In a recent letter by Gerry Parmantier about abortion, he said “abortion any time before birth was created by the Supreme Court in 1973” (“Explore information about abortion,” March 24, Our Readers’ Views). He is mistaken.
The Roe v. Wade decision in 1973 provided that abortions were constitutionally legal before the fetus could live outside the womb. Based on medical information at that time, it set the time of fetus viability outside the womb at the beginning of the third trimester.
Prior to the Supreme Court decision, four states had legalized abortion (Alaska, Hawaii, New York and Washington). In the Washington Territory, the first law to make abortion illegal was passed in 1854. That law made abortion illegal for a woman quick with child (which was the 19th century way of describing after the child was viable outside of the womb.) It was not until 1909 that the law was changed to make all abortions illegal. Then, in December 1970, the law was changed to allow abortions during the first four lunar months of pregnancy.
