When did abortion become illegal throughout much of the United States?

Most states outlawed or restricted abortion during the period 1830-1880.

Before then, abortion in the first months of pregnancy (until “quickening”, or the first perception of fetal movement) was legal throughout most of the country in keeping with colonial common law.

The drive to prohibit abortion came from a variety of sources, including the desire of the medical profession to regulate surgical procedures, concern about falling birth rates, and reaction to the women’s rights movement.

Possibly Related Answers:

1. How does the marriage rate in the United States in recent years compare to that in 1900?
2. What is the most drastic change in temperature in the United States on record?
3. How much was the option on Thomas Dixon, Jr.’s The Klansman, the book on which The Birth of a Nation (1915) was based?
4. What did the G.I. Bill of 1944 do?
5. What is the difference between cathartics and catharsis?