[richlevy]

But infanticide was one category of murder that rose catastrophically as street violence diminished in the second half of the century.
During one four-year period in the late 186Os, 483 dead infants were found on the city's streets, lots and cesspools. And Lane says this number was only the tip of the iceberg because most murdered infants were explained away as natural deaths.

Few babies were delivered in hospitals, so if a mother smothered her newborn and reported it as a stillborn, no one could contradict her story.
The carnage resulted from the fact that unmarried factory girls and streetwalkers who became pregnant couldn't afford illegal abortions costing $50 to $100. If the woman had no family support and no money, there was no. way to support a child. There was no welfare system.

In the few cases where a mother was charged with infanticide, Philadelphia juries were usually sympathetic.
Lane cites the 1881 case a Lizzie Aarons, who threw her newborn from an attic window. The jury acquitted her without leaving the box to deliberate, and spectators took up a collection for her.
Homeless, penniless, shoeless Lizzie told a heart-wrenching story of being turned away by numerous charities and hospitals the day she gave birth. One hospital wanted a marriage certificate and $5. A poor widow found Lizzie wandering in the snow and allowed her to give birth in her attic.

Lane says many women turned to illegal "baby farms" where, for $1 or $2, a woman could drop off the newborn child. "Ninety percent of [these] babies died," Lane says. "They didn't have baby formula at that time. Wet nurses were expensive. The babies got raw cow milk or sugar water and very few survived."

Well, if efforts are successful to outlaw abortion and concentrate on 'abstinence only' birth control, we might be able to return to the 'good old days' that so many social conservatives long for.