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Connecticut becomes first state to criminalize abortions
Any person that provided or took poison or "other noxious and destructive substances" with the intent to cause the miscarriage of a woman, was to be punished. This as you can imagine, made women fearful to get abortions and almost completely ended abortions in all cases. -
Horatio Storer pushes to criminalize abortions
Dr. Horatio Storer helped start the movement which would later be called the Physicians’ Crusade Against Abortion. Later that year, he led a committee to investigate what he called criminal abortions in the state of Massachusetts, proposing that abortion in all instances was a criminal act and that the law did not go far enough to punish that alleged crime. -
The Comstock Act of 1873 was created
The Comstock Act of 1873 made it illegal to send birth control through the mail. This included sending any materials containing information connected to contraception or abortions. -
Abortions become illegal in every state
By the 1900s, abortion was illegal in every state. The laws varied from state to state, with some allowing for abortion to protect the woman’s life or to terminate pregnancies resulting from rape or incest. -
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Planned Parenthood gets founded
Margaret Sanger founded the American Birth Control League; the organization would become the Planned Parenthood Federation of America in 1942 as a response to the unfair law that prevented women from get abortions in any cases. -
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Planned Parenthood makes a stand at conference
Conference attendees said that laws should be rewritten to allow doctors greater latitude to provide abortion services, which would improve public health and access to reproductive health care for people of different economic circumstances. -
Colorado decriminalize abortion in cases of rape, incest, or injury to mother.
As a result of the conference, in 1967 Colorado became the first state to decriminalize abortion in cases of rape, incest, or in which pregnancy would lead to permanent physical disability of the woman. Similar laws were later passed in California, Oregon and North Carolina. -
Hawaii becomes first state to fully legalize abortions.
After seeing Colorado take a stand, Hawaii became the first state to fully legalize abortions at the request of the woman in 1970. In the same year, New York allowed abortions up to the 24th week of pregnancy and similar laws were soon passed in Alaska and Washington. -
Introduction of Roe V. Wade
In 1973 the Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade case ruled in favor of Roe and abortion was legalized throughout the United States. -
Texas Six Week Ban
Texas implemented a dangerous law called S.B. 8. which bans abortion at approximately six weeks of pregnancy before many people even know they’re pregnant -
Roe V. Wade gets overturned
The Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade leaving abortion decisions up to states, and no longer a constitutional right.