Thread by @HallieRubenhold

At little story about abortion, in a series of tweets.
Once upon a time abortion was illegal, but this didn’t stop women from doing everything they could to procure one.

Some listened to the wives tales and took hot baths, went for vigorous rides on their horses, or even threw themselves down the stairs.

In the 18th,19th and even in the early 20th centuries, they bought remedies like these, Hooper’s Female Pills, which were widely available and advertised on the front pages of newspapers.

Hooper’s and many other similar remedies contained iron, which was thought to bring on abortion – some contained tansy, rue, aloes and other abortifacients.

Some women grew pennyroyal, others stripped it from any garden they could find. It was valuable.
Some women bought or made elixirs or ‘steel water’ that promised to ‘bring on the menses’. The key ingredient was ferric chloride.

Women drank poison, they took mercury, they took ergot and quinine. They made themselves desperately ill. Many died.

Then, if all else failed there was the abortionist – the unregulated doctor, midwife or local specialist and the horror, the blood, the botched jobs, the suffering, the deaths.

We will probably never know how many women in history died while trying to claim some control over their reproductive rights and their bodies.

Abortion will never go away. Making it illegal won’t stop it. It has been with us since conception.