here is a fashion in this,
as in all other female customs, good and bad. The wretch whose account
with the Almighty is heaviest with guilt too often becomes a
heroine."[37]

[Footnote 37: A Woman's Thoughts about Women.]

Causes of the Crime.--Many influences may combine to cause the mother
ruthlessly to destroy her helpless child: as, to conceal the results
of sin; to avoid the burdens of maternity; to secure ease and freedom
to travel, etc., or even from a false idea that maternity is vulgar;
but it is true, beyond all question, that the primary cause of the sin
is far back of all these influences. The most unstinted and scathing
invectives are used in characterizing the criminality of a mother who
takes the life of her unborn babe; but a word is seldom said of the
one who forced upon her the circumstances which gave the unfortunate
one existence. Though doctors, ministers, and moralists have said much
on this subject, and written more, it is reasonable to suppose that
they will never accomplish much of anything in the direction of reform
until they recognize the part the man acts in all of these sad cases,
and begin to demand reform where it is most needed, and where its
achievement will effect the most good. As was observed in the remarks
upon the subject of "Prevention of Conception," this evil has its origin
in "marital excesses," and in a disregard of the natural law which makes
the female the sole proprietor of her own body, and gives to her the
right to refuse the approaches of the male when unprepared to receive
them without doing violence to the laws of her being.

The Nature of the Crime.--"The married and well-to-do, who by means
of medicines and operations produce abortions at early periods of
pregnancy, have no excuse except the pretense that they do not consider
it murder until the child quickens.

"No, not murder, you say, for 'there has not been any life in the child.'
Do not attempt to evade, even to man, a crime which cannot be hidden
from the All-seeing. The poor mother has not herself felt the life of
the child perhaps, but that is a quibble only of the laws of man, founded
indeed upon the view, now universally recognized as incorrect, that
the child's life began when its movements were first strong enough to
be perceptible. There is, in fact, no moment after conception when it
can be said that the child has not life, and the crime of destroying
human life is as heinous and as sure before the p