So the state of Arizona passed a law in 1864 making almost all abortions illegal.
There’s just one catch. There was no state of Arizona in 1864. Arizona didn’t become a state until 1912. In fact, Arizona just became a federal territory in 1863, halfway through the Civil War back east.
It was a moralistic time, and by 1880 roughly 40 states had laws banning abortion. It was a time in which women were seeking for independence and closer equality to men. Men were saying women had an obligation to stay home and have lots of babies, and while some states — mostly in the west — had more of a liberal attitude toward women’s rights, it would be 40 years before they had the right to vote in federal elections.
Arizona’s 1864 law was fairly straightforward.
“A person who provides, supplies or administers to a pregnant woman, or procures such woman to take any medicine, drugs or substance, or uses or employs any instrument or other means whatever, with intent thereby to procure the miscarriage of such woman, unless it is necessary to save her life, shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison for not less than two years nor more than five years.”
The fact is, there are more people in this country who believe terminating a pregnancy should be between a woman and her doctor than people who believe all abortions should be illegal. The real problem is that with the two sides as far apart as they are, there is no real compromise possible.
Another part to the problem is that many of the people on the illegal side are dishonest about what they really believe. They don’t believe women should have sex unless they want to have a baby. If you listen to the farthest to the right, they don’t believe birth control should be legal.
There is nothing other than a complete and total ban on abortions that will satisfy these people. No possible compromise, even if the people on the other side of the issue were willing to find some common ground.
You see, Roe v Wade was the compromise.
The law behind Roe was that abortion before fetal viability — what used to be called “quickening” — would be legal. Once the fetus could survive on its own outside the womb, there would be far more restrictions on women wanting to have abortions.
But the anti-abortion crowd started insisting the quickening didn’t matter. A fetus left alone would quicken at some point and a potential human being should have as much in the way of rights as an actual one.
And anything people on the other side suggested as ways to make it easier for women to decide not to have abortions is anathema to the right wingers.
Maternal leave?
Socialism.
Day care so mothers can return to work?
Communism.
In the end, the right wing will lose on this issue. The anti-sex, super-moralistic crowd is a minority, albeit a very vocal one. But they will cause a lot of anguish before it’s over and they will do a huge amount of danage to our country.
The irony is making such a big deal out of it in Arizona.
Aren’t there only a dozen or so women still of childbearing age in the state?