As an aside, abortion is not even a modern practice. Women have tried to control pregnancy since ancient times. For literally thousands of years, all cultures have had methods to end pregnancy, including the administration of abortifacient herbs, the use of sharpened implements, the application of abdominal pressure, and other techniques. The first recorded evidence of induced abortion is from the Egyptian Ebers Papyrus in 1550 BCE.
"Many of the methods employed in early cultures were non-surgical. Physical activities like strenuous labor, climbing, paddling, weightlifting, or diving were a common technique. Others included the use of irritant leaves, fasting, bloodletting, pouring hot water onto the abdomen, and lying on a heated coconut shell. In virtually all cultures, abortion techniques developed through observation, adaptation of obstetrical methods, and transculturation. Physical means of inducing abortion, including battery, exercise, and tightening the girdle were still often used as late as the Early Modern Period among English women."
Japanese documents show records of induced abortion from as early as the 12th century. It became much more prevalent during the Edo period, especially among the peasant class, who were hit hardest by the recurrent famines and high taxation of the age. Hmm imagine that - poor people who can't take care of kids choosing not to have them.
The Stoics believed the fetus to be plantlike in nature, and not an animal until the moment of birth, when it finally breathed air. They therefore found abortion morally acceptable.
Aristotle wrote that, "The line between lawful and unlawful abortion will be marked by the fact of having sensation and being alive." Before that point was reached, Aristotle did not regard abortion as the killing of something human. Aristotle considered the embryo to gain a human soul at 40 days if male and 90 days if female; before that, it had vegetable souls.
I Took The Liberty Of Fertilizing Your Caviar.
