Abortion which midwives usually worked were relatively safe. In addition, some commentators have written that, despite improved medical procedures, the period from the 1930s until legalization also saw more zealous enforcement of anti-abortion laws, and concomitantly an increasing control of abortion providers by organized crime. Soviet Russia (1919), Iceland (1935) and Sweden (1938) were among the first countries to legalize certain or all forms of abortion. In 1935 Nazi Germany, a law was passed permitting abortions for those deemed "hereditarily ill", while women considered of German stock were specifically prohibited from having abortions. Beginning in the second half of the twentieth
Abortion in the United States time at which she had the abortion, that the child would have been very much deformed. Sherri Finkbine's story marks a turning point for women as well as the history of abortion laws occurring in the United States. Sherri Finkbine, unlike many other women was able to afford going overseas to have the abortion. However, for the women who have pregnancies that are actually unintended, they may not be able to afford traveling, leading them to seek more illegal forms of abortion. In 1964, Gerri Santoro of Connecticut died trying to obtain an illegal abortion and her photo became the