Commonwealth v. Bangs
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
The defendant was indicted, October term, 1810, for assaulting and beating one Lucy Holman, and administering to her a certain dangerous and deleterious drought or potion, against her will, with intent to procure the abortion and premature birth of a bastard child, of which she was then pregnant, and which the defendant had before that time begotten of her body, et alla enormia, &c., to the great damage of the said Lucy, against good morals and good manners, in evil example…
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The defendant was indicted, October term, 1810, for assaulting and beating one Lucy Holman, and administering to her a certain dangerous and deleterious drought or potion, against her will, with intent to procure the abortion and premature birth of a bastard child, of which she was then pregnant, and which the defendant had before that time begotten of her body, et alla enormia, &c., to the great damage of the said Lucy, against good morals and good manners, in evil example to others in like case to offend, contra pacem, &c. The Solicitor-General, at the trial, entered a noll prosequi as to…
1Opinion of the Court
By the Court.
There can be no sentence upon this verdict. The assault and battery are out of the case, and no abortion is alleged to have followed the taking of the potion; and if an abortion had been alleged and proved to have ensued, the averment that the woman was quick with child at the time is a necessary part of the indictment, (a)
Judgment arrested.
[An attempt to procure abortion, even when the pregnant woman is not quick with child, is a misdemeanor at the common law. — 3 Chitty, Crim. Law, 798, — 1 Russell on Crimes, 2d. Eng. ed. 553. —And it is made felony by recent English statutes…
2Cited by15 opinions
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