Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/21pdf/19-1392_6j37.pdf/19-1392_6j37.pdf
Page Number: 25

Cite as:  597 U. S. ____ (2022) 

17 

Opinion of the Court 

The  “eminent  common-law  authorities  (Blackstone, 
Coke, Hale, and the like),” Kahler v. Kansas, 589 U. S. ___, 
___ (2020) (slip op., at 7), all describe abortion after quick-
ening as criminal.  Henry de Bracton’s 13th-century trea-
tise  explained  that  if  a  person  has  “struck  a  pregnant 
woman,  or  has  given  her  poison,  whereby  he  has  caused 
abortion, if the foetus be already formed and animated, and 
particularly if it be animated, he commits homicide.”  2 De 
Legibus  et  Consuetudinibus  Angliae  279  (T.  Twiss  ed.
1879); see also 1 Fleta, c. 23, reprinted in 72 Selden Soc. 60–
61  (H.  Richardson  &  G.  Sayles  eds.  1955)  (13th-century
treatise).25 

Sir  Edward  Coke’s  17th-century  treatise  likewise  as-
serted  that  abortion  of  a  quick  child  was  “murder”  if  the 
“childe be born alive” and a “great misprision” if the “childe 
dieth in her body.”  3 Institutes of the Laws of England 50– 
51 (1644).  (“Misprision” referred to “some heynous offence 
under the degree of felony.”  Id., at 139.)  Two treatises by 
Sir  Matthew  Hale  likewise  described  abortion  of  a  quick
child who died in the womb as a “great crime” and a “great
misprision.”   Pleas  of  the  Crown  53  (P.  Glazebrook  ed. 
1972); 1 History of the Pleas of the Crown 433 (1736) (Hale).
And writing near the time of the adoption of our Constitu-
tion,  William  Blackstone  explained  that  abortion  of  a 
“quick”  child  was  “by  the  ancient  law  homicide  or  man-
slaughter”  (citing  Bracton),  and  at  least  a  very  “heinous 
misdemeanor” (citing Coke).  1 Commentaries on the Laws 
of England 129–130 (7th ed. 1775) (Blackstone). 

English cases dating all the way back to the 13th century
corroborate  the  treatises’  statements  that  abortion  was  a 
crime.  See generally J. Dellapenna, Dispelling the Myths 

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25. 

25 Even before Bracton’s time, English law imposed punishment for the 
killing of a fetus.  See Leges Henrici Primi 222–223 (L. Downer ed. 1972) 
(imposing penalty for any abortion and treating a woman who aborted a 
“quick” child “as if she were a murderess”).