On criminal abortion in America

A mid‑nineteenth‑century physician turns his careful eye toward a controversial medical and legal issue that was largely ignored by the courts of his day. Addressing doctors, lawyers, jurors and parents alike, he sketches how common law and many state codes treated the loss of fetal life as a minor misdemeanor against the mother, while moral doctrine regarded it as outright murder. The work opens by laying out three essential assumptions that frame the discussion, then lists the professional and social obstacles that have kept the subject hidden.

From that foundation the author argues that physicians, as guardians of women’s health, have a duty to expose the true extent of clandestine abortions, their methods, and the forces that protect them. He contends that confronting the problem head‑on can help curb the practice, protect public health, and guide the legal system toward a more consistent response. The treatise promises a measured, evidence‑based look at a crime that was, at the time, shrouded in silence.