Back in the 19th century there was no birth control, and women were in a constant cycle of pregnancy and breastfeeding once married until they became infertile, also puberty started significantly later. To have a society of single family children, they had to figure out how to stop having children, which was figuring out how to have way less sex and thus a bunch of sexually frustrated people.
* If you keep your baby, you are nearly-guaranteeing hunger of your family or your village in 10 years or so. And people in your community would hold a grudge against you and your child for it, from day one.
* The cultural norm regarding when life is sacred was different. Many people in the US believe in-womb abortion is not particularly enlightened either.
>Back in the 19th century there was no birth control, and women were in a constant cycle of pregnancy and breastfeeding
This is really not the case, in the western world fertility dropped steadily through the 19th century. People had some control over the reproductive process even without the pill/latex condoms. By the year 1900, TFR was already under 3 in France.
