Throughline Abortion Before Roe
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Jun 19, 2025 
Leslie Regan, a historian and professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, dives into the history of abortion before Roe v. Wade. She reveals how abortion was once commonplace, facilitated by women and midwives, before a medical crusade shifted that narrative. Discussion topics include the rise and fall of figures like Madame Restell, the male-dominated medical assault on women's reproductive autonomy, and the ethical and racial motivations behind the criminalization of abortion in the 19th century.
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Quickening Defined Abortion Legality
- Abortions were often called "restoring the menses" and were accepted before the fetus's quickening, around the fourth or fifth month.
- No laws prevented abortion before quickening, a key legal and cultural boundary for pregnancy.
Physicians' Crusade Against Abortion
- Horatio Storer and the AMA launched a campaign to criminalize abortion starting in the 1860s.
- They claimed life begins at conception and framed abortion as immoral murder and a societal crime.
Racial Fears Behind Criminalization
- The anti-abortion campaign was fueled by racial panic aiming to promote births among elite Protestant white women.
- It linked declining white birth rates to fears of 'race suicide' amid immigration and demographic changes.
