In 1974 the Congressional Research Service of the Library of Con-
gress prepared a brief summary of the judicial and legislative aspects
of abortion control for members of Congress. A portion of this "issue
brief" dealing with the pre-1967 period is printed below.

The moral and legal issues raised by the practice of abortion has tested
the philosophers, theologians, and statesmen of every age since the
dawn of civilization. The Stoics' belief that abortion should be allowed
up to the moment of birth was vigorously opposed by the Pythagoreans
who believed that the soul was infused into the body at conception and
that to abort a fetus would be to commit murder. Early Roman law was
silent as to abortion; and abortion and infanticide was common in Rome,
especially among the upper classes. Opposition by scholars and the
growing influence of the Christian religion brought about the first pro-
hibition of abortion during the reign of Severus ( 193-211 A.D.). These
laws made abortion a high criminal offense and subjected a woman who
violated the provisions to banishment. During the European Middle
Ages, major church theologians differentiated between an embryo infor-
matus (prior to endowment of a soul) and an embryo formatus (after en-

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