When the U.S. was founded, there were NO written laws against abortion

Hard to believe, but it's true - when the U.S. was founded, there were NO written/statutory laws against abortion.  In fact the common law we inherited from England only defined abortion as a crime after "quickening" - a self-reported event.  I was surprised to find this out, and being a major issue of our times, want to share this so perhaps the debate won't be so virulent, indeed, maybe the debate will go away, and we can talk of real problems like peak oil or climate change or deficit spending.

My source for this is a well referenced book,
Abortion in America: The Origins and Evolution of National Policy, 1800-1900
written by James C. Mohr, published by the Oxford University Press.

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/160576.Abortion_in_America
http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/93111.James_C_Mohr

Amazon has a preview,
http://www.amazon.com/Abortion-America-Origins-Evolution-National/dp/0195026160

The Preface is quite succint. In 1800 there were no (written) laws against abortion, by 1900 it was illegal everywhere.  Mohr's answer lies in the use of political power by men (remember, all American women didn't get the right to vote until 1920, and even the first place to allow female voting - Wyoming - the first woman voter was in 1870).

Specifically the men in the newly forming state medical associations.  Large numbers of newly trained doctors went out to practice, but found few customers.  Remember too, that this was the Victorian era, and women were loathe to expose themselves to any strange man.  So it appears to some enterprising doctors used to law to shut down their competition, namely the granny doctors, female herbalists and midwives.

The had good intentions assuredly so, the cynical wanted to make a buck, and the fervent believers in "modern, scientific" medicine wanted to save people from quacks.
A lesson on how backwards and unscientific medicine actually was at that time can be found in the story of Dr. Semmelweiss.

But no matter, the male doctors won the day, and abortion was criminalized.

So Roe v. Wade in fact re-legalized abortion.

I'd also like you know about the evidence for reincarnation, and it's import on the issue, but that is for another time.