Criminal Abortion: Human Hardship and Unyielding Laws
![handle is hein.journals/scal35 and id is 133 raw text is: Southern California
Law Review
VOLUME 35 WINTER, 1962 NUMmER 2
CRIMINAL ABORTION: HUMAN HARDSHIP AND
UNYIELDING LAWS
Zad Leavy* and Jerome M. Kummer**
'The law of this land has always held human life to be sacred, and the
protection that the law gives to human life it extends also to the unborn
child in the womb. The unborn child in the womb must not be destroyed
unless the destruction of that child is for the purpose of preserving the
yet more precious life of the mother.'-
The question of whether and on what grounds to allow termination
of pregnancy has plagued mankind since its beginning, and the con-
flict between a prohibitive law and the actual conduct of people continues
to rage in our day. The shockingly high rate of criminal abortion in the
United States, with its resultant morbidity, mortality and human suffer-
ing, constitutes a festering societal ill unsurpassed only by the refusal
of people to discuss or acknowledge the problem.
The purpose of this paper is twofold: to air the extensive problem in
the firm belief that bringing it into the open is a prerequisite to any solu-
tion; and to suggest that the first approach to solving it is through a
cautious modification of a confusing and unrealistic statute, the restric-
tiveness and unequal application of which continue as a restraining port-
cullis to other potential solutions.
I. THE PROBLEM
It is apparent that abortion is part of our social mores with society
refusing steadfastly to acknowledge this.2 The taboo that is discernible sur-
*LL.B., 1958, University of California at Los Angeles. Member, California Bar. Formerly
Deputy District Attorney, Los Angeles County.
**M.D., 1944, New York Medical College. Assistant Clinical Professor, Department of
Psychiatry, University of California at Los Angeles School of Medicine.
NOTE: Opinions expressed throughout this paper are those of the authors, and are not
to be construed as policies or opinions of the Los Angeles District Attorney's office nor of
the University of California at Los Angeles School of Medicine.
'From Mr. Justice Macnaghten's instructions to the jury in Rex v. Bourne, [1938] 1
KB. 687 (1939). This excerpt is a general statement of the law of criminal abortion as it
presently exists throughout most of the United States and a great part of the western world.
2Ostrich-like we have buried our heads in the sand and refused to look facts in the
face. TAussiG, ABORTION, SPONTANEOUS AND INDUCED 396 (1936) [hereinafter cited as
TAUSSIGJ. Dr. Taussig's book is considered the modern classic on the subject of abortions in
the U.S., and no discussion would be complete without mention of his work.](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/scal35&div=19&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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Criminal Abortion: Human Hardship and Unyielding Laws
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