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While the simple answer might be 1973 with the ''Roe v. Wade'' decision, the history of abortion’s decriminalization occurred on a state-by-state basis—much like its criminalization.

As abortions became black market commodities, late 19th century Americans—writers, journalists, preachers, and physicians—began to describe abortion with a moral absolutism that had never existed before.

This change didn’t occur within a vacuum, however. In the late 19th century, targeting abortions and abortion providers—like midwives and “irregulars”—occurred within the context of the professionalization of the medical field. Individuals like Dr. Horatio Storer attempted to legitimate themselves as professional medical men, and they did so at others’ expense. In claiming that pregnancy and childbirth were not natural events, where women and midwives could maintain authority, they argued that pregnancy and childbirth were medical conditions requiring physician intervention.

Furthermore, this new generation of physicians declared that abortion represented women’s selfishness and “antenatal infanticide in an era marked by concerns about race suicide and white women’s reproductive rates.

The Depression and advancements in medical technology changed things for women seeking abortions in the 1920s and 1930s. Sterilization of equipment, specialization, and, later, antibiotics, all worked together to decrease mortality. So while the procedures themselves became much safer, law enforcement also recognized that this created an opportunity to put patients on the stand to testify against providers of illegal abortions. Because of increased restriction in the 1940s and 1950s, more women were forced to seek out illegal abortions in substandard conditions.

The most notorious example of the dangers of illegal abortion became lionized in the cover of Ms. Magazine in 1973 when they depicted the 1964 death of Gerri Santoro. By the 1960s, the public perception of illegal abortions was that they were dirty and dangerous. American women were also acquiring illegal abortions in Mexico, which also contributed to the idea that they were illicit. Whether acquiring a back alley abortion in her hometown, two towns over, or across a national border, many women risked the unknown in order to acquire a measure of reproductive control.

In a 7-2 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court held that a woman’s right to an abortion fell within the right to privacy as had been recognized in ''Griswold v. Connecticut'' (1965) and that it was protected by the 14th Amendment.

The ''Roe'' decision gave women autonomy over their pregnancies during the first trimester, and allowed states to regulate or restrict abortions during the second and third trimester. As a result, abortion statutes in the remanding states were struck down and determined to be unconstitutional.

Linda Gordon, ''The Moral Property of Women: A History of Birth Control Politics in America''. Urbana: The University of Illinois Press, 2007.