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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
Medicine chest.

The Trial That Sparked Maine's 1840 Abortion Statute

Maine passed its first abortion statute in 1840, not long after the pardon of Dr. Call. Could there be a connection?
by Patricia Cline Cohen via Commonplace on October 22, 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
Misery and Fortune of Women (1930).

The Lost Abortion Plot

Power and choice in the 1930s novel.
by Julia Cooke via The Point on June 11, 2024
Exhibit

Abortion in America

How women terminated pregnancies in the past, and how contemporary understandings of that history shape today's battles over reproductive rights.
Ronald Reagan campaigns in Houston ahead of the Republican Convention in 1976.
partner

How Abortion Took Over the Republican Party

Ronald Reagan proved instrumental to Southerners bringing their cultural conservatism to center stage for the Republican Party.
by Jonathan Bartho via Made By History on April 12, 2024
Elizabeth Rose Poole's death record.

Invisible Women, Invisible Abortions, Invisible Histories

One La Jolla family’s story illuminates a persistent gap in our collective memory.
by Alicia Gutierrez-Romine via Zócalo Public Square on October 9, 2023
Botanical drawing of a flowering pennyroyal plant.

Pennyroyal, Mifepristone, and the Long History of Medication Abortions

Pennyroyal is a species of mint with purple flowers. It smells like spearmint. And it has been used as an abortifacient for over two thousand years.
by Kathleen Crowther via Nursing Clio on April 26, 2023
Inventor of mifepristone Etienne-Emile Baulieu in lab

The Long and Winding History of the War on Abortion Drugs

While these pills are making headlines in the US, where a Texas judge tried to ban them, the story of their invention is often overlooked.
by Lara Bullens via France24 on April 26, 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
Actor John Turturro and his grandmother.

My Grandmother’s Botched Abortion Transformed Three Generations

Her death was listed as ‘manic depressive psychosis,’ and it sent five of her six children to orphanages.
by John Turturro via Washington Post on July 8, 2022
A flier with profiles of women's faces and the words "Speak-out on abortion."

“I Called Jane” for a Pre-“Roe” Illegal Abortion

No woman should have to go through what I went through, and no woman should have to overcome barriers to obtain a safe abortion.
by Carol Chapman via The Nation on June 29, 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
Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony with backdrop of abortion protest posters

What Did the Suffragists Really Think About Abortion?

Contrary to contemporary claims, Susan B. Anthony and her peers rarely discussed abortion, which only emerged as a key political issue in the 1960s.
by Treva B. Lindsey via Smithsonian on May 26, 2022
Image from the 1860 US Federal Census Mortality Schedule

Sarah

An 1860 census record offers a glimpse into the choices available to pregnant women who were enslaved.
by Evan Kutzler via Muster on May 24, 2022
Illustration of Benjamin Franklin overlaid on textbook excerpt

Ben Franklin Put an Abortion Recipe in His Math Textbook

To colonial Americans, termination was as normal as the ABCs and 123s.
by Molly Farrell via Slate on May 5, 2022
A cemetery with a dusting of snow.

Safer Than Childbirth

Abortion in the 19th century was widely accepted as a means of avoiding the risks of pregnancy.
by Tamara Dean via The American Scholar on March 4, 2022
Abortion advocates marching in protest with signs

What Feminists Did the Last Time Abortion Was Illegal

How abortion activists responded in the wake of the 1989 Webster decision and what we can learn from their efforts.
by Michelle Moravec via Nursing Clio on December 14, 2021
Two characters from “Grey’s Anatomy" sit against a wall.

How TV Lied About Abortion

For decades, dramatized plot lines about unwanted and unexpected pregnancies helped create our real-world abortion discourse.
by Tanya Melendez via Vox on October 14, 2021
Image from front cover of Bad Faith.

The Evangelical Abortion Myth

The rhetoric about abortion being the catalyst for the rise of the Religious Right collapses under scrutiny.
by Randall Balmer via Religion Dispatches on August 30, 2021
Abortion advertisement in the National Police Gazette, 1847.

“Female Monthly Pills” and the Coded Language of Abortion Before Roe

Our future might look much like our past, with pills as a major part of abortion access—and an obsessive target for abortion opponents.
by Melissa Gira Grant via The New Republic on January 22, 2020
Justice Clarence Thomas arrives for the ceremonial swearing-in of Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh in the East Room of the White House on Oct. 8, 2018.

Why Clarence Thomas Is Trying to Bring Eugenics Into the Abortion Debate

They really do not have anything to do with each other.
by Adam S. Cohen, Dahlia Lithwick via Slate on June 17, 2019
Photo of Pat Maginnis with pitchfork.

They Called Her “the Che Guevara of Abortion Reformers”

A decade before Roe, Pat Maginnis’ radical activism—and righteous rage—changed the abortion debate forever.
by Lili Loofbourow via Slate on December 4, 2018

Aborted Fetus And Pill Bottle In 19th Century Outhouse Reveal History Of Family Planning

Two 19th century outhouses provide rare archaeological evidence of abortion.
by Kristina Killgrove via Forbes on April 20, 2018

Roe v. Wade Lawyer 'Amazed' Americans Still Fighting Over Abortion

On the 45th anniversary of the famous decision, Sarah Weddington reflects on what has – and hasn't – changed.
by Sarah Weddington, Olivia B. Waxman via TIME on January 20, 2018

The Women of Jane

The story of an underground abortion service that operated pre-Roe vs. Wade.
by Radio Diaries via NPR on January 19, 2018
Picture of Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey in the film, "Dirty Dancing."

The Back-Alley Abortion That Almost Didn't Make it into 'Dirty Dancing'

For the 30th anniversary of "Dirty Dancing," we spoke to the film's screenwriter about her revolutionary decision to include a depiction of an illegal abortion.
by Marisa Crawford, Eleanor Bergstein via Vice on August 27, 2017
Family photo of a woman pulling a child on a sled down a snowy street.

My Grandmother's Desperate Choice

My questions about my grandmother's death – from a self-induced abortion – haven’t changed since I was 12. What feels new is the urgency of her story.
by Kate Daloz via The New Yorker on May 14, 2017

The History of Outlawing Abortion in America

Abortion was first criminalized in the mid 1900s amidst concerns that too many white women were ending their pregnancies.
by Nicola Beisel, Tamara Kay, Livia Gershon via JSTOR Daily on March 10, 2017

Coat Hangers and Knitting Needles

A brief history of self-induced abortion.
by Sarah Pripas via Nursing Clio on March 10, 2016

Abortion in American History

How do ideological debates on gender roles influence the abortion debate?
by Katha Pollitt via The Atlantic on May 1, 1997
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