Abortion History—Chronology of Events Abortion History—Chronology of Events Author/Source Notes: • This chronology was compiled by the Pro-Choice Action Network in British Columbia, ending in mid-April 2007. • Data collection for U.S. news ended in October 2006. Data for BC and Canada were combined into one column as of Jan 2000. • The accuracy and completeness of all entries is not guaranteed, but Pro-CAN strived to maintain a high level of accuracy. Uncertain dates or facts are indicated with a question mark. Most entries were sourced directly from mainstream newspapers and magazines. Others were sourced from books, anti- choice publications, pro-choice newsletters, other alternative publications, websites of established pro-choice groups, and to a lesser extent, firsthand reports or records from clinics, providers, and activists. Many entries had multiple sources. • Click on the Year below to go to the beginning of that year. pre-1960 • 1960’s • 1970 • 1971 • 1972 • 1973 • 1974 • 1975 • 1976 • 1977 • 1978 • 1979 • 1980 • 1981 • 1982 • 1983 • 1984 • 1985 • 1986 • 1987 • 1988 1989 • 1990 • 1991 • 1992 • 1993 • 1994 • 1995 • 1996 • 1997 • 1998 • 1999 • 2000 • 2001 • 2002 • 2003 • 2004 • 2005 • 2006 • 2007 Date British Columbia Canada United States pre-1960 • 1923, Jul 2 - Margaret Sanger speaks in • 1810 - New Brunswick passes a law modelled on Lord • 1821 - Connecticut Episcopal minister charged with favour of contraception at the Women's Ellenborough's Act (in England) prohibiting abortion, providing drug to his mistress for abortion; he is Building on Thurlow Street in Vancouver. though not by the pregnant woman herself. sentenced to 2 years in Newgate Prison. In response, Meeting organized by Women's International • 1836 - Prince Edward Island does the same. Connecticut passes first law in U.S. barring abortions League for Peace and Freedom. after "quickening," to protect women from abortion • 1837 - Newfoundland adopts English criminal law and induced by poison. Similar laws follow in Missouri (1825) • 1930’s to 1940’s - activist Ruth Bullock of with it English abortion law. and Illinois (1827). Vancouver helps women get illegal abortions • 1841 - Upper Canada in its Offences against the Person • 1856 - Leading anti-choice advocate Dr. Horatio Storer • 1948 - Dr. Robert McCallum begins doing Act prohibits abortion without distinction as to establishes national drive by American Medical abortions in BC and continues until he is quickening. Association to end legal abortion. First trimester abortion arrested, about 1967. • 1842 - New Brunswick abolishes the quickening in most states is legal or a misdemeanor. • 1959 - two BC women die from illegal distinction. Until this time criminalization only affected the • 1859 - American Medical Association announces its abortion abortionist. • 1849 - New Brunswick criminalizes abortion by the official opposition to abortion. • In Nanaimo, 35-year-old expectant mother pregnant woman herself. • 1860 - 20 states have laws limiting abortion. Connecticut Rachel Silvester is found not guilty of tightens its law to make early abortions illegal. murdering Joan Venne by an all-male jury • 1851 - Nova Scotia follows suit, and in 1864 provides that after 35 minutes of deliberation. Crown the offence could be prosecuted whether the woman was • 1873 - Comstock Act is passed, prohibiting sending claimed Venne died as a result of an pregnant or not. information about abortion and birth control through the attempted abortion. • 1869 – Parliament consolidates the criminal law applicable mail or across state lines, on grounds it is "obscene, to all the provinces and adopts abortion provisions identical lewd, lascivious, filthy, indecent and disgusting." to those in New Brunswick, with a penalty of life • 1890 - Abortion is regulated by statutes advocated by the imprisonment. AMA, and abortion is permitted upon conferral of one or • 1892 - First Criminal Code is enacted, prohibiting abortion more physicians who believe it is necessary to preserve and sale, distribution, and advertisement of the life of the woman. contraception. Among others were sections 271-272. Sub-section 271(1) made it an indictable offence subject to • 1913 - Margaret Sanger publishes articles on birth life imprisonment to cause the death of a child not yet a control, and flees to Europe to avoid Comstock human being, in such manner that it would have been prosecution. murder if such child had been born. This provision was • 1916 - Margaret Sanger returns to U.S. and charges are subject to a defence of acting in good faith to preserve the dropped. She and associates open first birth control life of the mother (sub-section 271(2)). Section 272 made it April 13, 2007 Page 1 of 139 Abortion History—Chronology of Events Date British Columbia Canada United States a crime punishable with life imprisonment to attempt to clinic in New York and are arrested under Comstock Act. procure a woman's miscarriage whether or not she was with 1918: Crane decision allows women to use birth control child, and the good faith defence was not available. for "therapeutic purposes." • 1926 to 1947 - 4000 to 6000 Canadian women die from • 1921 - Equal Rights Amendment drafted by Alice Paul illegal abortion and introduced into Congress every year since. 