Abortion is the unlawful, premature expulsion of the fetus, or of the living child from a pregnant woman, by any artificial means, at any time of pregnancy, solely for the purpose of preventing the birth of a living child.

The miscarriage of a pregnant woman consists in the premature expulsion of the ovum or fetus, or of the living child, and to produce such miscarriage is to procure an abortion.1

The procuring or attempting to procure a miscarriage or abortion was not an offense at common law, if the pregnant woman had not herself felt the child alive and quick within her, and consented to the act.2 Quick with child is having conceived. With quick child is when the child has quickened.3