Femina, A Work for Every Woman

by John A. Miller

The word “miscarriage” is generally preferred to that of “abortion” under the misconception that only the latter implies criminal culpability; this, of course, is an error, because each word means exactly the same thing, with this difference, that one is of Latin origin, while the other is a plain Anglo-Saxon term. An abortion that is brought about, from other than natural causes, for the deliberate and avowed purpose of escaping from the inconvenience, privation, and cares of maternity, is always qualified by the adjective criminal.

In the early months of pregnancy, it very seldom, though it occasionally does happen, that complications arise which place the life of the mother in imminent danger; that the embryo shares this danger in a corresponding degree is self-evident, because the fetus is unable to live independently of the mother any time before the expiration of the sixth month of gestation, so that the death of the mother means death to the fetus also.

Through a fall, heavy lifting, or a sudden jar, a partial detachment is liable to occur between the placenta of the fetus and the wall of the mother’s womb, that being the place where the blood of the one is exchanged into the blood of the other; from this, a hemorrhage may result, which will not yield to rest nor to other means which experience has taught to be useful. This loss of blood may be so great that, if it continues, the life of both will be sacrificed.

In some women pregnancy may become complicated with convulsions; these may be so violent, and recur so often, as to threaten life, and they are obstinate to all medicinal resources.

Contingencies of the above nature evoked the scientific inquiry, whether abortions are ever justifiable. The answer must invariably be, that when it is clearly seen that the mother will surely die, and her fetus with her, an induced abortion becomes a justifiable obstetric resource, and under these circumstances it is not a crime nor even a sacrifice of the embryo, which would have perished with the mother.

This rule of practice has been endorsed by the very highest authority in obstetric science, and the competent conscientious physician will readily draw the line between cases where so radical a measure becomes necessary, and where milder conservative measures will save the life of both mother and child.

This cannot be a license for crime, except that the sordidly depraved time server may often try to stretch the threatening danger, but when this is done it is no less a crime of murder in the eyes of God, than if he had premeditatedly and willfully slain a fellow-being.

Such persons would not shrink from the perpetration of any crime, be it ever so heinous and black. These wretches are too cowardly to thrust a poniard into their victims on the highway, but ever ready to operate in secrecy in the abortion chamber, which is hidden from the eyes of man. I have known abortions being sought and abortions being committed, upon the flimsy pretext of being too weak, or too sick at the stomach. These are shallow subterfuges, that should not be countenanced by any conscientious practitioner.

Many reasons are either imaginary or pretended, and I have often proved the fallacy of pretensions of an inability to carry a child, after women had gone through the abortion mills, by persuading them to become reconciled, for the time being, and that I would see them through to a happy end, and in no case were their fears justified by subsequent developments. There is a great deal in controlling the minds of these women, and directing them into wholesome channels of thought, and after that they become much happier and contented than ever before in their married lives.