Model statutes and medical scandals together pushed abortion reform onto state agendas.

Evidence

Of even greater significance was the publication in 1962 of a model penal law by the American Law Institute (ALI) that permitted abortion when pregnancy was the result of rape or incest, when its continuation threatened the physical or mental health of the mother, or when there was a risk of birth defects. During the early 1960s, reports about the fertility drug Thalidomide and an outbreak of German measles, both of which caused birth defects, brought the issue of abortion before the general public. When the California State Board of Medical Examiners brought disciplinary charges against prominent physicians who had performed abortions on women with German measles, the state’s medical profession rallied behind the doctors and urged the California legislature to liberalize the state’s abortion law. — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 3083

Categorization

• DEFINE: Identifies the ALI Model Penal Code as the template for the rape, incest, health, and fetal-defect abortion exceptions adopted in many states.
• SHARE: Niche hook for someone interested in how the Thalidomide and rubella scares, not ideology, first liberalized abortion law.