originally posted by: LungFuMoShi
a reply to: dawnstar
Exaclty...o;d fashioned my scrote...there's nothing old fashioned about abortion.
People who have consentual sex then want an abortion are very much people of the modern era...the era of throwaway appliances and babies.
Nout old fashioned about it.
Not much of a student of history then are you? Abortion history dates back to over 5000 years ago. According to Chinese folklore; the legendary
Emperor Shennong prescribed the use of mercury to induce abortions. The first recorded evidence of a termination of pregnancy is from the Egyptian
Ebers Papyrus in 1550 BC. Chinese records document the number of royal concubines who had abortions in China between the years 500 and 515 BC.
Pregnancies were ended through a number of methods that included deep abdominal massage, sharpened instruments, herbal medicines, various liquids
flushed into the intrauterine cavity, as well as other techniques.
Throughout the centuries abortion laws have changed. Prior to the mid 1500’s the Catholic Church and other governmental laws focused on
“quickening” (where the mother feels fetal movement) to determine whether or not an abortion was allowable. Prior to quickening, abortion was
lawful. Not until the 18th and 19th centuries did physicians, clergymen, and politicians enact an outright ban on abortion. They were successful in
prohibiting abortion by the beginning of the 1900’s in the United States. Abortion continues to be legal in this country, but legislators,
prosecutors, and others in the justice system are either striving to make abortion illegal, or making the steps to obtain an abortion so difficult for
women, that it is becoming more arduous for what should be a private decision between a woman and her Physician to occur.
Several of the methods used to perform abortions many years ago were predominantly non-surgical. Physically exhausting techniques such as
weightlifting, diving, paddling, strenuous labor, climbing, fasting, pouring hot water onto the abdomen, lying on a heated coconut shell, and irritant
leaves were some of the techniques used for abortion. Surgical instruments used for abortion that date back thousands of years have been found through
Archaeological discovery. Most of the instruments were never mentioned in old medical texts.
Midwives and knowledgeable laypeople were the main groups primarily responsible for performing termination procedures in early history. Abortion
became well documented in the 2nd century by a Greek physician named Soranus. He suggested that some women should have an abortion due to their
emotional immaturity. He described enemas, fasting, bloodletting, energetic walking, riding animals, and jumping so that the woman’s heels touched
her buttocks with each jump (Lacedoemonian Leap) as abortion methods.
Abortion surgical instruments are described in many religious texts. Tertullian, a 2nd and 3rd century Christian theologian described surgical
instruments and techniques very similar to those used for dilatation and evacuation today. These instruments were used when a pregnant woman’s life
was in danger, or the fetus had died in the uterus.
I could go on if you like, but the basic gist is that abortion being a "Modern convenience" is B.S. it has existed at least as Lin as written history
and if early writings discussed it, the odds are that it has been in practice far longer as this is actually supported by archaeological finds.