Unwanted Pregnancies in Ancient Times

Abortions? Sure, although likely not surgical. They would take stuff (perhaps arsenic) and when you hit someone in their pregnant belly enough times, they'll abort. Yeah, people were desperate and had few alternatives
https://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/abortion/legal/history_1.shtml

The Romans used to expose infants they didn't want.
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-roman-studies/article/abs/childexposure-in-the-roman-empire/3410A0618E4B37F1CF1EE52B11DC89F4

BTW curtailing abortion rights while simultaneously stripping the EPA of its power will lead directly to this: https://hero.epa.gov/hero/index.cfm/reference/details/reference_id/710811
I mean, why allow safe, careful pharmaceutical or surgical abortions when you can just poison poor women environmentally and do it that way?

Cruelty is the point.

In Ancient Times women weren't seen as providing any genetic heritags at all.

It was all in the sperm, which is why it was called seed, women were the fertile ground where the seed grew.

This belief was so endemic that one of the 17th century scientists looking at horse sperm under a microscope claimed he could see tiny horses swimming about.

This law is a continuation of the same misogynistic attitude.

izzythepush-

Did the ancient people notice many children (especially daughters) that resembled their mothers?

I wouldn't know.

From my post graduate studies I remember a standard work on the history of abortion, but it only seems to be available in German.

However, a good summary of the topic/question is >From Commonplace to Controversial: The Different Histories of Abortion in Europe and the United States<.

Thank you.