MIT OpenCourseWare http ocw mit edu 24 06J STS 006J Bioethics Spring 2009 For information about citing these materials or our Terms of Use visit http ocw mit edu terms History and Abortion Session L9 Leslie J Reagan About to Meet Her Maker Women Doctors Dying Declarations and the State s Investigation of Abortion Chicago 1867 1940 Journal of American History 77 March 1991 1240 1264 L Alta Charo The Celestial Fire of Conscience Refusing to Deliver Medical Care New England Journal of Medicine 352 16 June 2005 2471 2474 Reagan About to Meet Her Maker A historian of medicine at the University of Illinois Reagan has studied the history of abortion while it was illegal in the United States Abortion which had been legal for most of the 19th century was illegal in most states by 1900 only gradually and recently becoming legal again Roe v Wade 1973 In the early 20th century states went to great lengths to prevent abortion This article describes efforts by law enforcement officials in Chicago to prosecute abortionists As you will see these officials were extremely coercive in their interactions with both women and doctors Try to imagine the experiences of women at this time what would have driven you do pursue an illegal abortion What would it have been like to be interrogated by the police while dying from complications of the abortion Why did police try so hard to get dying statements from women Did the police go to far Also try to imagine the bind doctors were in wanting to care for patients but threatened with prosecution unless they cooperated with police investigations Why did the situation begin to change in the 1940s The article abruptly changes direction on its last page p 1264 when it becomes clear that Reagan is using this case to argue against modern efforts to recriminalize abortion Does her historical material make a compelling contribution to the modern debate Does knowing her political position on the current debate make you reassess her historical arguments is she an objective historian Charo The Celestial Fire of Conscience A lawyer and bioethicist Charo examines a series of debates that have emerged recently motivated by abortion controversies but not limited to them Most states allow doctors to refuse to provide a treatment if they have moral objections to it as long as they refer the patient to a provider who will Recently states have begun to remove even that requirement creating a situation in which patients would not even know what treatments were being withheld from them Which should prevail patient autonomy and the right of access to medical care or physician autonomy and the right to exercise one s conscience Do medical providers have obligations to provide services in exchange for their access to other professional privileges e g doctors have a monopolistic right to practice medicine Are you convinced by Charo s arguments against a right of conscientious objection