The spacing may have been through coitus interruptus, the so-called rhythm method, or continence, particularly after the first years of marriage, but by the 1870s there were widespread advertisements for and use of condoms, diaphragms, douches, and folk remedies. If birth control failed, there was abortion—either self-induced or surgical. The numbers are unclear, but contemporaries estimated abortions at one to every five or six live births in the 1850s.
