Fig. 23.—Abortion at fourth week.
(Glaister.)
It has been decided in Scotland that drugging or operating to procure abortion is criminal, though unsuccessful, but it is not certain whether the woman alone can be charged with taking drugs to procure abortion. Both in England and in Scotland, to make the procuring of abortion criminal, “there must be felonious intent,” for it may be necessary to cause abortion. It must be borne in mind that the law allows no discretionary power on the part of medical practitioners who, to save the life of the mother, may deem it advisable to induce premature delivery. This being the case, no medical man should attempt to induce premature labour without the consent of the relatives of the woman, and the sanction of a medical colleague after consultation. This precaution is the more necessary as several medical men have been prosecuted, an event which would not have taken place had the precaution above suggested been observed. A medical man should also be very careful never to give any medicine “to bring on the courses” if he has the slightest suspicion of pregnancy, even as a “placebo” to satisfy an importunate patient, for should abortion be otherwise procured, his really harmless medicine may be accused with the result, and a grave suspicion be raised against him, to say the least.
The term abortion is understood in medicine to mean the expulsion of the contents of the fœcundated uterus before the sixth month of pregnancy, that is, before the child is considered viable. After this period it is said to be a premature labour.
In law, however, no distinction is made and the expulsion of the contents of the uterus at any period before the full time of pregnancy is considered an abortion; in popular language, a miscarriage.
Fig. 24.—Abortion between
sixth and eighth week.
(Glaister.)
Fig. 25.—Abortion at tenth week.
(Glaister.)
Abortion, when not produced by criminal means, generally occurs at or a little before the third month of utero-gestation, and then usually in first pregnancies, or during the latter part of the period of child-bearing. It is also more frequent among the rich than among the poor. Of the two thousand cases of pregnant women examined by Dr. Whitehead of Manchester, the sum of whose pregnancies was 8681, or 4.38 for each, rather less than 1 in 7 had aborted.
When abortion is criminally induced, it generally takes place between the fourth and fifth months, that is, about the time the woman becomes certain of her condition.