Historically it was unlawful for a woman to induce an abortion or miscarriage on herself, and for someone else to induce an abortion or miscarriage upon a woman. Under section 55 of Victoria’s Criminal Law and Practice Statute 1864 such actions could be punished by imprisonment for up to 15 years. Section 56 of the Act also made it a misdemeanour to supply any one with any poison, noxious thing or instrument knowing that it was intended to be used to procure an abortion, with a penalty of up to 3 years imprisonment. These penalties remained the same when Victoria updated its Crimes Act in 1958.
In 1969, R v Davidson established that the Crimes Act should be interpreted as allowing abortion in cases where carrying a pregnancy to term presented a serious danger to a woman’s life or health. This decision, known as the Menhennitt ruling, was superseded when the Abortion Law Reform Act 2008 formally decriminalised abortion in Victoria and enabled abortions on request up to 24 weeks into pregnancy.
Lack of effective birth control in the nineteenth and early twentieth century meant that abortion was a widespread means of controlling reproduction. Pills and concoctions promising to relieve female complaints, remove obstructions or restore women to normalcy – all euphemisms for inducing abortions – were widely advertised in newspapers. Midwives, nurses and doctors used instruments to bring on a miscarriage, sometimes visiting women in their homes or operating private hospitals where they could be nursed while they recovered. Some women also self-induced by various means, employing everything from knitting needles to coat-hangers. However, the secretive nature of such operations meant that evidence was often hard for police to obtain; most cases only came to light when something went seriously wrong and a woman died as a result. Anecdotal evidence of the prevalence suggests that for every prosecuted abortionist, dozens operated without detection.
An example of a prosecution involving a man who attempted to have his pregnant girlfriend procure a miscarriage in 1922 can be read here.
Further information:
Allen, Judith A. “The Trials of Abortion in Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century Australia.” Australian Cultural History 12 (1993 ): 87-99.
Allen, Judith A. Sex and Secrets: Crimes Involving Australian Women since 1880. Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1990.
Allen, Judith. “Octavius Beale Reconsidered: Infanticide, Babyfarming and Abortion in Nsw 1880-1939.” In What Rough Beast?: The State and Social Order in Australian History, edited by Sydney Labour History Group, 111-29. Sydney; London; Boston: Allen & Unwin, 1982.
Baird, Barbara. “’The Incompetent, Barbarous Old Lady Round the Corner’: The Image of the Backyard Abortionist in Pro-Abortion Politics.” Hecate 22, no. 1 (1996): 7-26.
Baird, Barbara. “Abortion in South Australia before 1970: An Oral History Project.” Lilith: A Feminist History Journal, no. 7 (1991): 113-29.
Baird, Barbara. “The Self‐aborting Woman.” Australian Feminist Studies13, no. 28 (October 1, 1998): 323–37.
Baird, Barbara. I Had One Too– : An Oral History of Abortion in South Australia before 1970. Bedford Park: Women’s Studies Unit, Flinders University of South Australia, 1990.
Bongiorno, Frank. The Sex Lives of Australians: A History Melbourne: Schwartz Publishing, 2012.
Carmichael, Gordon A. “From Floating Brothels to Suburban Semirespectability: Two Centuries of Nonmarital Pregnancy in Australia.” Journal of Family History 21 (1996): 281-315.
Cook, Hera. “Unseemly and Unwomanly Behaviour: Comparing Women’s Control of Their Fertility in Australia and England from 1890 to 1970.” Journal of Population Research 17, no. 2 (2000): 125-41.
Davies, Susanne. “Captives of Their Bodies: Women, Law and Punishment, 1880s-1980s.” In Sex, Power and Justice: Historical Perspectives on Law in Australia, edited by Diane Kirkby, 99-115. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995.
Featherstone, Lisa. Let’s Talk About Sex: Histories of Sexuality in Australia from Federation to the Pill. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2011.
Finch, Lyn, and Jon Stratton. “The Australian Working Class and the Practice of Abortion 1880-1939.” Journal of Australian Studies 12, no. 23 (1988): 45-64.
Finch, Lynette. The Classing Gaze: Sexuality, Class and Surveillance. St Leonards: Allen & Unwin, 1993.
Gregory, Helen and John Thearle. “Casualties of Brisbane’s Growth: Infant and Child Mortality in the 1860s.” In Brisbane: Housing, Health, the River and the Arts, edited by Rod and Ray Sumner Fisher, 56-70. Brisbane: Brisbane History Group, 1985.
Haigh, Gideon. The Racket: How Abortion Became Legal in Australia. Carlton: Melbourne University Press, 2008.
Millar, Erica. “Choice-makers or failures: Providing a genealogy of abortion shame and shaming.” law&history 2 (2014): 114-145.
Parker, Clare. “Female Complaints & Certain Events: Silencing Abortion Discourse.” Lilith: A Feminist History Journal, no. 19 (2013): 32-45.
Parker, Clare. “A Parliament’s Right to Choose Abortion Law Reform in South Australia.” History Australia 11, no. 2 (2014): 60-79.
Riseman, Noah. “Medical Choice: The Australian Movement to Legalise Abortion, 1967-79.” Lilith: A Feminist History Journal, no. 14 (2005): 92-104.
Ryan, Lyndall, and Margie Ripper. “Women, Abortion and the State.” Journal of Australian Studies 17, no. 37 (June 1, 1993): 72–87.
Siedlecky, Stefania, and Diana Wyndham. Populate and Perish: Australian Women’s Fight for Birth Control. Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 1990.
Sumerling, Patricia. “The Darker Side of Motherhood: Abortion and Infanticide in South Australia 1870-1910.” Journal of the Historical Society of South Australia, no. 13 (1985): 111-27.
Swain, Shurlee, and Renate Howe. Single Mothers and Their Children: Disposal, Punishment and Survival in Australia. Cambridge; Oakleigh: Cambridge University Press, 1995.
Wainer, Jo, ed. Lost: Illegal Abortion Stories. Carlton: Melbourne University Press, 2006.