I have to say that it didn’t take long for me to have an opinion on this when I first started reading about the opinions of abortions during this time period. It seems that we, as humans, haven’t really changed our viewpoint on the practice since this era. Though we are becoming somewhat more liberal with the pro-choice vs pro-life conflict, it’s still a point of contention and controversy. And according to the first two paragraphs, alone, of this piece, it seems no different in this era as well. On the other hand, I feel like there was some sort of acceptance of infanticide back then depending on the scenario and the country, which I feel like does not exist in today’s world. It seems more like a unanimous thing in today’s world than back then where, between all different cultures (which I thought was an interesting touch of comparison) what would be done.

There was one line that caught my attention in the passage: “Physically she is a miserable invalid, with no disease except the consequence of that utter exhaustion resulting from the forced abortion” (Jackson). In the passage the author is referring to a married woman who terminated her pregnancy so she could sail with her husband to Liverpool. It caught my eye because of what the author calls her – a miserable invalid. Almost as if he is belittling her because of what she chose to do by terminating her pregnancy, and then losing all the other children she birthed. Now while I can’t say I was rooting for what her excuse of terminating the pregnancy was, which was “because her husband was going to Europe in the spring, and she wanted to go with him and couldn’t be bothered by a young one”. But a woman’s body is still her own, and, I believe, she can choose to do what she likes. On the one hand it does, and it doesn’t, surprise me that the attitude that abortion is wrong existed during this time frame since Victorian London was a little more conservative concerning that and sex.

As I had mentioned, comparisons with other countries concerning abortion was very interesting because, again, this is not a topic that you really hear about how they used to terminate pregnancies.  In Madagascar and Greenland, for example, if the mother died during or after her pregnancy, the living child would be buried alongside her. Like what??  And on the coast of Guinea, in the case of twins being born, the feeblest would be killed, or if it were a girl. Again, something that doesn’t truly surprise me because China and other nations have done that before. Athens, listed in this article, is noted to have done the same with any baby girls. I just thought it was interesting to how far this practice extended on offing baby girls because they were deemed undesirable.

I have to say, though it seems like we’ve come a long way since this time, we’re still struggling with the idea of abortion being humane or an act of sin against God.