1923 - • 1928 - women recognized as legal persons. women get right to vote (suffrage.) • 1930s - A. R. Kaufman creates a birth control program for low-income women in Kitchener ON under his Parents’ Information Bureau. Simple contraceptives can be obtained by mail order or couples could get referrals to doctors for diaphragms or sterilization. • 1932 - Dr. Elizabeth Bagshaw opens the first official birth control clinic in Hamilton even though it is illegal to do so. • 1936 - Ontario public health nurse Dorothea Palmer arrested and charged for providing birth control info, under Section 207C of Criminal Code. She was acquitted in 1937, on grounds her work served the public good. • 1959 - 33,000 abortions estimated performed in Canada this year alone. Others estimate as many as 120,000 a year between 1955 and 1969. 1960's • 1960 - five BC women die from illegal • 1960 - Toronto druggist Harold Fine jailed for selling • 1960 - Food and Drug Administration approves sale of abortion condoms through mail. Convicted in 1961. birth control pill. • by 1961 - 8,000 estimated illegal abortions in • 1961 - woman jailed for 8 years for performing abortion • 1960’s - doctors, lawyers, clergy, women’s groups, lobby BC each year on woman who died (just one of many examples) for law reform or repeal. • 1961 - BC branch of Canadian Medical • 1962 to 1968 - most documented deaths from illegal • 1961 - Vacuum aspiration-style abortion spreads Association calls for abortion law reform. abortion in ONE year during this period is 400. Actual throughout Europe and is considered safer than numbers probably much higher. traditional methods. • 1968 - Jan - Dr. Robert McCallum gets suspended sentence and is stripped of his • 1963 - Canadian Medical Association starts to lobby the • 1961(?) - Dr. William Jennings Bryan Henries jailed for physician's license. government to change the abortion law. performing abortions in Grove, Oklahoma. Spent rest of life campaigning for legal abortion; died in 1972. • 1968, Sep 11 - First meeting of Vancouver • 1963 - Activists organize a collective of birth control Women's Caucus at Simon Fraser University societies in Vancouver, Winnipeg, Hamilton, Toronto, • 1962, Summer - Sherri Finkbine of Arizona takes (founding feminist group that led to Abortion and Ottawa (Edmonton, Montreal, and Calgary all joined thalidomide and has to fly to Sweden for an abortion. Caravan). They propose Birth Control Clinic later) and arrange membership in the International Highly publicized case that starts mobilization to legalize at SFU. Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF). This collective is abortion. eventually named the Planned Parenthood Federation of • 1969, May 21 - first public meeting of • 1963 - Society for Human Abortion is established in San Canada (PPFC). Vancouver Women's Caucus held at Francisco. SHA challenges law by openly providing Fisherman's Hall. • 1965 to 1968 - Dr. Les Smoling operates illegal clinic in information on abortion and contraception. Toronto called the Toronto Free-Standing Abortion • 1963 - President John F. Kennedy creates the Clinic. Was charged 3 times, eventually left country and Presidential Advisory Council on the Status of Women didn't return till 1979. and calls for the repeal of abortion laws. • 1965 - 1969 - 61 women known to have died from • 1965 (June 7) - Griswold v. Connecticut Supreme Court abortions. decision strikes down Connecticut state law that • Feb 19, 1966 - A Toronto doctor (identity not known) prohibited giving married people information, instruction, urges a legal abortion law, claiming that somewhere or medical advice on contraception (violating right of between 25,000 and 75,000 criminal abortions are privacy). Decision legalized birth control across U.S. April 13, 2007 Page 2 of 139 Abortion History—Chronology of Events Date British Columbia Canada United States performed yearly in Canada. • 1966 - Nine San Francisco doctors prosecuted by • 1967, Oct - federal committee (Standing Committee on California Board of Medical Examiners for "professional Health and Welfare) considers amendments to Criminal misconduct" for performing hospital-based abortions on Code. Three different bills presented. Dr. Henry women who infected with rubella (German measles).