15,697
edits
Changes
no edit summary
[[File:466px-John_T._Hoffman_(portrait_by_Jacob_Lazarus).png|thumbnail|left|250px|John T. Hoffman Governor of New York vetoed the medical licensing law]]
__NOTOC__
In 1872, American physicians were not licensed anywhere in the United States. Medicine was completely unregulated , and anyone could claim to be a physician. Most American physicians could be classified as either a regulars, homeopaths , or eclectics. These three medical sects were in brutal competition with each other. Regulars were part of a medical sect that could trace its roots to ancient Rome. Homeopaths and eclectics were part of medical sects that had been founded in the 18th and early 19th centuries. The ineffectiveness of Regular medical practice 's ineffectiveness encouraged people to explore new medical ideas that led to the creation for of distinct medical sects. These new medical groups found willing patients who were understandably skeptical of traditional medicine.
These three sects were operating in an environment unencumbered by any meaningful regulation. Over the next thirty years, that would change dramatically. While regular physicians were predisposed to advocating for some type of medical licensing, state legislatures had so far expressed little interest in creating any medical licensing. Up until that point nothing had occurred to galvanize widespread support for medical licensing until the summer of 1872.
<dh-ad/>
Bowlsby’s “Trunk Murder” and Bedford’s campaign merged and convinced members within the medical community that it was time they eliminated abortionists from their ranks. Abortionists undermined the already questionable reputations of doctors and lowered the profession's standing in the public’s eyes. In step with Bedford’s proposal ratcheting up the abortion laws, members of the New York medical community argued that doctors had to be regulated by the state to stem the tide of tragic abortion cases in the city. Prominent Regular physicians wanted to stigmatize physicians who preformed performed abortions with medical licensing. Regular physicians began to argue that medical licensing was the only effective way to stop abortionists from plying their trade.
====Lobbying Physicians====
