The number and success of professed abortionists is notorious. If arrested, they are always ready with bribes or abundant bail. Hardly a newspaper throughout the land that does not contain their open and pointed advertisements, or a drug-store whose shelves are not crowded with their nostrums, publicly and unblushingly displayed: the supply of an article presupposes its demand. From these facts we may fairly estimate the extent of their nefarious traffic.
That families are seldom now found of the size formerly common, is also a matter of general remark. It were foolish to attempt to explain this by supposing that the present is an age of more moderate desire, or less unbridled lust; there is too much collateral proof against any such plea. Nor is it reasonable to think that women are generally becoming less productive of offspring than formerly, from any natural cause; or that the mass of our population, whatever the exceptions, are already so far advanced in knowledge, physiological or mechanical, or in practice, as in most cases to be able to regulate impregnation at will. The number of pregnancies must be nearly as abundant as ever; who can doubt what becomes of the offspring? We deny, simply and decidedly, the statement of some writers, that of every seven pregnancies, at least one always naturally terminates in abortion; this is uncorroborated by any reliable evidence, and is without doubt untrue.
Of the experience of physicians, there can be but one opinion. If each man of the profession were honestly to investigate this matter, and as honestly to avow the result, the mass of evidence would be overwhelming. This statement is in nowise invalidated by the experience alleged by many, especially among older practitioners; their evidence, based chiefly on lack of inquisition, or on the acknowledged less prevalence of the crime in former years, is merely negative, and as such only to be valued.
“We blush,” says Prof. Hodge, “while we acknowledge the fact, that in this city, (Philadelphia,) where literature, science, morality, and Christianity are supposed to have so much influence; where all the domestic and social virtues are reported as being in full and delightful exercise, even here” it prevails.[81]
Dr. Blatchford, of Troy, N. Y., writes me thus: “A crime which forty years ago, when I was a young practitioner, was of rare and secret occurrence, has become frequent and bold.” But why multiply instances of what must be the almost universal experience?
Applications for abortion are in many neighborhoods of constant occurrence, by no means among the poorer classes alone; and few women, unless also convinced by their physician of the enormity and guilt of that they intend, are deterred by his refusal from going elsewhere for aid, or from inducing abortion upon themselves.
But far greater proof than this we all possess, or can, if we desire. In but few of the abortions criminally induced is an application ever made to the physician in regular standing. He is oftener called upon after the crime has already been committed, to treat its acute and immediate effects. If he choose to take for granted in every case, that it has occurred from a perfectly natural cause, even where attending circumstances clearly point to the contrary, or to ask no questions, or to shut his eyes and his ears to evident and patent facts, he can of course do so, and perhaps persuade himself that the crime is rare; but if he reflect that upon himself more than on clergyman or legislator, often rests the standard of public morals, and act accordingly, he may arrive at a different result.
But this is not only the fact in acute cases of abortion. The same statement holds true, perhaps even to a greater extent, with regard to chronic obstetric disease. It is now acknowledged that much of this is really the consequence of past difficult or abnormal labors; that the more complicated or improperly interfered with the labor has been, the more certain are unfortunate sequelæ; and that the earlier in pregnancy its occurrence, the greater, as a general rule, the danger, not merely to the mother’s life, but to her subsequent health. In the treatment of these results, even more marked perhaps at a late period than earlier, the dependence of effect on cause, and their evident connection, can often be learned by a faithful inquirer, and in no small proportion of cases does the history go back without turn or the shadow of a doubt, to an induction of criminal abortion.
As a mere matter of individual experience, and from a practice by no means exceptional, the writer some time since reported no less than fifteen such cases as occurring to himself within hardly six months; and of these, all without exception were married and respectable women,[82] many of them of wealth and high social standing; and subsequently he was able, in consultation, to point out similar cases in the practice of gentlemen who, at that time, had denied the legitimacy of his conclusions. This experience must be a common one, only some lack the courage, as others lack the will, to investigate the matter; should they do so, they can come but to one result.
The frequency of maternal deaths, confessedly from criminal abortion, as gathered from published statements and mortuary reports, is also an item of importance in our summary of evidence. It is probable that in but few of the fatal cases really occurring, is foul play ever thought of, especially if the standing of the victim, and her previous history, have been such as to prevent or disarm suspicion; and on the other hand, while immediate death is undoubtedly a frequent result of induced abortion, it is, in proportion to the cases of its later occurrence, or of confirmed and chronic ill health, comparatively rare. From which it must be granted, that for every case thus made known, very many others must necessarily exist.