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SEX IN THE 1960s: ABORTION

An Illegal Act

In 1960 abortion was illegal in every state in the union. In forty-five states an exception was made if the mother's life were in danger from the preg-nancy. For the rich there was a way out: a women could go to certain doctors at certain hospitals and claim she would kill herself if forced to carry the pregnancy. Thus her life was in danger, and an abortion was permitted. Other women were having abortions illegally. Some were performed by surgeons in sterile environments for a large fee, but most were done by amateurs using dangerous methods.

Exceptions

Several states considered further exceptions. Before the end of the decade Colorado passed a law allowing legal abortion in the case of rape or incest, raising fear among conservative watchdogs that the exceptions provided a means of legal abortion for any woman willing to claim she had been raped. One married woman had to prove her husband was sterile before she was allowed an abortion for a pregnancy as a result of rape.

Changing Views

During the 1960s major changes occurred in the way the public viewed pregnancy that brought changes in abortion law during the 1970s. There was a growing concern about birth defects and advances in physicians' abilities to predict them during pregnancy. The thalidomide tragedy (see Thalidomide: Global Tragedy) disproved the prevailing theory that fetuses were protected from drugs taken by the mother. The terrible birth defects caused by thalidomide raised questions about the justness of a law that forced a woman to give birth to a seriously handicapped child. Similar concerns were raised by the rubella epidemic of the early 1960s (see The Rubella Epidemic). Rubella contracted by mothers in early pregnancy had been known to cause birth defects in about half of all cases since 1941; but there was no treatment, nor were there any means of predicting which rubella mothers would be affected until the introduction of ultrasound, a technique using sonar technology that allowed doctors to "see" inside the womb without harming the fetus. Ultrasound allowed doctors to detect some birth defects long before the baby was actually born.

Abortion Debate

These medical advances stimulated a debate that polarized Americans. Advocates of women's rights argued that the mother should have the right to choose abortion without legal restraint. Religious conservatives argued that a fetus is a human at the point of conception and that abortion is murder. In the middle were those who argued for more legal approval to provide sterile abortions for certain situations. The issue took on religious, social, and political significance in addition to its medical importance.