Abortion in the 19th Century

By James Pylant
© 2005


Several years ago, having been hired to continue the work of a late family genealogist, we came upon an usually candid biographical note. The late family historian wrote of an aunt, who in 1894, "went into the local hospital for nurses training after high school & promptly got pregnant. Had abortion at home."

By this young woman's generation, such home-made remedies were not uncommonly known. Although illegal, methods for inducing abortion were found in home medical guides as early as 1810. Dr. Thomas P. Lowry estimates that by 1870, there was one abortion for every five live births. This was a signficant increase from the 1840s, when there was one abortion for every 30 live births.1

Historians believe that mid-eighteenth century Southerners had a more conservative attitude on the subject than that of Northerners. In Philadelphia, for instance, an abortion was somewhat easily available for about $100.2 It was in that city in the 1880s that Mrs. Marcia Hoepfren secretly performed abortions in her home. According to an 1885 newspaper account, "Several women swore that the operations had been performed upon them." The article also stated that "children had been born in the house had mysteriously disappeared. Twins born healthy were found dead in the house later" and "an infant had been burned in the furnance."3

NOTES AND REFERENCES
  1. Thomas P. Lowry, M.D., The Story the Soldiers Wouldn't Tell: Sex in the Civil War (Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania: Stackpole Books, 1994), pp. 95-97.
  2. Catherine Clinton, The Plantation Mistress: Woman's World in the Old South (New York: Pantheon Books, 1982), p. 291.
  3. Austin Daily Statesman, Wed., 1 Apr. 1885, p. 1.


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