REPRODUCTIVE RITES

A tongue-in-cheek, frequently sarcastic history of abortion practices from ancient times to the present.

In the wake of the 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization case that overturned the constitutional right to abortion in the United States, author Saint Thomas mines the historical record for some engaging reminders of the long history of the vilification of abortionists, midwives, and so-called witches. Women’s fertility has always fascinated and motivated humankind, and the author depicts some of the age-old rituals for encouraging or preventing conception, such as the Egyptian use of crocodile dung for birth control. Saint Thomas delves into stories around the “far-flung oppressors” like Emperor Constantine, Saint Augustine, witch hunters such as Heinrich Kramer (author of a “witchhunting handbook” titled Malleus Maleficarum), and officers of the Inquisition. She also finds some admirable stories of unusually courageous women, among them early practitioner of birth control Béatrice de Planisoles, the “first gynecologist” Trota of Salerno, French midwife Catherine Monvoisin (ca. 1640-1680), Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger, abortionist Madame Restell, and Norma McCorvey aka Jane Roe of Roe v. Wade. Other characters making brief appearances are Pocahontas, Sally Hemings, “spiritual nihilist” Aleister Crowley, rabid anti-abortionist Michael Griffin (who murdered abortionist Dr. David Gunn in 1993), and Nancy Reagan’s astrologer Joan Quigley. The author is especially interested in the early colonial witch hunts in America. “Reproductive oppression and witch hunts,” she notes, “have always been intertwined.”

A breezy call for a radical new approach to reproductive rights.