The surprising history of abortion in the United States

June 27, 2016 • CNN

Since 1973, when Roe v. Wade legalized abortion across the United States, states have enacted more than 1,074 laws to limit access to the procedure, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a sexual and reproductive rights organization. More than a quarter of these laws passed between 2010 and 2015.

It wasn’t always like this, says Reagan, a professor of history, medicine, gender, women’s studies and law at the University of Illinois.

So how did we get here?

With the help of Reagan, author of “When Abortion Was a Crime,” and the nonprofit Our Bodies Ourselves, we set out to learn what abortion was like in America before 1973.

Read the complete story: The surprising history of abortion in the United States by Jessica Ravitz