Following the teachings of Augustine and Aquinas, the Church held that the fetus was not human until sometime after conception when the matter was suitable for the reception of a human soul. In the first half of the twentieth century, most U.S. states passed laws regulating or making abortion illegal, except in certain cases such as a pregnancy resulting from rape or incest or when the pregnant woman’s life or health was threatened. However, women continued to have abortions illegally and under dangerous conditions. (The most notorious of these “back alley” abortion methods involved the use of a coat hanger to scrape the uterine lining, which became a symbol used by the movement to legalize