Colleagues involved in linguistic study may find Google’s Ngram feature helpful as a starting point for discussion about the use of words over the centuries. A word of caution, though: entering the words “abortion,” “infanticide,” and “euthanasia” results in a graph which may be misleading.
As pro-life scholars know, “abortion” was often called “infanticide” by British and American feminist activists in the nineteenth century. This may account for apparent rise in the use of the term “infanticide” just before the American civil war when protective laws were beginning to be passed to ban abortion for the express purpose of safeguarding both mother and child. Although discussed in a biased newspaper, a review of the Ngram feature can be found at http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/17/books/17words.html?_r=3&ref=todayspaper. The database can be found through http://ngrams.googlelabs.com/.