Did you know:

—in old-timey-times women got abortions w no constraints?

—ads for abortion were so common in the 1800s they were blasé?

—native women controlled their fertility & men had no say?

Today's @OrdEquality ep will blow your freakin’ mind

There's this perception that women didn't have abortions in the past— that we were somehow better & more “moral” in the past— but, that could not be further from the truth.

Women have always controlled their fertility throughout the entire history of time. — Dr. @lmacthompson1

We interviewed @LorettaJRoss Prof, Co-founder @sistersong_woc & Godmother to the reproductive justice movement:

"Emperor Augustus was complaining about elite Roman women not having enough children... Roman women were using knowledge from Egypt to practice fertility control..."

"I discovered that the kidnapped, enslaved Black women who were brought over in the slave trade actually brought knowledge about abortifacients with them. And so, they were secretly controlling their own fertility on these plantations." — @LorettaJRoss on @OrdEquality

"Black women have been fighting for reproductive self-determination since our arrival in this country." —@LorettaJRoss on @OrdEquality

The case #RoeVWade was decided January 22, 1973.

But, "Roe" aka Norma McCorvey never actually had an abortion.

Ever.

In 1973 Sarah Weddington, the young lawyer who argued the case, called Norma & said “We won!”

She replied: “No, you won. Why would I be excited? I had a baby.”

The fact that Roe was no longer pregnant was an issue before SCOTUS.

But, Sarah Weddington had already modified the case to a class action— so even if Roe wasn’t pregnant there was some woman somewhere in Texas pregnant who didn’t want to be.

Fantastic move on her part!

Sarah Weddington, who argued Roe v. Wade before the Supreme Court at age 26, brought her parents & husband to oral argument.

Just like any mom— Sarah's asked if she could bring a camera & tape recorder. She had to tell her mom they weren't allowed in the courtroom.

Years before Roe v. Wade, Sarah Weddington, who remains the youngest person ever to have argued a successful Supreme Court case— had an illegal abortion herself, in Mexico.

No one knew this at the time. She said, "I secretly resolved to find a way to fix things in the future."

At the time, so many single women were on flights to El Paso, TX to cross the border to terminate their pregnancies, they called them "abortion flights."