Changes

There were several attempts to standardize American abortion law. The American Law Institute, for example, attempted to draft a model law for abortion in the United States that allowed for legal abortions under the conditions that most legislators approved of: in order to protect the life of the mother, if the pregnancy resulted from rape or incest, or if the fetus was likely to be deformed or ill.

Some states began to revise their abortion statutes based on the model law. In 1967, for example, California’s governor Ronald Reagan, passed the Therapeutic Abortion Act, which allowed for legal abortions when physicians believed a woman’s life or mental health would be at risk, or when District Attorneys believed the pregnancy resulted from rape or incest. Other states drafted similar legislation.