Abortion is the term used in Medicine to denote the expulsion of the product of conception (the impregnated ovum) from the womb before the sixth month of pregnancy. If the expulsion takes place after that date, and before the proper time, it is termed a premature labour or miscarriage. In law, no such distinction is made. The frequency of abortion as compared with normal pregnancy is very differently estimated by different writers; but the best evidence leads us to the belief that abortion is of far more common occurrence than is generally supposed, and that it takes place on an average in one out of every three or four cases of pregnancy. The following are amongst the causes predisposing to this accident: (1) A diseased condition of either parent, and especially a syphilitic taint. (2) Most fevers, and many other acute diseases occurring during pregnancy. (3) Any condition interfering with the health of the mother—e.g., the constant breathing of impure air, insufficient nourishment, tight-lacing, &c. (4) A peculiar temperament on the part of the mother. Amongst the direct causes of abortion may be placed blows on the abdomen, falls, any violent muscular efforts, too long a walk or ride on horseback (indeed, women with a tendency to abort should avoid horseback during pregnancy), a severe mental shock, &c. Moreover, the death of the foetus from any cause is sure to occasion abortion.
Symptoms.—Abortion is sometimes preceded by feverishness, shiverings, a feeling of weight in the abdomen, or other discomfort. But the first certain indication of threatened abortion is usually hemorrhage, followed, if not arrested, by pain, which after the second month more or less resembles the pain attending normal labour.
In the treatment of abortion, prophylactics (or the guarding against causes likely to lead to it) hold the first place. Women liable to this affection should, on the slightest threatening, assume as much as possible the horizontal position, avoiding all bodily exertion or mental excitement. They should use non-stimulating foods and drinks, and keep the bowels open by gentle aperients—such as manna and castor-oil, and carefully avoid aloes and other medicines irritating the lower bowel. Moreover, a separate bedroom must be insisted on by the physician. We shall only enter into the curative treatment so far as to state that if it is deemed necessary to check hemorrhage before professional aid can be called in, cloths soaked in cold water may be applied locally (care being taken to change them before they grow warm), and iced water containing an astringent, such as a little alum, may be given internally. Further proceedings must be left to the medical attendant. At least as much attention must be paid to rest subsequently as after a normal labour; for abortion, if not very carefully attended to, is one of the most frequent causes of uterine disease.
There are occasional cases (as where the outlet of the pelvis is very contracted) in which it is necessary to induce abortion by professional means, but it would be out of place to enter into this subject in these pages. It cannot be too generally known, that all attempts at procuring criminal abortion, either by the administration of powerful drugs, or the application of instruments, are accompanied with extreme danger to the pregnant woman.
CRIMINAL ABORTION.—Neither in the law of England nor of Scotland is it murder to kill a child in the mother's womb (although it would be murder of the mother, if she died in consequence of the treatment). Such a crime is called criminal abortion, and in England is defined by statute as the administering to a woman any medicine, poison, or noxious drug, or of using any surgical instrument or other means, with the intent of procuring miscarriage, whether the woman be pregnant or not. A pregnant woman may commit this crime on herself. In Scotland, procuring abortion is a crime at common law, and in both countries it is punished by penal servitude or imprisonment, according to circumstances. There is a regular trade in abortion, mechanical violence being most often employed to produce the effect. The drugs used are divided into the class of emmenagogues and that of ecbolics; ergot of rye being the most popular. There are many predisposing causes to abortion, both in the mother and in the foetus, which must be allowed for. In some countries, abortion is undoubtedly practised in what is called respectable society, but the medical profession have properly discouraged it.
In the United States, abortion is a felony, and severely punished by fine and imprisonment. It is a misdemeanor for any person knowingly to deposit for mailing or delivery any article or thing designed or intended to procure abortion. Even for a publisher knowingly to deposit in the mail a newspaper containing a quack medical advertisement, giving information how and where articles for producing abortion could be obtained, however vaguely the advertisement may be expressed, is by act of congress a misdemeanor (Rev. Stat. 3893). Although to procure abortion with consent of the woman is not indictable at common law, it is a felony, and punished with severe penalties.