Thread by @guprofbc

🧵women's historian here for new #historicalcontext for #SCOTUS #abortion ruling. One word: #coverture. #Alito rails on in re: illegality of #abortion in past, but most of that time pd was under #coverture, the #commonlaw doctrine of yore.

Alito's fave dude, #Blackstone defined coverture in 1765 as "By marriage, the husband and wife are one person in law: that is, the very being or legal existence of the woman is suspended during the marriage, or at least is incorporated & consolidated into that of the husband..."

"under whose wing, protection, and cover, she performs every thing; and is therefore called in our law-French a feme-covert" Under coverture a woman could not sign contracts, control her own wages etc. If she was run over by a carriage (this is an actual case) husband could sue

for lost proceeds of her domestic labor & childcare. What's my point? Under #coverture it makes sense that #abortion was illegal, at least on the books bc it was a potential loss of property (children) and liberty (fatherhood) for a husband. What's the point? The legal context

today is COMPLETELY different. Even by the majority's own ridiculous reliance on the past, this appeal to past abortion laws--when women had no legal autonomy--is even more anachronistic than it seems. Without coverture, the laws he cites are totally irrelevant.

This leaves aside even the reality that women were not yet lawmakers; most -- if under 21, or married -- were not even independent citizens under the law. In this sense, their reproductive decisions really did not belong to them. This is horrible, but that's not my point;

my point is that it is not the case today, and unless #Alito et al. want to reinstate coverture their precedents are irrelevant. Pls RT @AHAhistorians @GUHistory @nursingclio @womnknowhistory

Hey! Credit where due! Just discovered Prof Jane Kamensky @Harvard makes this point abt #coverture too, here: news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/…

Hi y'all -- @HC_Richardson has some friends I see! I want to also give credit to the great historian Linda Kerber for her cogent analysis of #coverture & the #law: here's a good review & summary: networks.h-net.org/node/16794/rev…
Props also to @lgordon for teaching me so much!