It is rare indeed to find a woman who will confess to an abortion, who does not suffer severely and protractedly from its results. An accidental abortion or miscarriage is safer than when a criminal operation is done, because in the former the embryo or foetus usually dies some time before its birth, and the fatty degeneration of the placenta has occurred which sometimes allows the free expulsion of all the fragments; but in forced abortions done with criminal intent the dangers are more grave.
In the latter event the element of time is eliminated which would allow the placenta to separate by fatty degeneration, the abortion coming on rapidly without any chance of a complete emptying of the uterus; serious damage is often done to the mother by lacerations inflicted by instruments in the hands of bungling operators, and then sloughing, mortification, septicaemia and peritonitis ensue. In addition every woman is bound to feel a strong compunction for this unnatural deed, pity for the child nestling within her womb, regret for the loss of her babe which would have proved so dear to her, sorrow and shame at casting from her the product of a husband's or lover's affection, fear of the law, and remorse for violating the sixth commandment of God's laws.
There is no wonder then at the frequency with which her health is sacrificed and her reason overthrown.
However active the criminal measures may be, the attempt is by no means always followed by success; and the child may be born at the natural time with a fractured limb, or blind, or paralyzed, or an epileptic, or idiot.
Here is one deplorable case:
"A lady, determined not to have any more children, went to a professional abortionist, and he attempted to effect the desired end by violence. With a pointed instrument the attempt was again and again made, but without the looked for result. So vigorously was the effort made that, astonished at no result being obtained, the individual stated that there must be some mistake, that the lady could not be pregnant, and refused to perform any further operations. Partially from doubt and partially from fear, nothing further was attempted, and in due process of time the woman was delivered of an infant, shockingly mutilated, with one eye entirely put out and the brain so injured that this otherwise robust child was entirely wanting in ordinary sense.
This poor mother, it would seem, needs no future punishment for her sin. Ten years face to face with this poor infant, whose imbecility was her direct work has it not punished her sufficiently?" Abortions are liable to occur with increasing frequency after one has taken place, and the possibilities of impregnation, owing to the diseased condition of the woman's reproductive organs, are more remote, so that even though she may subsequently desire children she may then be sterile. In addition, the lives of children born subsequently are more apt to be embittered by unhealthy, diseased and deformed bodies.
Women are destined by Providence to bear children; it is their natural role and they should submit to it. Either let them and the men totally abstain from coition or else consent to be mothers and fathers. Most women entertain the belief that the earlier the abortion occurs the more trivial are the consequences; but every obstetrician will testify that he would far rather attend a full time labor than an abortion, and that he fears the latter the less the nearer the woman is advanced toward the full term of gestation.
The reader will remember that up to the end of the third month the placenta and chorion are firmly attached to the walls of the uterus, and thus an abortion occurring before the completion of this period is almost certain to terminate in what is called an "incomplete abortion", with retention of fragments of the ovum, so that profuse hemorrhage and grave septic conditions are almost certain to follow unless the patient falls under the care of a skilful surgeon. In a case of impending abortion, until some portions of the ovum have been expelled, the practitioner considers it as a "threatened abortion" and does his best to avert it by appropriate treatment, continued for a few days until all the threatening symptoms have passed; and many a woman who has sought the seclusion of hospital treatment has, much to her disgust and disappointment, had the miscarriage averted.