Opinion of the Court
quick child was at least "a heinous misdemeanor," 1 St. George Tucker, Blackstone's Commentaries 129-130 (1803) (Tucker's Blackstone), and that edition also included Blackstone's discussion of the proto-felony-murder rule, 4 Tucker's Blackstone 200-201. Manuals for justices of the peace printed in colonies in the 18th century typically restated the common law rule on abortion, and some manuals repeated Hale's and Blackstone's statements that anyone who prescribed medication "unlawfully to destroy the child" would be guilty of murder if the woman died. See, e.g., J. Parker, Conductor Generalis: Or the Office, Duty and Authority of Justices of the Peace 220 (1788); 2 R. Burn, Justice of the Peace, and Parish Officer 221–222 (7th ed. 1762) (English manual stating the same).[1]
The few cases available from the early colonial period corroborate that abortion was a crime. See generally Dellapenna 215–228 (collecting cases). In Maryland in 1652,
- ↑ For manuals restating one or both rules, see J. Davis, A Treatise on Criminal Law with an Exposition of the Office and Authority of Justices of the Peace in Virginia 96, 102-103, 339 (1838); Conductor Generalis: Or, the Office, Duty and Authority of Justices of the Peace 194-195 (1801) (printed in Philadelphia); Conductor Generalis: Or, the Office, Duty and Authority of Justices of the Peace 194-195 (1794) (printed in Albany); Conductor Generalis: Or, the Office, Duty and Authority of Justices of the Peace 220 (1788) (printed in New York); J. Parker, Conductor Generalis: Or, the Office, Duty and Authority of Justices of the Peace 198 (1749) (printed in New York); G. Webb, Office and Authority of a Justice of a Peace 232 (1736) (printed in Williamsburg); Conductor Generalis: Or, the Office, Duty and Authority of Justices of the Peace 161 (1722); (printed in Philadelphia see also J.A. Conley, Doing it by the Book: Justice of the Peace Manuals and English Law in Eighteenth Century America, 6 J. Legal Hist. 257, 265, 267 (1985) (noting that these manuals were the justices' "primary source of legal reference" and of "practical value for a wider audience than the justices"). For cases stating the proto-felony-murder rule, see, e.g., Commonwealth v. Parker, 50 Mass. (9 Met.) 263, 265 (1845)); People v. Sessions, 58 Mich. 594, 595-596 (1886); State v. Moore, 25 Iowa 128, 131–132 (1868); Smith v. State, 33 Me. 48, 54–55 (1851).
