Abortion Isn’t New — Abortion Hysteria Is

Amber Fraley
4 min readNov 2, 2023
Photo by Gayatri Malhotra on Unsplash

There is a widespread misconception that abortion is a relatively modern invention, borne out of modern humanity’s supposed moral decay. Nothing could be further from the truth. First off, abortion is ancient, practiced in every society all over the globe since the beginning of recorded history, and most assuredly before then as well.

Why? Because life is hard and sometimes resources are scarce. There is no reason to bring a baby into the world when your village hasn’t seen rain for weeks and people are starting to go hungry. Why continue a pregnancy if you can’t find enough resources for yourself, let alone the additional calories and drinkable water a pregnancy requires? And even if you can somehow provide for the pregnancy, why bring a baby into a famine?

The practical, humane decision is to end the pregnancy so a child doesn’t have to suffer.

Nothing has changed in modern times. Though we haven’t suffered widespread famine and hunger in the US since The Great Depression, sometimes individuals simply don’t have the resources to care for a pregnancy at that point in their life. And by “resources,” I mean fiscal, mental, and physical resources. Pregnancy, childbirth, and caring for a baby are not only expensive, but require a certain amount of maturity, physical strength, and a lot of patience. Anyone lacking in any one…

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Amber Fraley

Writing about abortion rights, mental illness, trauma, narcissistic abuse & survival, politics. Journalist, novelist, wife, mom, Kansan, repro rights activist.