Justice Samuel Alito appears spellbound by the 19th century.
InDobbs诉杰克逊妇女健康组织，阿里托（Alito）的决定写了50年constitutional protection for women’s right to get an abortion，他部署了基于几个历史先例的论点。他定期使用“历史和传统”一词。
但是对于阿里托来说，19世纪看起来像真正的黄金时代：“ 1803年，英国议会made abortion a crime at all stages of pregnancy和authorized the imposition of severe punishment.”
He goes on and on: “In this country during the 19th century, the vast majority of the States enacted statutes criminalizing abortion at all stages of pregnancy.”
“By 1868, the year when the Fourteenth Amendment was ratified,” Alito concludes, “three-quarters of the States, 28 out of 37, had enacted statutes making abortion a crime.”
但是，在他对历史的有选择性的尝试中，阿利托不问什么对我来说，作为历史学家, constitutes a set of fundamental questions: Why was abortion eventually criminalized during that time? What was the broad cultural and intellectual context of that period? And, more important, is there something peculiar about the 19th century?
就妇女的身体和堕胎而言，19世纪的妇女本身的信任和力量有所下降。
18th-century woman: Active and in control
To begin with, 17th- and 18th-century legal authorities爱德华·可口可乐,马修·黑尔（Matthew Hale），和William Blackstonehad all advocated for or condoned abortion. They fretted only when the procedure was carried out after “quickening,” the moment when the mother realizes that the fetus moves in her womb, approximately the fourth month of pregnancy.
As a medical procedure,abortion was widespreadin Colonial and 18th-century America. By using more or less safe techniques, midwives and medical practitioners performedmany types of operations关于他们的病人。当然，女人很容易死。但是，当她寻求堕胎时，没有社会，法律或宗教力量会阻止她。
Also, a woman could choose from many available remedies rather than have an operation. Derived from juniper bushes, “savin，“ 要么Juniperus sabina, was one of the most popular abortifacients. Other herbs and concoctions were similarly taken:pennyroyal,tansy, ergot, Seneca snakeroot要么棉线树皮。
Benjamin Franklin inserted an abortion recipe在一本流行的教科书中他在费城重新出版1748年。他没有提示任何丑闻。
The truth is that America’s founders, together with their contemporaries,had a rather democratic understanding of the female body。They believed that women, physiologically speaking, weren’t qualitatively different from men; the two sexes were equal and complementary.
Men’s and women’s composition, medical doctors argued, wasidentical从本质上讲，唯一的区别是解剖学，因为男性性器官比女性器官更具外部扩张。
就像雄性一样，女性被认为完全控制了她的生理功能，包括她的性行为。人们认为男人和女人都必须达到性高潮，如果同时同时，for pregnancy to ensue。
这使18世纪的男人注意到了女性伴侣的满意，尽管出于功利主义原因。
尤其是当性行为时期的性行为时，这名妇女必须像男性伴侣一样活跃。这位18世纪的妇女活跃并处于控制状态。她信任自己的身体感，包括她的乐趣。
And crucially, only she could detect whether quickening had taken place in her womb. Consequently, she could immediately tell whether terminating a pregnancy at a given time was acceptable. Or if it was a crime.
19世纪的女人：虚弱和贞洁
19世纪改变了这一切。对生理学和女性身体机制的理解经历了深刻的转变。现在，欧洲和美国的医生认为女性与男性基本不同：从“一个身体”模型中，医学话语转向a “two body” model。
Women’s level of self-determination decreased accordingly. Suddenly, they were not only weaker or softer than men, but inherently passive, too. Instead of being encouraged to take part in sex, actively and with vigor, 19th-century women wereexpected to be withdrawn。
They were thus recast as pure, chaste, and modest. Commendable women were virgins, wives, and mothers. Or else they were prostitutes, nearly criminals, which reflects the维多利亚时代的二元思维方式。这位诚实的女人不被敦促信任她的子宫或阴道中发生的加快和其他生理事件，而是必须信任她的医生。
Anti-abortion campaigns began in earnest in the mid-19th century. They were waged主要由美国医学协会, founded in 1847, and werefundamentally anti-feminist。他们责骂妇女避开了母亲的维多利亚时代的“自我牺牲”。
Anti-abortion campaigns weretargeted against midwives and tried to discredit women’s firsthand experience怀孕。男医生声称怀孕是一种医疗地形，这是一个属于他们的领域。
根据妇女自身的身体感觉，而不是医学诊断 - Qualking被贬低。当然，加快医生依赖妇女的自我诊断和判断力。反对堕胎的医学运动领导人Horatio R. Storer博士将Quicking描述为“实际上只是一种感觉。” In such a context, it could no longer be framed as the basis from where all moral, social and legal standards emerged.
In the Dobbs decision, Alito says: “The Court finds that the right to abortion is not deeply rooted in the Nation’s history and tradition.” This is a historical fact: Protection of the right to abortion wasn’t around in America before Roe.
但这也是整个故事的不完整图片。将堕胎定为犯罪，加上妇女的经历的权力下放，以及导致该决定的感觉的医疗化，是属于19世纪长期持续的方面。
No American lives in that century anymore—not even Justice Alito.
Maurizio Valsania是美国历史教授Università di Torino.
本文从对话在创意共享许可下。阅读要么iginal article。
