Abortion has long been an issue of debate in the United States. Lately, as abortion has become legal and more accepted in modern society, women have started to come forward and talk about their experiences with abortions before they were legal. Betty was only seventeen when she discovered she was pregnant. She and the father were in a long-term relationship and had discussed having children of their own. However, when he discovered that she was pregnant, their relationship immediately changed. He suddenly began to question her faithfulness and accused her of being pregnant with another man's child. After her reaction, Betty decided not to tell anyone, especially since having a child out of wedlock was frowned upon. She started looking for an abortion clinic. He found one by searching the phone book for gynecologists who didn't advertise themselves as obstetricians. He went to meet the practitioner in a dilapidated shack in the middle of nowhere. Once Betty arrived, the therapist immediately began the procedure. The method used by this practitioner was a cervical puncture followed by an insertion of willow bark. Betty was not given painkillers. After she left she began to bleed profusely and soon showed symptoms of an infection. Although the woman who performed the abortion told her not to return, she did and was prescribed some painkillers. After a few days the infection seemed to have cleared and her doctor told her she was no longer pregnant (Fadiman). Betty's story is not uncommon. Many women have suffered due to the unsafe conditions they had to endure to get an abortion after abortion was criminalized. These conditions were the direct result of new laws that punished women for attempting to procure...... middle of paper...... white women (Reagan 28 – 44). While the story of how abortion became such a taboo This act, which forces many women to attempt self-induction, may not be clear, one thing is evident: the criminalization of abortion has severely harmed women in America. The transition from common law, which permitted pre-accelerated abortion, to codified laws prohibiting it, was the beginning of the criminalization of abortion. Additionally, the American Medical Association's actions to get rid of nontraditional practitioners and the way the Church has changed its perspective on abortion have played a crucial role in making it more difficult for women to obtain abortions. Due to these actions, the danger of abortions increased because the only ones accessible were often underground and unsafe. Had these events not occurred, many women would have been more likely to survive abortions.