Member-only story
Doctors: Abortion Stigma Is Alive and Well
There is a long history of stigma against abortion doctors in the medical community.
Abortion stigma, aimed at abortion providers, has been prevalent in the medical community for many, many years.
Read this article on Substack.
Historical Opposition to Abortion
Traditionally, abortionists were looked down on and perceived as being bad doctors.
In the early 1800s, abortions before quickening (the time when a pregnant person can feel the baby move) were legal. Doctors led the push to ban them and succeeded in passing anti-abortion laws state-by-state.
I have previously written about doctors who opposed abortion in the 1800s and what their motives were.
Even when abortions were banned, however, doctors of the time believed that they were common. While estimates of the number of abortions varied widely, most doctors believed they were most common among married Protestant women who didn’t want any more children. (Catholics of the time tended to be very pro-life and seldom got abortions).