Legalized abortion is a contentious issue in contemporary American politics. This was not always the case. Initially, abortion was a medical concern and physicians were the arbiters of its administration. This “medicalization” of abortion largely was the result of a campaign by physicians to professionalize medicine. Throughout most of the nineteenth century, there were no licensing laws regulating who could practice medicine. This, coupled with the lack of a traditional guild structure, meant that physicians had to compete directly with other medical sects (such as homeopaths) for patients. Physicians saw abortion as an issue through which they could distinguish themselves from other practitioners and push for industry regulation. They argued that their scientific-based training gave them superior knowledge regarding if and when a woman should have an abortion. The campaign was a success. All but “therapeutic” abortions were outlawed and licensed professionals were charged with deciding whether an abortion was performed (Luker 1984; Mohr 1978).
In the late 1940s and early 1950s, physicians, activists, and clergy pushed state legislators to repeal abortion laws and expand the circumstances in which physicians could administer abortions, including in cases of rape, incest, and fetal deformity. These efforts were both successful and largely uncontroversial, in part because of how the abortion issue was framed. Advocates argued that the state should expand physicians’ authority regarding the medical circumstances in which an abortion could be administered; an approach that focused on medical practice rather than women’s rights (Burns 2005; Staggenborg 1991). However, the framework for understanding abortion changed in the 1960s as a result of two controversies that focused public attention on women’s authority in reproductive decision-making. The first case involved Sherri Finkbine, a teacher in the popular television series Romper Room, who sought an abortion in 1962 after learning that she had ingested a drug known to cause fetal deformity. Finkbine used her celebrity status and connections with journalists to raise public awareness regarding the issue. While Finkbine’s story generated a lot of press, the publicity scared hospital officials, who refused to give her an abortion. Finkbine traveled to Sweden for the procedure, where her physician informed her that the fetus was severely deformed and would not have survived outside of the womb (Luker 1984).