{"id":180249,"date":"2018-10-03T11:00:21","date_gmt":"2018-10-03T16:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=180249"},"modified":"2019-07-02T16:42:55","modified_gmt":"2019-07-02T21:42:55","slug":"legal-abortion-equals-more-proof","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/legal-abortion-equals-more-proof\/","title":{"rendered":"Legal abortion equals more abortion, and America’s history is proof of this"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Prior to the 1973 Roe v. Wade<\/em> court decision, each state had its own abortion laws. Many had laws on the books banning it completely, but others legalized it in some form well before 1973. Roe<\/em> didn’t become Roe<\/em> overnight. We can trace its roots back more than a decade prior. And as is usually the case with abortion, once an inch is given, so to speak, those in favor of it tend take a mile. Here’s where it began:<\/p>\n

1959: American Law Institute passes model penal code to liberalize abortion, the basis for Roe v. Wade<\/strong><\/p>\n

In 1959, the American Law Institute (A.L.I.)<\/a>, an organization of American lawyers and other elite members of the judiciary,\u00a0<\/span>whose mission was the reform of American law, proposed<\/a>\u00a0that therapeutic abortions should be legal. Although the first draft of the Model Penal Code to liberalize abortion was released on May 21, 1959, the final version was issued in 1962.<\/p>\n

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American Law Institute (ALI) model penal code on abortion from CDC<\/p><\/div>\n

The law proposed that \u201c[a] licensed physician is justified in terminating a pregnancy if he believes there is a substantial risk:<\/span><\/p>\n

(1) When continuation of pregnancy would gravely impair the physical and mental health of the mother; or<\/span><\/p>\n

(2) When the child might be born with grave physical or mental defect; or<\/span><\/p>\n

(3) When the pregnancy resulted from rape, incest, or other felonious intercourse.”<\/span><\/p>\n

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American Law Institute, Model Penal Code on Abortion (Image: Chicago Tribune, 1966)<\/p><\/div>\n

The ALI\u2019s Model Penal Code was the premise of the 1973 Supreme Court decision, Roe v. Wade<\/em>. At that time a large percentage of states allowed abortion only when the woman\u2019s life was endangered. By 1967, three states had liberalized it; according to Time.com<\/a>, by 1968, four of five states\u2014Colorado, North Carolina, Georgia and Maryland, had authorized it \u201cif the child is likely to be born defective,” but “California did not sanction this ground because Governor Ronald Reagan threatened to veto any bill that included it.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ: Not just Nazis: The grisly history of research on abortion survivors<\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

According to the Washington Post<\/a>,\u00a0“Through the mid-1960s, 44 states outlawed abortion in nearly all situations that did not threaten the life or health of the mother.”<\/p>\n

In 1966, abortion was still illegal in all fifty states, according to Dr. and Mrs. John C. Willke. However, in 1966, Mississippi altered its existing law by adding rape as an indication for a hospital abortion, according to the CDC\u2019s first abortion surveillance report in 1969. And, according to National Right To Life\u2019s <\/span>timeline<\/a>, in 1954, Alabama permitted abortions for the mother\u2019s physical health.<\/span><\/p>\n

According to Dr. Willke, “The Bureau of Vital Statistics reported only 160 mothers had died from abortion in 1966 in the entire USA.”<\/p>\n