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

https://t.co/cDGZbKKBdG
Wa'kerakats:te Louise "Mama Bear" Herne is a Condoled Bear Clan Matron of the Mohawk Nation. She said:

The woman is the power. It's up to her to be able to decide if she's fit enough to carry a pregnancy, or whether she's going to return it to creation.

https://t.co/cDGZbKKBdG
Prof John Riddle author of “Eve's Herbs: A History of Contraception & Abortion in the West" said on @OrdEquality today:

During the period of witchcraft suppression of the things that the witches were accused of doing 7 items were listed &— 6 of those 7 had to do with sexuality.
In early America, women were thinking & writing abt how it was exhausting to have 10 children in a row. So, it's no surprise that they were wanting to control what they could in their lives that were otherwise so incredibly politically & socially circumscribed. Dr. @lmacthompson1
The fab voice of @cameronesposito brings us these classic (& real) old-timey abortion ads from famous abortionist Madame Restell in 1865 on @OrdEquality today!

https://t.co/cDGZbKKBdG
Learn more about the historical prevalence of abortion ads from Dr. @lmacthompson1, who we interview in today's episode of @OrdEquality, on this fantastic thread:

https://t.co/0XU05vzOG3
Anthony Comstock was the porn-obsessed Inspector Javert of obscenities.

He relentlessly hounded Madame Restell until he had her arrested & she tragically died by suicide the day before her trial!

This dude kick-started the crusade against birth control & abortion. 👇
Medical doctors are also part of the reason we have LESS access to abortion

"After the civil war, state after state began criminalizing abortion & doctors who were male tried seize everything having to do with childbirth & pregnancy from midwives who were women." —@KathaPollitt
So, women have long known how to regulate pregnancy. When colonizers arrived on the shores of what is now the USA, the native people on this land already knew how to terminate pregnancies, & in colonial times abortion services were advertised openly.

https://t.co/cDGZbKKBdG
The birth rate went down & men wanted control over the ONE realm they didn't already control.

Doctors professionalized & voilà!— in order to get power— took it away from midwives.

This depressing arc is ALL about power & control.

CHECK THIS EP OUT 🎧

https://t.co/cDGZbKKBdG

More from Culture

Best books I read in 2020

1. Atomic Habits by @JamesClear

“If you show up at the gym 5 days in a row—even for 2 minutes—you're casting votes for your new identity. You’re not worried about getting in shape. Youre focused on becoming the type of person who doesn’t miss workouts”


Good Reasons for Bad Feelings

https://t.co/KZDqte19nG

2. “social anxiety is overwhelmingly common. Natural selection shaped us to care enormously what other people think..We constantly monitor how much others value us..Low self-esteem is a signal to try harder to please others”


The True Believer by Eric Hoffer

https://t.co/uZT4kdhzvZ

“Hatred is the most accessible and comprehensive of all unifying agents...Mass movements can rise and spread without belief in a God, but never without a believe in a devil.”


Grandstanding

https://t.co/4Of58AZUj8

"if politics becomes a morality pageant, then the contestants have an incentive to keep problems intact...politics becomes a forum to show off moral qualities...people will be dedicated to activism for its own sake, as a vehicle to preen"


Warriors and Worriers by Joyce Benenson

https://t.co/yLC4eGHEd4

“Across diverse cultures, a man who lives in the house with another man’s children is about 60 times more likely than the biological father to kill those children.”
.@bellingcat's attempt in their new book, published by
@BloomsburyBooks, to coverup the @OPCW #Douma controversy, promote US and UK gov. war narratives, and whitewash fraudulent conduct within the OPCW, is an exercise in deception through omission @marydejevsky @freddiesayers


1) 2000 words are devoted to the OPCW controversy regarding the alleged chemical weapon attack in #Douma, Syria in 2018 but critical material is omitted from the book. Reading it, one would never know the following:

2) That the controversy started when the original interim report, drafted and agreed by Douma inspection team members, was secretly modified by an unknown OPCW person who had manipulated the findings to suggest an attack had occurred. https://t.co/QtAAyH9WyX… @RobertF40396660


3) This act of attempted deception was only derailed because an inspector discovered the secret changes. The manipulations were reported by @ClarkeMicah
and can be readily observed in documents now available https://t.co/2BUNlD8ZUv….

4) .@bellingcat's book also makes no mention of the @couragefoundation panel, attended by the @opcw's first Director General, Jose Bustani, at which an OPCW official detailed key procedural irregularities and scientific flaws with the Final Douma Report:

You May Also Like