Menu
Idea

reproductive rights

106
Filter by:

Filter by published date

Percy Sutton, Flo Kennedy, and another Black reproduction activist.

How Black Leaders Formed the Reproductive Justice Movement

Before the end of Black History Month, we should remember some of the leaders who shaped the movement in the years before Roe v. Wade.
by Felicia Kornbluh via Ms. Magazine on February 6, 2024
Matthew Kacsmaryk in 2017 answers questions during a Senate hearing on his nomination to be a U.S. district judge.
partner

The Original Comstock Act Doesn’t Support the New Antiabortion Decision

Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk rationalized his medication abortion opinion through a distorted reading of the long-dormant 1873 law.
by Lauren MacIvor Thompson via Made By History on April 12, 2023
Lizzie Fletcher, center, then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other House Democrats applaud as Marilyn Strickland speaks on reproductive freedom.
partner

What the Next 50 Years of Reproductive Rights Activism Can Learn from the Last 50

Success moving forward requires building a more inclusive movement than what existed during the Roe v. Wade era.
by Felicia Kornbluh via Made By History on January 20, 2023
US Airforce nurses treating patients.

The Better Roe: The Case of Struck v. Secretary of Defense

When Susan Struck fought being discharged for pregnancy from the US Air Force, it brought the right to choose into a different light.
by Kara Dixon Vuic via Perspectives on History on August 10, 2022
Demonstrators hold signs that read "Keep abortion legal" and "The Lord is pro-choice."

Abortion Is About Freedom, Not Just Privacy

The right to abortion is an affirmation that women and girls have the right to control their own destiny.
by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor via The New Yorker on July 6, 2022

Our Long, Troubling History of Sterilizing the Incarcerated

State-sanctioned efforts to keep the incarcerated from reproducing began in the early 20th century and continue today.
by David M. Perry via The Marshall Project on July 26, 2017
Collage of newspaper clippings about Jacqueline Smith's death.

A Christmas Abortion

On Christmas Eve 1955, Jacqueline Smith died from an illegal abortion at her boyfriend Thomas G. Daniel’s apartment.
by Gillian Frank via NOTCHES on December 15, 2015
Shulamith Firestone, 1997.

When the Battle's Lost and Won

Shulamith Firestone and the burdens of prophecy.
by Audrey Wollen via Harper’s on March 28, 2025
Carrie Baker and her book Abortion Pills: US History and Politics.

The Forgotten—and Incredibly Important—History of the Abortion Pill

Mifepristone took longer to get approved than most drugs—but not because it was unsafe.
by Nina Martin via Mother Jones on February 7, 2025
Birth control devices in different shapes and forms.

The Battle for Birth Control Could Have Gone Differently

Margaret Sanger and Mary Ware Dennett each had a different vision of reproductive freedom. Would reproductive rights be more secure if Dennett’s had prevailed?
by Joanna Scutts via The New Republic on January 3, 2025
Group of doctors in lab coats holding pro-choice signs outside the U.S. Supreme Court.
partner

Abortion Is More Than Health Care

Across the history of the U.S. abortion-rights movement, it has also been a matter of equality.
by Christen Hammock Jones via Made By History on December 9, 2024
A group of children spinning on a merry-go-round.

The Parenting Panic

Contrary to both far right and mainstream center-left, there’s no epidemic of chosen childlessness.
by Aaron Bady via Boston Review on October 30, 2024
Jane Addams.

‘Childless Cat Ladies’ Have Long Contributed to the Welfare of American Children − and the Nation

Criticisms of women without biological children define motherhood too narrowly, as history reveals the many forms of motherhood.
by Anya Jabour via The Conversation on October 21, 2024
Political cartoon of clothed animals and Anthony Comstock bathing clothed, and cowering at underwear in a store window.

The History and Legacy of Anthony Comstock and the Comstock Laws

As the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 proposes to revive the Comstock Act, this seven-part forum explores the Act’s influence on American life.
by Lauren MacIvor Thompson, Allison K. Lange, Kimberly A. Hamlin, Nicholas L. Syrett, Cathleen D. Cahill, Magdalene Zier, Andrew Wender Cohen via SHGAPE Blog on September 24, 2024
The Jersey Devil, a winged creature with horns and a goat-like head, amidst trees wrapped with vines.

