The Pre-Roe Pro-Life Movement in Minnesota and New York
The Pre-Roe Pro-Life Movement in Minnesota and New York
The Pre-Roe Pro-Life Movement in Minnesota and New York
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performed the procedure, doctors were largely motivated by economic factors <strong>in</strong> form<strong>in</strong>g<br />
their anti-abortion stance. 2<br />
Indeed, the 1840s saw the rise of abortion as a bus<strong>in</strong>ess, <strong>and</strong><br />
with this trend came a greater awareness of competition <strong>in</strong> the medical sphere. 3<br />
In<br />
attack<strong>in</strong>g abortion, doctors elim<strong>in</strong>ated their competition, presented themselves as both<br />
professional <strong>and</strong> moral authorities, <strong>and</strong> thus <strong>in</strong>creased their <strong>in</strong>fluence on n<strong>in</strong>eteenthcentury<br />
American society. An added advantage of attack<strong>in</strong>g abortion was the opportunity<br />
to make the issue <strong>in</strong>to a “widespread social phenomenon” <strong>and</strong> <strong>in</strong>to a rally<strong>in</strong>g po<strong>in</strong>t, a<br />
symbol itself. 4<br />
From the outset, the issue was <strong>in</strong> part framed by a highly symbolic<br />
medical <strong>and</strong> moral debate.<br />
Individual professional doctors wrote <strong>and</strong> lobbied their legislators for antiabortion<br />
laws; <strong>in</strong> 1847, those will<strong>in</strong>g to jo<strong>in</strong> forces to promote the status <strong>and</strong> <strong>in</strong>terests of<br />
physicians formed the American Medical Association (AMA), mark<strong>in</strong>g the beg<strong>in</strong>n<strong>in</strong>g of<br />
what Mohr deems the “Physician’s Crusade” aga<strong>in</strong>st abortion. 5<br />
<strong>The</strong> AMA provided the<br />
opportunity to <strong>in</strong>tegrate medical rhetoric <strong>in</strong> the abortion debate. Indeed, Dr. Horatio<br />
Rob<strong>in</strong>son Storer, an obstetrics specialist, used the framework of AMA to launch his<br />
attack on abortion ten years later. Storer orig<strong>in</strong>ally ga<strong>in</strong>ed followers <strong>and</strong> support by<br />
writ<strong>in</strong>g to <strong>in</strong>dividual physicians, most already <strong>in</strong>volved <strong>in</strong> anti-abortion policies or<br />
discussion across the country. One such man was Dr. C.W. LeBoutillier. Report<strong>in</strong>g on<br />
the status of abortion laws <strong>and</strong> public op<strong>in</strong>ion <strong>in</strong> the M<strong>in</strong>nesota Territory, LeBoutillier<br />
asserted “the practice of produc<strong>in</strong>g abortion is frequently resorted to <strong>in</strong> our vic<strong>in</strong>ity…<strong>and</strong><br />
I regret to say that regular physicians have <strong>in</strong> many <strong>in</strong>stances assisted <strong>in</strong> this damnable<br />
2 Ibid., 37.<br />
3 Ibid., 47.<br />
4 Ibid., 46; Krist<strong>in</strong> Luker, Abortion <strong>and</strong> the Politics of Motherhood (Berkeley: University of<br />
California <strong>Pre</strong>ss, 1984), 31.<br />
5 Mohr, 146.<br />
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