The Trans-Civilizational Abortion Timeline

What role has abortion played over the course of human history? How has it been perceived and practiced? What are the variations in attitudes, methods, and power structures that have informed the practice of reproductive agency? 

The Trans-Civilizations Abortion Timeline is crowd-sourced timeline that captures the tremendously diverse variety of customs, techniques, and ideologies that have informed the practice of pregnancy termination. Human cultures have demonstrated profound variations, particularly as they pertain to sexuality and reproduction. This timeline aims to engage a range of disciplines, including archeology, anthropology, history, women’s studies, medicine, and public health, so as to create a resource to better understand our best, that we may more effectively shape our future. 

This wiki-based crowd sourced timeline is currently in development. Contact us if you're interested getting involved in the design, implementation, and dissemination of this project. 

Entries are organized by date, and by the human community to which the event refers. All entries include a source and are peer-reviewed before they are published. 

TIME
The timeline begins 200,000 years ago, at the birth of “modern humans,”, the Homo sapiens species.

COMMUNITY
A Community refers to a distinct group of people that is bound by culture and / or place.