The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1867-04-11
From the Springfield Republican.
The RTauphf far M Rhe VInbOru.

From the Spr1nRnetu hepuDlcdu"
II The Slaughter OF Ihe Unborn
There are social errors and Icrimes
that it Is difficult to expose and correct
without shocking the sensibilities OF
the yirtuous and suggesting evil TO the
innocent; and on that account they
are often allowed to extend themselves
without resistance, until society is
threatened with utter corruption and
decay. Such is the fact now with the
crime ofinfanticide, or, more accurate
", foeticide. So general and destruo-
tive has this crime become, as to cause
reasonable alarm, and at length the
silence is broken, and the doctors OF
medicine aud divinity unite In solemn
remonstrance and appeal against its
guilt and danger. A most impressive
article on the subject appears in the
Boston on1TegutiomdLiSt, from the pen
OF Rev. DR.. Todd, of Pittsfield. DR..
Morse Stewart, an influential ply
siciau OF Detroit, Michigan, has con.
tributed to the Western Medical ReUieU
paper discussing the physiological
effects of abortion, as we'll as the moral
guilt of the practice, and making start
ling disclosures as to its prevalence,
and the immense amount of disease
and death resulting from 1t. The Chi
cago Northwestern ADVOCATE, the Lead
ing Methodist paper of that section, is
treating the subject with great plain
ness and fidelity, and there is general
medical journals and the denomina-
tional press to discuss the whole subject
that the crime shall no longer be igno-
rantly committed by their readers. 1t
Is a work in which the secular press
may well cooperate.
DIR. Stewart declares that his statis-
tics, confirmed by the observation of
physicians, prove there is no crime
more surely punished in the persons of
those committing it than that of abor-
ton, and that mora lives are lost by it
than by childbirth. OF those who sur
vive tho operation the majority are
made invalid for life by n complication
OF incurable disorders that break down
the constitution and often produce in
sanity. When the attempt fails, the
child that escapes the fate plotted for It,
and often the succeeding children, will
be deformed, idiotic or diseased in vari-
Gus ways. The crime is never safe, and
when the evil consequences of the un-
natural act are apparently evaded at
the time, they are certain to be devel-
oped later and to bring terrible retribu-
tion upon the mother.
There is general concurrence in the
opinion that tue practice of abortion
has rapidly increased within a few
years until it may be said to be COM
mon. DR.. Stewart declares that II every
mother guilty of 1t should be hung for
murder the married women would be
almost decimated, for the criminals are
chiefly married women. For the single
woman, 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, aud the trouble
of rearing offspring, and SO ruthlessly
outrages her maternal instincts and
destroys her unborn children, cannot
satisfy her conscience with the selfish
and cowardly reasons which move her
to the unnatural crime.
A New York physician states that
there are in that city over four hundred
professional abOrtionisLs, most of whom
do an extensive business and some of
whom advertise in the leading papers.
There are establishments for the pur-
some fitted up luxuriously for the rich,
who pay as high as $500 for the service.
Besides the professed abortionists,
there are some regular physicians who
secretly assist their patients to the COM
mission of the crime at their own
homes, and hundreds of ignorant
quacks. men and women, to full into
and whose sole recommendation is that
they do their terrible work quickly and
cheaply. The specifics advertised in
the metropolitan papers for causing
abortion are generally but bats and
advertisements of the practising abor-
tionists, for they almost invariably fail
OF their purpose, while the directions
lishments where the work may be
surely accomplished. In addition to
these systematic methods of procuring
abortion, the physicians say they are
called to prescribe for many women
who have attempted the crime upon
themselves. with such crude means as
we're in their power, and these are some
of the worst cases in their results of
sickness and pain.
Abortion would seldom be practiced
If it were felt TO be a crime. There is a
prevailing notion that the life of the hui
man germ is not sacred, that 1t may be
destroyed without gailt any moment
before it exhibits life, or, indeed, at any
moment previous to birth. DIR. Todd
tells us that Catholic Christians are bet
ter instructed on this subject than Pro-
testants. The confessional guards hu-
man life from its first stage, and fear
fuI penalties are threatened against
those who interfere with its natural
growth. The Catholic Bishop of Bos-
"The very instant conception has
taken place, there lies the vital germ of
a man. True. 1t is hidden in the dark
ness ofthe womb and itis helpless; but it
has sacred rights, founded on Gods
law, and SO much the more to be re-
spected because 1t is helpless. 1t may
be already a living man, for neither
mother nor physicians can tell when
life is infused; they can only tell when
its presence is manifested, and there is
a wide difference between the two
things. At any rate, it is from the
first moment potentially man, with a
body and soul destined most surely by
the will OF the Creator and by his law,
to be developed into the fullness of hu-
man existence. No one can prevent
that development without resisting and
annulling one OF the most sacred and
important laws established by the Di-
vine Author of the universe, and he is
q criminal, murderer, who deals an
exterminating blow to the incipient
faan, and drives back into nothingness
a being to whom God designed to give
q living body and an..immOrtal SOUL"
DIR. Todd thinks II quite time that the
Protestant Church, through its pastors
and teachers, should bear an equally
decided testimony against the crime.
Aud there Is the more need OF this If,
as he asserts, the practice is far more
common among Protestants than
among Catholics. In this fact, doubt
less, lies the explanations, in whole or in
part, of the decline of our Protestant
population as compared with the Cath
olic. 1t is not common to find more
than two or three children in our Pro-
testant families, and those who have
abundant means for the care and edu-
cation of children are more likely to
limit their families by unnatural meth
DDS than their poorer neighbOrs. Wo-
men in the higher circles of society