Abortion and its progress from antiquity as a crime
The question of the interruption of pregnancy exists since ancient times, although it would not be until the third century D.C, with the progressive rise of Christianity in Rome, which would begin to be considered as a crime. There were several methods to cause abortion, such as the mixture based on rancid olive oil, honey and cedar resin or the introduction of a wool ball soaked in wine, proposed by Sorano de Ephesus (doctor at the time of Adriano) orEven the insertion of a spider wrapped in deer skin. Even when it was not considered a crime, other methods were used more frequently, due to the multiple risks that abortion for the mother (cuts, secondary infertility, infections or even death). This is how the most frequent practices were infanticide (killing the newborn) or the simple abandonment of the neonate (also called "exhibition", which has its best known example in the founders of the Roman Empire, Romulus and Remo, abandoned in theforest and breastfeeding for a wolf).
In the Middle Ages, these last two techniques (infanticide and exhibition) will continue to be widely extended. As for infanticides, in many cases they were not performed through direct acts (such as strangling the newborn, hitting or drowning it), but by other indirects such as letting them star in hunger or allowing accidents. This practice above all affected girls and those with medical problems, who were not considered with much value in military and agricultural societies. Infanticide, although it is known that it is still carried out in countries such as China, India and on certain occasions in Spain, it is rejected and has been illegalized by most societies, including the Spanish. As for the exhibition, medieval laws have been found that regulated the abandonment of children, as is the case of Liber Ludiciorum (Visigothic Corps) that condemns the fact and can convert parents into slaves, or the real jurisdictionof Alfonso X that applies the withdrawal of parental rights. In the same way as in the Middle Ages, the abandonment of children remains convicted in Spain with fines, prison sentences and the withdrawal of parental rights.
The Catholic Church, which in the Medievo already exercised great dominance over the people both in the social and politicmonasteries or convents. In the sacred book of this religion, the Bible, no abortive practice is cited, nor is the practice condemned, for the simple fact that abortion is not considered as an option for women. Several passages in this text announce the importance of life for God and what is the beginning of this. One of these examples, we can read them in the book of Jeremiah with this phrase said by God: "Before having formed in your belly I already knew you, before you were nacos you had consecrated you prophet". That is, even without being born, God already values the life of Jeremiah, because for him from the uterus he is already a human being with a mission in the world. In the Gospel of Luke we have another example, this time with Jesus, in which it is implied that his life begins from the bosom of Mary. At present, the position of the Church continues to rely on the Bible, and adopting a position against abortion. However, certain sectors of the Church if they accept the interruption of pregnancy in case of malformation, while insisting on the value of life from conception in the maternal breast.
Despite the position of the Catholic religion on abortion, the risks for the mother and the attempts of medieval legislation to eliminate this practice, there are women who still risked their lives to get rid of the fetus. There were concoctions, powders and pills to cause abortion, even spells, although they were all difficult to get. The medical writings of the time do not usually talk about abortive substances, although the author of the Botanical Text Floridus Macer (fourteenth century) does affirm that emenagogue plants are abortive. Dioscórides (doctor and pharmacologist of Ancient Greece, whose work became the main pharmacy manual in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance) names several of them: the "juniper", the "Colle flowers", both could be taken as suppositoriesvaginal, or the "rue" that facilitates menstruation and in major doses causes abortion. This is a very dangerous plant for the mother, because of the great bleeding that causes her. However, one of the best known already cited by Plinio and even today used in the Maghreb, is the "sabina". Causes gastrointestinal inflammation, urinary gastro and central nervous system paralysis, with seizures and can cause death. Sometimes, the mother died without being able to expel the fetus. Another plant already used in the Middle Ages and even today, is the "saffron" in large quantities, but like the previous ones it must be taken with caution. Sorano de Ephesus mentions others: the "Cabañeja," the "Granada", the "yellow alhelí", the "pepper" in large quantities and the "arugula". All these have been tested, except arugula, and its effectiveness has been demonstrated.
Apart from the use of plants, abortion could also be caused by other methods closer to employees today by doctors. With needles or sharp instruments, he tried. One of the abortive techniques that use these instruments, used in the Middle Ages and even today (as in the US. UU.), It was what was called the "necessary crudelites": it was about dismembering the fetus to take it out, which today would be an emergency abortion in the last phase of pregnancy.
On other occasions, bleeding was used, already disappeared today. Although the doctors of the time knew the danger of this for the fetus and the mother, certain women lied about their state, stating not to be pregnant and asked to be done by bleeding in the ankle (common method to cause menstruation). Sometimes, this worked, and in others I ended the mother’s death due to bleeding. Another more rudimentary method, and that is still one of the causes of involuntary abortions, is to do just the opposite of what is recommended to pregnant women. It consisted of making efforts, violent exercises or giving energetic walks. Other practices that could cause abortion were strong massages in the belly and pubis.
All these practices were subject to the theory of late hominization or the arrival of the soul taken from the Greeks (particularly Aristotle) that dominated in the Middle Ages: it was thought that the soul reached the fetus in the first trimester of pregnancy,So from that moment on, human life was considered and before that it could still be aborted by having an absence of this soul. Tomás de Aquino followed this current, also called "the theory of animation", which considered the embryo as a human being from the moment the mother perceives her movements. Even in the Modern Age, Carlos I established guidelines to mitigate abortion punishments in relation to this theory. If we compare this theory with the present, we realize that in Spain abortion is not penalized and is possible in the first 14 weeks of gestation or in the first 22 if the fetus has health problems, which corresponds to the period of timeof three months that Aristotle believed and the movement of the fetus that does not usually occur until after the first 18 weeks.
Although abortion was a practice rejected by the Christian Church, there are many literary testimonies of the time that realize that they were still carried out. A first example, we find it in the literary work Tirant lo Joanot Martorrell (put extract of the work), in which it is explained as a woman takes herbs to abort. In a.H.N. (National Historical Archive) Military Orders (1533) is narrated as Catalina Rodríguez lies to her doctor to be able to abort through a bleeding (put an extract of the work). Another example is Es Espill by Jaume Roig, where we have a woman who resorts to supernatural forces (that is, spells) to get rid of two fetuses (put an extract of the work). Even Gonzalo de Berceo in signs that will appear before the final judgment refers to the abortados and who have not been able to access the salvation of their souls. More specifically, it can be read: "How many were never born / e were engendered / quantas souls were / were vivified if they ate birds / if they were all sized at that day / there they will be together"
Leave feedback