The earliest anti-abortion laws were intended to protect women from untrained abortionists.

Records indicate abortions occurred unregulated during the 1800s, and the number of deaths caused by complications from illegal and unsafe abortions is impossible to determine. By the end on the 19th century, abortion was criminalized

1821 -- America's first statutory abortion regulation is enacted in Connecticut in order to protect women from abortion inducement through poison administered after the fourth month of pregnancy.

1856 -- Leading pro-life advocate Dr. Horatio Storer establishes a national drive by the American Medical Association (AMA) to end legal abortion. First trimester abortion at this point (in most states) is legal or a misdemeanor.

1873 -- The Comstock Act bans access to information about abortion and birth control. 1890 -- Abortion is regulated by statutes advocated by the AMA, and abortion is permitted upon conferral of one or more physicians who believe the procedure is necessary to preserve the life of the mother.

1961 -- Vacuum aspiration-style abortion spreads throughout Europe and is considered safer than traditional methods

1963 -- The Society for Human Abortion is established in San Francisco. SHA challenges the law by openly providing information on abortion and contraception.

1967 -- Abortion is classified a felony in 49 states and Washington D.C. Dr. Leon Belousis convicted for referring a woman to an illegal abortionist -- a case leading to a 1969 California Supreme Court decision in favor of the right to choose abortion. President Kennedy creates the Presidential Advisory Council on the Status of Women and calls for the repeal of abortion laws.

1970 -- Abortion activist Dr. Jane Hodgson is convicted in Minnesota for performing an abortion on a 23 yearold woman. The judge does not submit the case to the state supreme court. Hawaii becomes the first state to allow abortions performed before 20 weeks of pregnancy, thereby repealing its criminal abortion law. Soon after, New York State repeals its criminal abortion law.

1971 -- The Comstock Act prohibiting information on abortion is repealed. (State laws banning contraception remain.) Abortion under "certain" conditions is allowed in 14 states; four states guarantee a woman the choice of pregnancy termination. Norma McCorvey, an unmarried pregnant woman in Texas, challenges a state law that makes it a crime for a doctor to perform an abortion unless a woman's life is at stake. To protect her privacy, McCorvey is listed as

"Jane Roe" in all court documents. The Supreme Court, in Roe vs. Wade, grants women the right to terminate pregnancies through abortion. The ruling is based on a woman's right to privacy. In a separate case, Doe vs. Bolton, the Supreme Court votes 7-2 to invalidate Georgia law that required a woman to get approval from three physicians before having an abortion.

1974 -- Federally funded research using fetal tissue is prohibited through the National Science Foundation Authorization Act.

1976 -- Congress passes the Hyde Amendment, banning the use of Medicaid and other federal funds for abortions. The legislation is upheld by the Supreme Court in 1980.

1979 -- A Missouri requirement that abortions after the first trimester be performed in hospitals is found unconstitutional. Another law mandating parental consent is upheld.

1981 -- In Bellotti vs. Baird, Supreme Court rules that pregnant minors can petition court for permission to have an abortion without parental notification

1983 -- The court strikes down an Akron ordinance that requires doctors to give abortion patients antiabortion literature, imposes a 24-hour waiting period, requires abortions after the first trimester to be performed in a hospital, requires parental consent and requires the aborted fetus to be disposed of in a human manner.

1989 -- In Webster vs. Reproductive Health Services, a law in Washington State declaring that "life begins at conception"; and barring the use of public facilities for abortions is found unconstitutional. It marks the first time the Supreme Court does not explicitly reaffirm Roe vs. Wade.

1992 -- In Planned Parenthood vs. Casey, the court reaffirms Roe s core holding that states may not ban abortions or interfere with a woman s decision to have an abortion. The court does uphold mandatory 24-hour waiting periods and parental-consent laws.

1993 -- Abortion protestor Michael Griffin shoots Dr. David Gunn outside a clinic in Pensacola, Fla., during a March demonstration; he is later sentenced to life in prison. In August, Dr. George Tiller is shot in the arm while leaving clinic in Wichita, Kan.; Rachelle Shelley Shannon is convicted and sentenced to 11 years in prison.

1994 -- In July, Dr. John Bayard Britton and bodyguard are slain outside clinic in Pensacola, Fla., by former minister Paul J. Hill; Hill is convicted of murder and sentenced to death. In December, John Salvi walks into

two Boston-area abortion clinics with a rifle and opens fire, killing two receptionists and wounding five others; he is sentenced to life in prison without parole, but he kills himself in prison in 1996.

1995 -- Norma McCorvey ("Jane Roe", who didn t have an abortion because the court ruling came too late, is befriended by the national director of the anti-abortion group Operation Rescue, who baptizes her upon her conversion to Christianity. McCorvey declares that she is pro-life and regrets her role in the landmark case.

1996 -- The abortion debate shifts to state bans on "partial-birth abortions" which generally include late-term abortions performed with the "dilation and evacuation" method. 104th Congress passes HR 1833, a bill to outlaw such procedures; President Clinton vetoes the bill.

1997 -- Two bombs blast outside an Atlanta building containing an abortion clinic; six people injured; the clinic is left in ruins and the blast blows out windows across the street. Sources: The Chicago Tribune, California Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League, National Right to Life