Alberto B. Lopez

Abortion and its regulation has long sparked heated debate in the United States. During the nineteenth century, many states authored laws making the performance of abortions illegal, but state governments enforced those laws only sporadically. By the mid-twentieth century, however, states began to enforce their anti-abortion laws more rigorously, which led some women to seek abortions outside the medical profession to avoid detection. Because of the dangers associated with illegal abortions, public demand for safe abortions increased during the 1960s; therefore many states responded by legalizing abortion under certain circumstances—such as where a threat to the mother's health existed or when the unborn child faced physical or mental impairment. Nonetheless, abortion...