I was listening to NPR and they were doing a segment about Neil Gorsuch. They talked about how he would most likely rule against allowing abortions because he believes in a school of thought that the government should have no say in a matter unless the founding fathers specifically put it in the constitution, or something along that line. It got me thinking was medical abortions even a thing during the time of the founding fathers? How long have abortions been a practiced medical procedure?
Medical abortions have existed for thousands of years. For example, the Hippocratic Oath, one of the earliest set of standards for the medical profession (written somewhere between 5th - 3rd century BC), specifically states:
I will not give a lethal drug to anyone if I am asked, nor will I advise such a plan; and similarly I will not give a woman a pessary to cause an abortion.
The founding fathers were almost certainly aware of abortion, but even then, their opinion doesn't matter quite so much in this case, as the case in the US that set modern rules in place on when states could restrict abortion, Roe v Wade (Later modified slightly by Planned Parenthood v Casey), was decided on 14th amendment grounds, so what would have mattered was the mindset of the people who wrote and voted to adopt that particular constitutional amendment in 1868.