However, the attending physicians would carefully consider whether the woman's condition would not be rendered more threatening by the induction of abortion, and they would, in every case where possible, defer the operation until after the time of viability; and, further, in cases of pelvic deformity they would probably allow the woman to go to full time and then deliver her by the Caesarian section or by the operation of symphyseotomy.
No intelligent critic can offer any valid objection to therapeutic abortion when it is done after deliberation and consultation, and the law in every civilized community concedes this privilege to the medical profession.
In Catholic countries the priests are called in as consultants and assume a part of the responsibility.
The Ineffectual Punishment of the Crime. Judicial investigation has proved to be almost totally worthless in regard to this crime, and the administration of justice concerning it is practically a dead letter. The crime being perpetrated secretly by parties whose mutual interest it ia to cover up their guilt, an arrest is seldom made unless the woman dies, while juries, reasoning by some obscure psychological process, seldom convict the abortionist. Except toward the abortionist we can hardly in mercy ask for the severest penalties of legislative enactments; for the father can rarely be touched, and the woman is usually in a position to ask who shall cast the first stone at her.
The proofs which would lead to substantiation are difficult of demonstration, and the community very properly is not disposed to visit the mother with great harshness. Engelmann, in an article on "Abortion", says:
"Abortionists everywhere are known. In the larger cities of this continent, as well as Europe, they achieve a widespread fame, are well known, and yet rarely, if ever, convicted. It is a notorious fact that these worst of criminals almost invariably escape; and even in the states of Germany, where the laws are strict and rigidly enforced, where the crime of abortion is punished by imprisonment of from four to twenty years, that eminent teacher of medical jurisprudence, J. L. Caspar, says that of all the many accused never a one was condemned, and in no one case was the crime proven. They are sheltered by the words of the law and the sympathy of the community".
Laws have no efficacy unless there is an inclination to obey them; when this inclination is firmly established in a community they serve merely as guide posts. If the hearts and consciences of the people are callous, if they cannot see the expediency and justice of the laws, and if public opinion does not sustain the decrees of the bench, then the laws are dead letters and should be stricken from the statute books, since they cannot be enforced.
However severe the laws may be in posse they have had very little perceptible effect in esse, nor is this to be wondered at when we consider how much is actually permitted to be done to encourage licentiousness by the toleration of brothels, impure literature, and indecent theatrical shows. If a community admits the untrue physiological propaganda that sexual license is necessary for the men, then it will be impossible, as the results have shown, to compel a girl to cherish the badge of her shame while her seducer goes free.
Such a community visits all the penalties upon the mother and the absolutely innocent child; so that the destruction of her offspring and the menace to her health seem no more to be feared by her than the cruel punishments which the double standard of purity concerning the sexes visits upon bastardism and feminine unchastity. Mankind will yet be governed by sentiments of love, and society will yet look upon the pregnant woman, whether married or single, as sacred, and "deal gently with those that are with young".