Birthing the Jersey Devil

A mythical creature that lurks in the pinelands of New Jersey has served as a reminder of the horrors that result when reproductive freedoms are destroyed.
by Katherine Churchill via JSTOR Daily on July 3, 2024
Demonstrators outside the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., on April 24, 2024.
partner

How Doctors Came to Play a Key Role in the Abortion Debate

While the phrase "between a woman and her doctor" has been used to protect abortion access, it also reflects physicians' outsized power.
by Emma Peterson, Daniel Martinez Hosang via Made By History on June 20, 2024
Women march for free abortion on demand.

Abortion On Demand

The surprising history of a politically charged phrase.
by Gillian Frank via The Revealer on April 4, 2024
Ohio abortion rights activists.
partner

The Problem With the Abortion-Rights Move That Worked in Ohio

History shows that activists can win statewide fights—but that the strategy might be unsustainable long-term.
by Felicia Kornbluh via Made By History on November 8, 2023
A women's liberation group marches in Boston on April 17, 1971.

The Reproductive Rights Movement Has Radical Roots

Abortion rights in the US were won in the 1970s thanks to militant feminist groups. As those rights are repealed, the fight must return to the streets.
by Nancy Rosenstock, Anne Rumberger via Jacobin on May 11, 2023
Demonstrators with signs supporting medication abortion.

Conservatives Are Turning to a 150-Year-Old Obscenity Law to Outlaw Abortion

With the Comstock Act of 1873 coming back to life, reproductive care, LGBTQ protections, and a host of other civil rights are now at risk.
by Melissa Gira Grant via The New Republic on April 12, 2023
Three demonstrators hold proabortion signs outside the federal courthouse in Amarillo, Tex. (David Erickson/AP)
partner

Abortion Pill Decision Reveals How the Debate Has Changed Since Dobbs

The medication abortion decision by a federal judge in Texas focused on the rights of fetuses and the interests of doctors — not the rights of women.
by Felicia Kornbluh via Made By History on April 10, 2023
Margaret Sanger in 1928.

The Anti-Abortion Movement and the Ghost of Margaret Sanger

Religious conservatives see “anti-eugenic” laws as the most promising path to establish a federal ban on abortion.
by Melinda Cooper via Dissent on January 17, 2023
Beatrice Cogan, center, representing a criminal defendant in court.

The Grassroots of 'Roe'

My mother’s part in the 1970 repeal of New York’s abortion law is a lesson for today’s activists: all politics is local.
by Felicia Kornbluh via New York Review of Books on January 16, 2023
Lithograph of Madame Restell's Mansion

Whose Nation? Reconsidering Abortion as an American Tradition

Although originalists fail to see it, abortion has had a long and storied history for American women.
by Brooke Lansing via The Panorama on October 31, 2022
A protest sign raised in front of the Supreme Court, reading, "Keep abortion safe, legal, & accessible!"

The History of Abortion Law in the United States

The right to abortion has been both supported and contested throughout history.  When banned, abortions still occur, but legal restrictions make them less safe.
by Carrie N. Baker via Our Bodies Ourselves Today on August 12, 2022
"Mademoiselle V...in the Costume of an Espada," by Edouard Manet, a painting of a woman dressed as a matador holding sword and cloth.

A Private Matter

Abortion and "The Scarlet Letter."
by Dana Medoro via Lapham’s Quarterly on August 3, 2022
Enslaved African Americans hoe and plow the earth and cut piles of sweet potatoes on a South Carolina plantation, circa 1862-3.

"She Had Smothered Her Baby On Purpose"

Enslaved women's use of birth control, abortifacients, and even infanticide showed that they resisted by exerting control over their reproductive lives.
by Signe Peterson Fourmy via Age of Revolutions on July 25, 2022
Members of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union break open barrels of liquor seized during Prohibition, 1929.

Roe Is the New Prohibition

The pro-life movement needs to know that such culture wars result not in outright victory for one side but in reaction and compromise.
by David Frum via The Atlantic on June 27, 2022
Abortion rights advocates protest near the Supreme Court building in Washington on June 24.
partner

The 1960s Provide a Path For Securing Legal Abortion in 2022

How activists can secure legal abortion with a diverse all-of-the-above movement.
by Felicia Kornbluh via Made By History on June 25, 2022
Attendees pray during a worship service at the Southern Baptist Convention’s annual meeting in Anaheim, California, on June 14, 2022.

The History of Southern Baptists Shows They Have Not Always Opposed Abortion

How the Southern Baptist Convention’s views on abortion changed during the 1980s, when a more conservative wing seized control of the denomination.
by Susan M. Shaw via The Conversation on June 17, 2022
View More
30 of
106

Filter Results:

Suggested Filters:

Idea

Person

brought to you by
© Bunk History