One of the most common arguments levied against a woman’s right to choose is the idea that abortion is “murder,” and the killing of an innocent fetus is the most heinous sin a woman can partake in. This view is supposedly grounded in a deep reverence for human life. However, the origin of this belief is less humanistic than its current proponents would like to believe. The crusade against women’s bodily autonomy was invented, perpetuated, and executed by male doctors in the mid-nineteenth century in a bid for financial gain and the domination of a market over which, at the time, they had no control.

Keep Reading: The Insidious Origins of the “Moral” Argument Against Abortion Rights