Two hundred years before Alabama effectively banned abortion this week, the scandal surrounding their relationship led to the nation’s first abortion law. “That’s who Ammi Rogers was.”And Rogers loved those women right back, getting involved with young female congregants throughout his career. According to trial transcripts, when the young woman became pregnant, Rogers told her they couldn’t marry unless she terminated her pregnancy. There was no “seduction” law in the state; and although abortion after quickening was against “hazy” common law, there was no actual statute banning it. In 1821, the General Assembly passed a bill banning medicinal abortion after quickening, with those who provided the medicine — not the pregnant woman — facing prosecution.

Source: Washington Post May 16, 2019 13:31 UTC