The Hancock Jeffersonian. [volume] (Findlay, Ohio) 1857-1870, 1867-05-17
Slaughter of the Unborn.

There are social errcrs aud crimes
that it is difficult to expose and cor.
rect without shocking the Sensibili-
ties of the virtuous and suggesting
evil to the innocent; and on this nc
count they are often allowed TO eX.
tend themselves without resistance
until society Is threatened with ut
ter corruption and decay. Such is
the fact now with the crime Of ihfan-
tiCidc before birth, or, more accurate
lily, fGticide. So general and de-
structivc has this crime become As to
cause reasonable alarm, and at length
the silence is broken, and the doctors
of medicine and divinity unite in
solemn remonstrance and appeal
against its guilt and danger A mos,
impressive article appears in the
Boston Congregationalist, from the
pen of Rev. DIR Todd, Of Piasield.
DR.. Morse Stewart, an influential ply
sician of Detroit, Mich. has contribut
ed to the Western Medical Review, o
paper discussing the physiological
efforts of abortion, as well as the
moral guilt of the practice, and max
ing startling disclosures as to its
prevalence and the immense amount
of disease and death resulting from
| il. The Chicago Northwestern Ad.
vocaLe, the leading Methodist paper
of that section, is treating the sub.
ject with great plainness and fidelity,
/ n nd 10 al al ~
among the respectable medical jour
nails and the denomlnational presses
to discuss the whole subject that the
crime shall no longer be ignorantly
committed by their readers. IL is a
work in which the secular press may
well cooperate.
DR.. stewart declares that his sta
tistics, confirmed by the observation
of physicians, prove that there is no
crime more surely punished in the
persons of those committing it than
that of abortion, and that more lives
are lost by it than by childbirth. OF
those who survive the operation the
majority are made invalid for life by
a complication Of incurable disorders
that break down the constitution and
often produce insanity. When the
attempt tails, the child that escapes
the fate plotted for 1t, and often the
succeeding children, will be delorm'
ed, idiotic or diseased in various
WAYS. The crime is never safe, and
when the evil consequences of the
unnatural act are apparently evaded
at the time, they are certain to be de-
veloped later to bring terrible retri
button upon the mother
There is general concurrence in
the opinion thai the practice OF abor
ton has rapidly increased within The
last two years, until it may be said
TO be common. DR.. Stewart declares
that if every mother guilty of II
should be hung for murder the mar
ried women would almost be deci-
mated, for the criminals are chiefly
married women. For the single wo.
man, deceived and betrayed, there
would seem to be some excuse in re
sorting to this means to conceal her
shame. The wife, who desires to
escape the pain of childbirth and the
trouble of rearing offspring, and SO
rutblessly outrages her maternal in
stincts and destroys her unborn
children, cannot satisfy her con.
science with the selfish and cowardly
reasons which move her 10 the unnat
ural crime.
A New York City physician states
that there are in that city over foul
hundred professional abortionists
most of whom do an extensive bust
ness and some o: whom advertise in
! the leading papers. There are es
Establishments for the purpose adapted
Ito the different classes, some fitted