On criminal abortion in America

BY HORATIO R. STORER, M.D., OF BOSTON. MEMBER OF THE AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION.
“And let the legislator and moralist look to it; for as sure as there is in any nation a hidden tampering with infant life, whether frequent or occasional, systematic or accidental, so sure will the chastisement of the Almighty fall on such a nation.”—Granville, on Sudden Death .
PHILADELPHIA: J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO. 1860.


TO THOSE WHOM IT MAY CONCERN, PHYSICIAN, ATTORNEY, JUROR, JUDGE,—AND PARENT,— These Pages ARE RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED.


By the Common Law and by many of our State Codes, fœtal life, per se, is almost wholly ignored and its destruction unpunished ; abortion in every case being considered an offence mainly against the mother, and as such, unless fatal to her, a mere misdemeanor, or wholly disregarded.
By the Moral Law , the wilful killing of a human being at any stage of its existence is Murder.
In undertaking the discussion at length of this subject, three preliminary facts must be assumed:—