ced the abortion to severe
punishment.

When the fetus for some reason dies in its mother's womb, it is
generally expelled within a few hours or days. Sometimes this is not
the case, and the dead fetus is retained for several weeks, or months
or even years; to such a phenomenon we apply the term _missed_
abortion. Some women suffer from what might be called the abortion
habit; they can hardly ever carry a child to full term, but lose it in
the same month or even in the same week of gestation during each
pregnancy; we call this habitual abortion. And this habitual abortion
may be independent of disease, such, for instance, as syphilis. The
terms _threatened_, _imminent_ and _inevitable_ abortion require no
further explanation.

=The Causes of Abortion.= Outside of the abortion habit, which may be
due partly to heredity or be caused by a diseased condition of the
lining membrane of the uterus, the principal cause of abortion and
miscarriage is syphilis. And when a woman has had two or three or four
or more miscarriages in succession we generally assume the cause to be
syphilis, and in most cases the assumption will be correct.

When an abortion is performed by an experienced physician, with the
observance of the utmost cleanliness (asepsis and antisepsis), then
the abortion is accompanied with very little or no danger; but when
performed carelessly, by incompetent, non-conscientious physicians and
midwives, the operation is fraught with great danger to the patient's
health or to her very life. And abortion is a great cause of premature
death and chronic invalidism among women. And as long as the people
will remain ignorant of the proper means of regulating their
offspring, so long will abortion thrive.

While I recognize that there are cases in which the performance of an
abortion is perfectly justifiable from a moral standpoint, for
instance in cases of rape or where the mother is unmarried,
nevertheless abortion must be recognized as an evil, a necessary evil
now and then, but an evil, nevertheless. It is never to be undertaken
lightly, or to be considered in a frivolous spirit; and it is the duty
of all serious-minded and humanitarian men and women to do everything
in their power to remove those conditions which make abortion
necessary and unavoidable.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

PRENATAL CARE

Meaning of the Term--Misleading Information by Quasi-Scientists--
Exaggerated Ideas Regarding Prenatal Care--Nervou