Commonwealth v. Taylor

The principal question in this case is whether, under the Gen. Sts. c. 165, § 9, it is a criminal offence to do the acts therein mentioned with intent to procure the miscarriage of a woman who is not in fact pregnant with child. The question arises upon a motion to quash the indictment, which contains no averment of such pregnancy; but it has been argued, and we have considered it, as if it had appeared in evidence on the trial that she was not so pregnant.

A brief examination of the statutes on this subject, in England and in this Commonwealth, leaves no doubt in our minds as to the true…