The Guilt and Consequences of Abortion
By John Todd, D. D.
It is the testimony, too, of those who know, that in proportion as people become indolent, or fashionable, the temptation to produce abortion is increased; that in many circles it is absolutely a matter of boasting and vanity, to tell the number of times they and their friends have been guilty of the deed. The causes of this child-murder are to be found often, in the ignorance of its guilt,—the ease with which it is done and concealed,—the unwillingness to criminate one's self,—the loss of character,—the reign of extravagance and fashion, and the fear of child-bed. As to guilt, I want all to know that, in the sight of God, it is willful murder. “The willful killing of a human being at any stage of its existence, is murder.” It is quenching immortal existence,—it is destroying what, in a few months or weeks, would bear God's image: and if any one thinks she can do it without the guilt of murder, she is greatly mistaken. The very remembrance of this guilt has often upset the reason, and, by remorse, turned the doer into madness. Very false notions prevail on this subject. It is thought and said to be safe to the mother. Anything but that. The shattered constitutions, the pale faces, the feebleness of future life, not unfrequently tumors and internal diseases, prostration of the vital powers, tell the fearful results. “God requireth that which is past,” and never more surely than in this case. It is pleaded that the health of the mother requires this. Nonsense. If she is too feeble to be a mother, let her not marry; but let her not dishonor and profane the holy name of wife by shrinking her responsibilities.—But as a matter of fact, the fairest, healthiest, happiest, most respected and most useful women that have ever lived, have been the mothers of large families. It is the law of nature. Let my reader look around on the families of his acquaintances and see if it be not so. The Bible everywhere holds up the thought that a great family is a special blessing. And if there be a beautiful sight in the world, it is the true mother surrounded by a large family of children. It is thought that the parents who have a small family, have healthier children. I more than doubt it. I have no belief in it. And if it were not so, it is from these delicate organizations that the writers, the poets, the inventors, the geniuses of the generation often come. We cannot afford to lose them. The woman who, at this day, feels that to be the mother of living children “is the first, highest, and in earlier times, almost universal lot,” is worthy of all admiration and praise; and the woman who, to save herself from inconvenience or pain, or to be able to keep along with the giddy fashionable ones, will deliberately destroy the child, which in a few months would be dearer than her own life, deserves execution. How can it be that she will murder unborn, what if born, and taken from her by death, she would mourn with the sorrow of Rachel? As to danger—Tardieu reports that “in thirty-four cases of criminal abortion, where their history was known, twenty-two were followed, as a consequence, by death, and twelve were not. In fifteen cases necessarily induced by physicians, not one was fatal.” Is it not a shame to womanhood that physicians have to testify that they are appealed to almost constantly by married women, to aid them to abortionate; and that in proportion to numbers who thus appeal, and whose circumstances are alike, married women vastly predominate over the unmarried! The practice is a direct war against human society, the best good of the country, against the family order, against the health, the peace, the conscience, and the moral well-being of the mother, and against a child which could otherwise have an immortal existence. Since Anesthesia is able to carry through childbirth, divesting it of most of its horrors, and every way safe, and which I would earnestly recommend to be used, there is hardly an excuse left. I appeal to our New England women,—the daughters of an ancestry who never were spotted by the blood of innocents, who never stifled the natural longings of a mother's heart, and never quenched life immortal for the sake of ease or fashion, and ask them if it is so that they are so degenerated that they cannot meet the holiest position and duties ever imposed on women? If it be said that I have in any measure exaggerated the evil and the fashion of the day, I reply, I would not advise any one to challenge further disclosures—else we could show that France, with all her atheism; that Paris, with all her license; is not so guilty in this respect, as is said New England at the present hour. Facts can be adduced that will make the ears tingle. But we do not want to divulge them; but we do want the womanhood of our day to understand that the thing can be no longer concealed, that commonness or fashion cannot do away with its awful guilt. It is deliberate, cold murder, and if anything short of the murderer's doom shall fall upon the perpetrators of it at the judgment, the reason will be that there has been great ignorance of its guilt. I have now done a painful duty, and have done it fearlessly. To the attention of the gentle, tender heart and conscience of woman I commend this subject with earnest prayer.—John Todd, D. D.