On criminal abortion in America

by Horatio Robinson Storer

The ratio of premature births to those at the full time, during the period from 1850 to 1856, was 1 to 26.1.[74] In New York, in 1857, it was 1 to 40, and in good medical practice it is found, as we have seen, to be 1 in 78.

In comparing the recorded abortions and premature births in the City of New York, with the still-births there occurring at the full time, we found that the former had varied from 1 in 10, in 1838, to 1 in 4, in 1856.

In the State of Massachusetts it appears, that during the fourteen years and eight months preceding 1855, there were recorded 4570 still-births, and 11,716 premature births and abortions,[75] the ratio being 1 abortion to .3 still-birth; or, in other words, it would appear from the statistics quoted, that the comparative frequency of abortions in Massachusetts is thirteen times as great as in the worst statistics of the City of New York. We are willing, however, we rejoice, to modify this statement, as in the earliest of the years quoted, returns from the City of Boston seem to have been imperfect or wanting,—and to confine our calculations to a more recent period.

From 1850 to 1855, the registration being much more accurate than before, and its results compiled with the greatest care, three years of the five by a noted statistician, Dr. Shurtleff, there were recorded in Massachusetts, 2976 still-births, and 5899 premature births and abortions,[76] the ratio being 1 abortion to .5 still-birth; in other words, the frequency of abortions as compared with still-births at the full time, seems at least eight times as great in Massachusetts as in the worst statistics of the City of New York.[77]

It must not be forgotten that while nearly every still-birth at the full time is necessarily recorded, there must be but very few registrations of the premature births and abortions actually occurring; that though the contrary seems here the case, such occurrences are generally, as they would be supposed, far more frequent in crowded cities than in country districts, or in a State at large; and that however great may be the influence of the prevention of pregnancy in repressing a population, these constitute proofs of pregnancies actually occurring, and frequently criminally terminated.

Few persons could have believed possible the existence of such frightful statistics, the result toward which they must be confessed inevitably to tend, or the dread cause from which they spring. Either these statistics must be thrown aside as utterly erroneous and worthless, or they must be accepted with their conclusions. We would gladly do the former, but they present too many constant quantities, in other respects,[78] for this to be allowed. Our own calculations have been made with care, and we have presented the elements on which they rest. In asserting the results, at once so awful and astounding, we desire to fix upon them the attention and scrutiny of the world.

We have seen that the increase of the population of Massachusetts by living births, is almost exclusively among its resident foreigners, Catholics, the rules of whose church will hereafter be shown to exercise an important influence in preventing the destruction of fœtal life. The conclusion cannot therefore well be avoided, that in these facts there exists the evident relation here intimated, of effects to cause.

With some certainty, then, even though statistics are as yet so imperfect, can we assert this conclusion, that frightful as is the extent to which the crime of abortion is perpetrated abroad, there is reason to believe that it prevails to an equal, if not even greater extent at home.

The frequency of arrests or trials for abortion afford, save indirectly, no criterion of the actual frequency of the crime. Our laws on this subject are at present so easily evaded, that officers of justice find it useless to trouble themselves with its prosecution; it is indeed “non poursuivie.” During the eight years from 1849 to 1858, no report for 1853 being rendered by the Attorney-General, there were 32 trials for abortion in Massachusetts; and in these there was not a single conviction.[79] An estimate that for every arrest for this crime, a thousand instances of its commission escape the vigilance or at least the hand of the law, would probably be within the truth. That such is the fact, is shown by the statistics of France, where, from 1846 to 1850, out of 188 cases that came to the knowledge of the police, for lack of decisive evidence, only 22 went to trial,[80] or about one-ninth of those legally investigated. From 1826 to 1853, there were in France 183 trials for abortion. At the above ratio this will give about 1700 cases judicially examined, a yearly average throughout the empire of between 50 and 60. Comparing this fact with the statistics of the Morgue already given, and with those of the actual decrease of the rate of increase of the population in Paris and in New York, and the increase of premature births, our statement of its frequency will not seem exaggerated.