"In the first Roe argument, Weddington claimed (citing Means) that “at the time the Constitution was adopted there was no common law prohibition against abortions; that they were available to the women of this country.” This was inaccurate on both counts: the English common law’s prohibition of abortion after quickening was adopted by the American colonies, and abortion was not available as a practical matter because it was either ineffective or deadly or both. Means’s other claim was that the purpose of abortion laws was only to protect the health of the mother, not the child. If abortion laws were adopted only for the health of the mother, however, there is no adequate explanation for why abortion laws were “criminal” laws. Why was abortion, in contrast to all other surgery, uniquely abortion statutes as criminal?"