion Was a Crime is the must-read book on abortion history. Originally published ahead of the thirtieth anniversary of Roe v. Wade, this award-winning study was the first to examine the entire period during which abortion was illegal in the United States, beginning in the mid-nineteenth century and ending with that monumental case in 1973. When Abortion Was a Crime is filled with intimate stories and nuanced analysis, demonstrating how abortion was criminalized and policed—and how millions of women sought abortions regardless of the law. With this edition, Leslie J. Reagan provides a new preface that addresses the dangerous and ongoing threats to abortion access across the country, and the precarity of our current moment.
While abortions have typically been portrayed as grim "back alley" operations, this deeply researched history confirms that many abortion providers—including physicians—practiced openly and safely, despite prohibitions by the state and the American Medical Association. Women could find cooperative and reliable practitioners; but prosecution, public humiliation, loss of privacy, and inferior medical care were a constant threat. Reagan's analysis of previously untapped sources, including inquest records and trial transcripts, shows the fragility of patient rights and raises provocative questions about the relationship between medicine and law. With the right to abortion increasingly under attack, this book remains the definitive history of abortion in the United States, offering vital lessons for every American concerned with health care, civil liberties, and personal and sexual freedom.
When Abortion Was a Crime is the must-read book on abortion history. Originally published ahead of the thirtieth anniversary of Roe v. Wade, this award-winning study was the first to examine the entire period during which abortion was illegal in the United States, beginning in the mid-nineteenth century and ending with that monumental case in 1973. When Abortion Was a Crime is filled with intimate stories and nuanced analysis, demonstrating how abortion was criminalized and policed—and how millions of women sought abortions regardless of the law. With this edition, Leslie J. Reagan provides a new preface that addresses the dangerous and ongoing threats to abortion access across the country, and the precarity of our current moment.
While abortions have typically been portrayed as grim "back alley" operations, this deeply researched history confirms that many abortion providers—including physicians—practiced openly and safely, despite prohibitions by the state and the American Medical Association. Women could find cooperative and reliable practitioners; but prosecution, public humiliation, loss of privacy, and inferior medical care were a constant threat. Reagan's analysis of previously untapped sources, including inquest records and trial transcripts, shows the fragility of patient rights and raises provocative questions about the relationship between medicine and law. With the right to abortion increasingly under attack, this book remains the definitive history of abortion in the United States, offering vital lessons for every American concerned with health care, civil liberties, and personal and sexual freedom.
- GenresFeminismNonfiction
406 pages, Kindle Edition
Published February 22, 2022
34 people are currently reading
283 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
May 4, 2025
Legal Abortion Is a Necessity for Women's Health
This book was sometimes hard to read because it dealt with the death and maiming of women who sought to end their pregnancy. It was especially difficult to read since the overturning of Roe v Wade has returned women to a time of unnecessary deaths, imprisonment and investigation of miscarriages. The author clearly foresaw the deadly outcome of a return to illegal abortion.
This book was sometimes hard to read because it dealt with the death and maiming of women who sought to end their pregnancy. It was especially difficult to read since the overturning of Roe v Wade has returned women to a time of unnecessary deaths, imprisonment and investigation of miscarriages. The author clearly foresaw the deadly outcome of a return to illegal abortion.
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January 29, 2023for thesis i think i read 1/3 of this last nov?
FABULOUS book
FABULOUS book
February 7, 2023
OUTSTANDING!!! everyone go read this please!!!
October 3, 2022
Unfulfilled Expectations
In the wake of the SCOTUS decision in Dobbs I selected this title to read as part of an effort to contextualize the opinion. And the book did, in fact, provide to me some understanding of the varying treatment of the abortion issue over the examined century. I now know, for instance, that the harsh economic and social conditions during the Depression allowed for the greater availability of abortion services. And during the McCarthy era of the 1950’s, when personal freedoms generally were under attack, it became more difficult to access safe abortions. The book’s failing, though, is in the absence of any meaningful discussion of the forces that were at play on the state pre-Roe that initially led to the implementation, and then to the preservation, of abortion bans, notwithstanding the uninterrupted demand for abortion services. Is this simply explained by the unchallenged political power of the Church to advance the “life begins at conception” position or were there other political pressures at play? And, whatever those forces were, had they significantly weakened by the early 1970’s which thereby allowed the general public acceptance of Roe? Finally, without identifying and evaluating the pre-Roe forces that bolstered the century of abortion bans, this book did not assist this reader in answering the question of whether, in the wake of Dobbs, those forces have returned.
In the wake of the SCOTUS decision in Dobbs I selected this title to read as part of an effort to contextualize the opinion. And the book did, in fact, provide to me some understanding of the varying treatment of the abortion issue over the examined century. I now know, for instance, that the harsh economic and social conditions during the Depression allowed for the greater availability of abortion services. And during the McCarthy era of the 1950’s, when personal freedoms generally were under attack, it became more difficult to access safe abortions. The book’s failing, though, is in the absence of any meaningful discussion of the forces that were at play on the state pre-Roe that initially led to the implementation, and then to the preservation, of abortion bans, notwithstanding the uninterrupted demand for abortion services. Is this simply explained by the unchallenged political power of the Church to advance the “life begins at conception” position or were there other political pressures at play? And, whatever those forces were, had they significantly weakened by the early 1970’s which thereby allowed the general public acceptance of Roe? Finally, without identifying and evaluating the pre-Roe forces that bolstered the century of abortion bans, this book did not assist this reader in answering the question of whether, in the wake of Dobbs, those forces have returned.
February 10, 2024
"The obsessive focus on the behavior, pregnant women allows Americans to overlook the social and economic roots of this country's high infant mortality rates, as well as the general populations difficulty in improving its eating habits, or eliminating, smoking, and alcohol and drug abuse."
Pg 250
Pg 250
October 7, 2022
This book was informative and accessible. Heavily centered on the abortion scene in Chicago specifically. I would have liked a more objective lens in analyzing the issues.
January 2, 2026
really great book. it is definitely a more difficult read, as it discuss the complete history of abortion in the united states, the terrible and the good. this book was extremely informational and taught me a lot of things about the history of abortion that i didn’t know. highly recommend for everybody to read this.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews