March 15, 2017 • 47 mins
Raised during the Progressive Era crusade against abortion, Margaret Sanger devoted her life to making birth control and familiy planning accessible to women from all walks of life. In this second installment of the two-part cultural and legal history of abortion, Cristen and Caroline highlight Sanger's legacy and eugenics controversy and how the development of Planned Parenthood coincided with midcentury women's fight to access abortion by whatever means necessary.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to stuff Mob Never Told You. From House to
abortion dot Com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm
President and I'm Caroline. And this is part two of
our two parter on the history of abortion and really
the history of the criminalization and subsequent legalization of abortion
(00:28):
focused here in the United States. Yeah, in our last
episode we essentially ended on the point where abortion had
become illegal across America. Women who sought abortions were considered
immoral and irresponsible. There was no discussion of what responsibility
the father had, if any, and all of this was
(00:49):
set against the backdrop of being the progressive era, where
a lot of people assumed they knew better, that they
knew better than women of whatever class, but particul clearly
poor women. Uh they assume they knew better than women
of color. Uh, they assumed they knew better than midwives.
And that all of these people were just essentially helpless, unintelligent, immoral,
(01:13):
low class people who should be taught just how immoral
they were being by seeking abortions. And there's one person
in particular who is complex and controversial but also a
pioneer and someone who in a very fascinating way encompasses
(01:35):
all of these elements. Is it me, Caroline and it's conger,
Oh my gosh, thank you. It is Margaret Sanger. Okay,
well I think she was also a brunette. I'll take it. Yeah,
another brown eyed girl, yes, exactly. Um. And of course
Margaret Sanger was controversial in her day, just as she's
(01:58):
still controversial now. But in an effort to provide women
a way to prevent pregnancy, she wanted to liberate them.
She wanted to give women a choice in limiting their families,
but in doing so, she also wanted to prevent abortion.
She was not on the abortion train, so to speak.
(02:21):
But this is a woman who also then helped found
Planned Parenthood exactly. And um, she came of age under
the Comstock era laws. And for those of you who
haven't listened to part one, just as a recap, Anthony
Comstock is the worst. He basically is responsible for outlawing
(02:45):
any sort of birth control related information being sent through
the mail. And regardless, sang Or dedicated her life to
legalizing birth control, the very thing that would be illegal
to talk to people about some correspondence about I'm sure
you could not advertise birth control the time. And she
(03:07):
wanted to develop what she called a magic pill to
help save women's lives. Yeah, and so it's worth noting,
like I was saying, that Sanger thought that abortion was
okay only as a last resort to save the mother's life.
She thought that doing it to limit offspring was dangerous
and vicious. But the whole thing was that she felt
(03:28):
that providing women a safe contraceptive method would make abortion
wholly unnecessary, Which is interesting when you revisit that thought today,
because so many people are still against comprehensive sex said.
They're against providing birth control or contraception of any kind,
and yet they're also against letting people have abortions. So
(03:51):
Sanger's reasoning was, if we teach women and couples, not
just women but couples about contraception, we can prevent this
thing that so many people seemed to dislike so much.
And this conviction was deeply personal for her because she
watched her Irish Catholic mother essentially waste away at forty
(04:12):
eight from tuberculosis after having eleven children and seven miscarriages.
And after she grew up, she worked as a nurse
in New York, where she treated poor immigrant women who
pursued unsafe abortions after using ineffective contraception. So she saw firsthand,
on you know, professional and also a very personal familial level,
(04:37):
the the impact of women not having choice or any
control really over their bodies. Right, and she it's it's
said that she blamed her father, like over her mother's coffin,
for his sex drive that killed her mother. But if
we're going chronologically, Margaret Sanger was super busy in the
(04:58):
years nineteen fourteen and nineteen six team who wasn't seriously
I mean, can't get a break. But so in this time,
in nineteen fourteen, she coins the term birth control. So
anytime in this episode, in the previous episode we've said
the words birth control, those words didn't even really exist
yet in the way that we think of them until
Sanger coined the term. Uh. In nineteen fifteen, she was
(05:19):
indicted for sending diaphragms through the mail, and then in
nineteen sixteen, she opens the country's first birth control clinic
in Brooklyn. Of course, it was shut down just a
few days later, and Sanger was convicted under those Comstock
laws of disseminating birth control info. But she's a sneaky
little minx. And she did that on purpose. It's not
(05:40):
like she was like, Oh, I'm gonna hope that no
one notices and I'm going to be mailing women diaphragms
in Ohio. No, she knew that it was against the
law to disseminate birth control and to disseminate information about
birth control, So she herself leaked the information to the
press so that she could fight basically within the newspapers
(06:02):
and from court these terrible freaking comstock laws. And when
she appealed her conviction, she won, and it led to
a new interpretation of New York's anti contraception statute, exempting
doctors from the rule prohibiting birth control information dissemination if
(06:23):
it was for medical reasons. There we go, So Sanger
gets their first big victory. Then in she found the
American Birth Control League, which is the precursor to Planned parenthood. Yeah,
And the thing is, she wouldn't have been able to
do that had she not gone through the trouble of
mailing diaphragms, you know what I mean, Like, she could
(06:45):
never have had this clinic unless she broke the law.
She had her good friend Catherine money Bags McClintock smuggled
these diaphragms back in her coat from Europe so that
she could mail them. And of course, btw, if you
want to learn more about Kathery McLintock, you need to
go over to our sister podcast, Stuff you Missed in
History Class. They've got a great episode all about her.
(07:06):
But any who, in nine three, uh, the Clinical Research
Bureau opens and it's part of that American Birth Control League.
It's the first legal birth control clinic and it serves
as the abc l's medical arms. So it provides couples
with contraception and counseling, It conducts research and a contraceptive
(07:27):
and reproduction related medical practices. So she's a she's a genius,
like managing to break the law in order to be
able to open essentially what is like a loophole clinic, Like, oh, well,
you know, I can't provide women with birth control or
birth control education, but these doctors can. And so, after
(07:49):
a lot of wrangling and separating and merging and renaming
these two groups, these two related groups become Planned Parenthood
in nineteen forty two and in nineteen forty eight. Just
a few years later, Planned Parenthood awards a grant to
the pretty nutty doctor Gregory Pinkis who works with John
Rock to create the pill. So Sanger was the ideas lady.
(08:12):
She's like cornering Pinkus at cocktail parties, being like, you're
gonna do this for me, and he's like, cool, let's
do it. I'm already testing things in possibly unethical ways,
and wealthy feminist suffragist Katherine McCormick teamed up with her
to encourage that research and development. So you've got these
women with kookie ideas about giving women their freedom to
(08:36):
choose what kind of life they want to live. And
by the nineteen sixties, planned parenthood had become this major
force for women's health, birth control, and family planning. In
the nineteen sixty two, President Alan Gootmacker is this huge
advocate for abortion access in the wake of these health
crises in the United States, the Philidamide and Rebella crises,
(08:58):
which led to a lot of birth defects, a lot
of deformities among children. But abortion services do not become
part of Planned Parenthood until after the ro versus Way
decision in nineteen seventy three. Who but anyway, we've got
to back up because the whole thing about why Margaret
sang are still today is even more controversial than just
(09:20):
supporting birth control and women's independence. Oh my god, imagine
the thought. Also, in one the same year that she
founded the American Birth Control League, she also penned an
essay titled the Eugenic Value of birth Control Propaganda. Yeah,
so she was one of the many, many, high profile
Americans to subscribe to the eugenic theory. But the whole thing,
(09:46):
as Jean H. Baker argues in her book Margaret sang Or,
A Life of Passion, is that her acceptance of the
movement was a calculated, pragmatic tactic. Because Margaret sang Or
was nothing y'all if not pragmatic and tactical and calculated.
Baker writes, she needed allies and eugenics, the expert qualifications
(10:06):
of its proponents, the scientific trappings of its evidence, it's
expanding network of journals and associations, it's general acceptance among Americans,
and even its international connections. Represented an opportunity to find
friends and join a popular movement. But the thing is
she wasn't exactly welcomed with open arms by racists and
(10:27):
classis eugenicists. In fact, a lot of them dismissed her
and said that she didn't really understand the theory, and
they really weren't too interested in her birth control based
notoriety either. Um And the main reason that they kind
of gave Singer the side I was that she rejected
the notion of race suicide and that rich white people
(10:48):
should have more babies. Really, her thing, as we've said,
was trying to liberate women. In the process, she challenged
eugenicists sex for reap production idea. She really believed in
the importance of the environment in improving society because she'd
been born into one of those overpopulated, impoverished families. So
(11:11):
she really thought that overpopulation was the problem, not the
quote unquote good stock, as Teddy Roosevelt put it, which
is a euphemistic way of saying white folks. Yeah, white
folks working farm jobs and whatever. Uh So, when we
look at that essay from there's some good parts of it, right.
(11:34):
So she called birth control a new weapon of civilization
and freedom. She wrote, not until the parents of the
world are thus given control over their reproductive faculties will
it ever be possible, not alone, to improve the quality
of generations of the future, but even to maintain civilization
at its present level. And she really dismisses politicians and
(11:54):
theorists idealistic codes of sexual ethics, the same things that
people say today in criticizing things like abstinence only sex said,
because the whole idea of like people like sex, people
are gonna do the sex. Let's not have these idealistic
thoughts about people not having sex, and let's try to
(12:16):
meet them where they are. But of course there's the
in her essay as well, in which she writes the
eugenic and civilizational value of birth control is becoming a
parent to the enlightened and the intelligent. So I mean,
basically it seems like she I don't know, I mean
that she's sort of trying to get on their good
(12:37):
sides by being like, yeah, yeah, yeah, eugenics, that's totally cool,
And I've got this great way that you can make
that happen. It's through this little thing called birth control.
And if we can teach you about eugenics and the
importance of that, then in the process we can teach
mothers about prophylaxis, sexual hygiene, and infant welfare. So while
(12:59):
I I honestly I don't see her motives as entirely pure,
because even moderately aligning with eugenics is is not okay um.
But it does seem like she has ulterior motives to
what she's saying. Yeah, because it does get worse. I mean,
I'm not gonna lie here. She basically said, listen, we
can't stand by as the poor, criminal, and disabled have
(13:21):
more kids than the wealthy do. But she wasn't arguing
that we should, for instance, abort the children of poor
people or disabled people. She was saying, rather, all of
us should be having fewer children. She's got this really
long quote about how the unbalanced and this is this
is under the category of bad. Uh. She says, there's
(13:43):
this unbalanced between the birth rates of the fit and
the unfit, which is a huge menace to civilization and
the wealthy. She's saying, or the fit should not be
taking cues from the poor and the unfit by having
a children. We should all be limiting our reproduction. She
(14:04):
did go on to a point eugenicist to her clinics board, uh,
and eventually her former critics as people who were like Singer,
you're not doing eugenics right. Even her former critics came
to see birth control that she was advocating for as
a weapon against the high birth rates of the so
called deficient, though as Jane Baker writes, they still favored sterilization.
(14:29):
And not surprisingly though this whole you know, association with
direct association with eugenicists and the viewpoints that she's espousing
in this essay are used commonly today and attempts to
discredit Singer and convince people that birth control to some extent,
and abortion to an even greater extent, our efforts specifically
(14:53):
to wipe out Black people, and in fact, black activists
in the late sixties acute 's planned parenthood of committing
genocide by providing birth control in their neighborhoods, wondering, hey,
why are you setting up shop here? This seems a
little suspicious, But it's important to note as well that
back in the nineteen thirties, leaders in the black community,
(15:15):
including W. E. B. Du Boy and Mary McLoud Bethoon,
supported Sayer's birth control advocacy and her so called Negro Project,
or effort to open clinics for black women in the
segregated South where only white women had access to birth control,
and also to train black doctors. Yeah, and she in
(15:40):
an interview in ninety was telling the reporter when we
first started out, an anti Negro white man offered me
ten thousand dollars if I started in Harlem first. His
idea was simply to cut down the number of negroes,
spread it as far as you can among them. He said,
that is of course not our Yeah. I turned him down,
(16:01):
but that is an example of how vicious some people
can be about this thing. So her motivation, while yes
she was opening birth control clinics in black neighborhoods or
in poorer neighborhoods in general, her motivation was not to
cut down on the numbers of poor people or people
of color. Her motivation was to be the provider of
(16:23):
this birth control and family planning and reproductive services information
that women weren't getting elsewhere, particularly in this case women
of color. I mean Immani Gandy over at r H.
Reality Check argues that, to be honest, uh saying er
was more ablest than she was capital r racist. Did
(16:45):
she say racist things? Yes? Was she elitist probably, but
she had far more negative things to say about the
mentally and physically disabled in society going on to procreate
than she did about people of color. Well, in those
planned parenthood and birth control clinics being set up in
black communities might also make more sense when we look
(17:09):
at what was going on and the links that women,
especially poorer women and socio economically disadvantaged women, we're having
to go to in order to deal with unwanted pregnancies.
Because as we have said before, I mean, regardless of
whether abortion is illegal or not, women have had them
and will always have them. So if we go back
(17:33):
to nineteen thirty kind of will while Sanger is building
up for biz, abortion was listed as the official cause
of death for almost women around the United States and
nearly eighteen percent of maternal deaths recorded that year. And
this is coming from the goot Mocker Institute and down
the road. Antibiotics would help reduce the death toll um,
(17:58):
but I mean, if if there's another in the institute
researcher who estimated the annual illegal abortion death toll in
the nineteen thirties the entire decade at seventeen thousand, because
I mean, these numbers start to get a little unreliable
because I just mentioned is what is officially recorded but
(18:18):
since there were so many back alley procedures happening and
things happening in women's homes. Um, undoubtedly the number is
higher than that. But what did we do, How did
we solve this issue of this, you know, this health
crisis essentially improving safe abortion, no, no enforcement, get the
(18:40):
police involved. Yeah, So instead of trying to help women,
educate families, anything of that, you know, very human nature,
we essentially make women criminals. We we interrogate them while
they are hospitalized after their bodged procedures. Yeah. And in
nineteen sixty five, the thirty five years later, illegal abortion
(19:03):
was still accounting for seventeen percent of all deaths attributed
to pregnancy and childbirth that year. So, I mean, the
situation hasn't improved. It's not like fewer women are seeking abortions,
and low income women are especially hit hard by this issue.
So a study of low income women in New York
(19:25):
City in the nineteen sixties found that eight percent had
ever attempted to terminate a pregnancy via illegal abortion, and
seventy of those women attempted self induced abortion. And of
all the women they talked to, thirty eight percent of
them knew someone who had sought an illegal abortion. And
(19:46):
of course when it comes to illegal abortions and self
induced abortions, it gets very very dangerous, that's right. That
same study of women in New York found that one
in four white women's childbirth fatality has happened because of
an abortion, compared to one in two women of colors.
So there you start to see that same socio economic
(20:07):
issue cropping up. And from nineteen seventy two to nineteen
seventy four, in fact, the mortality rate due to illegal
abortion for non white women was twelve times greater than
that for white women. And regardless though of these statistics,
regardless of the fact that women knew that these kinds
of procedures were very dangerous and illegal, they sought them
(20:31):
out anyway. So again this is coming from the Gootmacker Institute.
In the nineteen fifties and sixties and estimated two hundred
thousand to one point two million abortions were performed in
the United States uh and by the nineteen sixties though,
all states but Pennsylvania had exemptions to their abortion laws.
(20:52):
So by this time the laws on a state by
state basis are starting to open up a little bit
people are starting to get together there even like coalitions
of doctors who are you know, having seen all these
patients coming in having you know, damaged themselves from illegal
or attempted self induced abortions, see the problem and realize
(21:16):
that something needs to be done with this. So we
we are seeing more access, but obtaining an abortion during
this time was still not very simple. Most hospitals would
have a board of doctors set up and it would
usually of course be all dudes, um where if you
were a patient in need of an abortion, you would
have to go before this board and essentially have your
(21:39):
procedure approved. But even getting that far meant that you
likely had to be a white woman with a little
bit of disposal income and time. So much time the
time to do this, I mean, you had to go
before the standing hospital committee. It might require an additional
physical exam by a doctor, it might require a mental
(22:02):
health exam by a psychiatrist, and then you might have
to have some type of law enforcement officer certifying that
a woman had actually been sexually assaulted. In the case
of saying I need the abortion because I was raped
or assaulted, yeah, I mean because during this time I
should have clarified that this is only to obtain one
of those therapeutic abortions. This wasn't abortion on demand, right,
(22:25):
And you know, you brought up the issue of UM
laws and attitudes starting to loosen up a little bit.
I mean, I think it's worth referring back to that
author Leslie Reagan who we quoted in our first episode,
where she talked a lot about the professionalization of medicine
and how that turned so many people against midwives and
against trusting women to know their own bodies. And she
(22:49):
pointed out, and I think it's worth noting here that
there's always been a distinction between quote unquote organized medicine
and individual physicians because organized medicine capital capital M in
all of the air quotes, was at this time, yes,
officially against abortion and in some cases maybe only accepting
(23:10):
of abortion in the cases of rape or ancestor things
like that. UM. But it was the doctors who were
on the front line, so to speak, who we're seeing
these desperate women who needed these procedures, who might be
trying to help women and provide them anyway. Well, and
you also have women kind of creating their own abortion
(23:32):
services in a way UM in nineteen three, the feminist
abortion counseling service of the Chicago Women's Liberation Union It's
a long name creates an underground abortion service code named Jane.
And the story of Jane is worth its own podcasts, honestly,
because it all started when one woman um was approached
(23:57):
by a friend of hers who had knew someone who
really needed an abortion. And this woman knew a doctor,
and so that kind of started the whole Thing's like,
she knew one doctor who could do it. So then
like the word spread that that this woman could hook
you up with a doctor who would perform an abortion.
And she realized that the more women who were coming
(24:19):
to her, how big this need was. And since abortion
and reproductive rights were such a huge issue within second
wave feminism and women's liberation, UH, they decided to kind
of align with the Chicago Women's Liberation Union and about
one women set this underground service up that provided more
(24:44):
than eleven thousand safe and affordable abortions through nineteen seventy
three when Roe v. Wade happened. And it's fascinating that
you could even find them through the phone book. It
was actually listed under the name Jane. How and some
of those women who were working in this network actually
themselves became trained in administering an abortion. And it was
(25:04):
one first person account that we read of a woman
who went through this Jain process and she was astounded. Basically,
she's like, here are these like soccer moms. Essentially, she
didn't say that, but it was like, here are these
like well to do white ladies who have kids of
their own, and they're like having me over for tea
to prep me for the procedure, to tell me what
(25:26):
to expect and how to prepare and and where to go.
And she's like, you know, it just blew my mind
that these women were being so supportive. Well, and when
though the actual day would come, the women would have
to be blindfolded during the procedure so that they could
never see the abortionists because uh, if they knew that
then that abortionists could be liable for obviously for being arrested.
(25:50):
But they even mentioned that some Chicago police were helpful
in a way about it, like there were a couple
of times when you know, women would show up to
the Jane House obviously and look a little confused, and
there would be a police officer who would be like,
you just go, you know, kind of a wink and
a nudge like, yeah, you're at the right place going
up there, um, which I mean, that's it seems like
(26:12):
a rare exception to the rule of people generally being
awful in regard to women seeking abortion at the time,
But it speaks so much to the lengths that women
were willing to go to that they would train themselves well.
Also they had a doctor who trained them to um
and even performing abortions and like setting up this whole
(26:34):
network in Chicago. And there was even a black woman
talking about her motivation for joining Jane so that when
women of color would come through that it would be
comforting for them to see her in the room. And
how interesting though write that in our first episode we
talked about how the Progressive era really Chicago was sort
(26:55):
of an incubator for all of these progressive era movements,
but I mean they also existed of worse across the country.
And then you had that group of upper class white people,
both women and doctors and whoever, telling other people that
they knew better than them. And now here you've got
this wonderful underground supportive network of again middle to upper
(27:18):
class white women and women of color who were like, no,
I'm I'm here for my sisters to help them through
this time. And partially because of the protests and activism
of the Women's Liberation movement and concerted efforts by groups
of doctors, also religious groups, politicians, attitudes and laws were
(27:39):
finally starting to change. In fact, by the time Roe v.
Wade passed, most states had rolled back their abortion laws. Um,
there was only there only I think Pennsylvania was the
only place that completely outlawed abortion under any circumstances. So,
as has been pretty clear throughout Part one and now
(28:01):
our Part two discussion on abortion, it's really hard to
separate the fight for birth control from the fight for abortion.
They're all sort of one and the same, especially when
you look back at the era of the Comstock laws
in the turn of the twentieth century, and so many
people equated the two. It's it's they can't seem to
be separated in so many people's minds. And so I
(28:24):
wanted to hit on some birth control milestones that were
happening at the same time as the abortion laws were
being rolled back in so many states across the country.
So in nineteen sixty five, speaking of the Comstock laws,
the U. S. Supreme Court did away with them, saying
that the private use of contraceptives was a constitutional right,
(28:46):
and immediately ten states loosened their birth control restrictions, followed
in the next three years by I think thirteen others,
and then in nineteen seventy, just five years later, President
Nixon signed Title ten into law, which made contraceptives available
regardless of income and also provided funding for educational programs
(29:08):
and research and contraceptive development. Hey, that's a pretty cool
thing that old Nixon did. Right there, we go, all right,
thanks for that. At least Nixon um Planned Parenthood gotten
money from Titled tin and Medicaid patients to subsidize birth control,
STD screenings and other reproductive health services for patients who
(29:28):
might lack health insurance coverage. So that's a really big deal.
Well yeah, and that's why Title ten is so important
still today. I mean, it's still it's still with us,
and it's still helps Planned Parenthood and other reproductive health
clinics help people in this country. And then into the
Supreme Court finally, okay, is birth control used by unmarried women? Thanks?
(29:54):
I mean, like thank you, no, thank you, but like
guys country, United States people. It took that long for
it to be like, all right, unmarried women, like, we'll
let you have this as well. And isn't it wild
to think that it took the Supreme Court to decide
that it's wild? And yet not in this country's history,
(30:15):
especially considering all of the history we've just been going over.
But on the abortion front, what's happening simultaneously in this time,
If we hop back a little bit to nineteen sixty two,
the American Law Institute calls for abortion to be legal
under certain circumstances, so like in instances of rape and incests.
(30:35):
They were this this whole group of judges, lawyers, law
enforcement who's saying, like, come on, like we we have
to loosen the restrictions on women who go through these
certain situations. In nineteen sixty seven, if we hop back
across the pond, Britain passes the Abortion Act, allowing for
abortion as long as two medical professionals agreed that pregnancy
(30:56):
endangered the mom's life or the mental or physical health
of the men and her children, or in cases of
fetal deformity and handicap. It's also in this year that
Colorado becomes the first U. S state to rework their
abortion laws based on those American Law Institute recommendations. So
this is what Kristen's talking about when she mentioned how
in America we start seeing this rollback on the across
(31:19):
the board ban on abortion. And in nineteen seventy we
get some really good news. Hawaii becomes the first state
to decriminalize abortion, and this is through twenty weeks and
only for residents. The big news also that year, New
York is the first to legalize abortion without that residency
requirement and through the twenty four week of pregnancy if
(31:41):
performed by a physician. And in the first year abortion
became legalized in New York, six of the women who
had abortions in that state came from out of town.
In nineteen seventy two, for instance, an estimated one hundred
thousand women try ravel to New York in order to
(32:02):
have an abortion. I mean, and that also goes to
not just the literal geographical links that women would go
to for an abortion, but think about again the time,
the cost. I remember, my mom, who has been a
flight attendant for about four hundred years, has told me
stories about how when she was first starting out flying,
(32:23):
and she was flying the short turnaround trips, which is basically,
you go out one day and you come back the
same day on the same plane. And she would take
up young women to New York and see them either
traveling alone or with an older woman, and that those
same women would be coming back on the night flight
on the same same return trip to Atlanta. So with
(32:45):
the wink in the nod of like, okay, well you're
gonna go have something done in New York. You're traveling
to New York for a purpose. Oh my gosh. And
just thinking this has been making me think too about
especially the situations in Texas where so many clinics are
being shut down and the thousands of miles that women
have to drive in order to get to a clinic. Yeah,
(33:08):
with all of those tens and tens and tens of
thousands of women who are traveling to New York, not
everybody could do that. You know, you had to have
the time and the money and the resources to be
able to travel and have the procedure done well. Then,
in nineteen seventy three, Old Scotus hands down its decision
(33:29):
in Roe v. Wade, legalizing abortion, and like I said,
though by this time abortion reform legislation had been introduced
in all but five states, and Ruth Peter Ginsburg actually
was one of many who were concerned over how Row
went down because it was legalized on the basis of
(33:49):
the Fourteenth Amendment and right to privacy, and she and
others were concerned that by not going the state by
state route, it would, as it husband, be immediately challenged. Well, yeah,
it was, and it has been ever since, starting in
nineteen seventy six with the High Amendment, Representative Henry Hide
(34:13):
introduced his namesake Amendment, which prohibited federal medicaid funds for
abortions for poor women. So right out of the gate,
we have poor women being shoved the side. Yet again,
here's the thing. In this whole whole history of abortion,
poor women, women of color are always the ones who
(34:33):
are hit the hardest. Yeah, I mean, we think of
the no federal funding for abortion argument as being a
modern thing, part of the modern planned parenthood debate that's
going on, that's raging and won't stop raging. But no,
I mean this was immediately after Row, that the no
we are going to let you use federal funds for
abortion thing that started out right away. It's also the
(34:55):
same year, interestingly enough, that abortion becomes part of platforms.
The Republicans adopt their anti choice platform and the Dems
aligned themselves with a pro choice platform. This is also
the year that Planned Parenthood sees its first arson and
a series of bombings follows in Night and next up
on this depressing timeline because it took us so long
(35:18):
to get to nineteen seventy three, and now we're just
tumbling right back down this hill. In Ballade versus Bared,
the ruling found that states could insist that a minor
obtained parental consent or persuade a judge that she was mature,
or that an abortion without parental notification was in her
best interests. So essentially we start to complicate the process
(35:41):
for obtaining an abortion on demand. And in nineteen eighty
that high Amendment rears its head again. In Harris v. McRae,
the ruling stated that states were not required to fund
abortions for which federal reimbursement was not available thanks to
that high Amendment. Further hides funding restrictions were found not
(36:03):
to violate the Fifth Amendment, so it's against this backdrop
In the eighties during and post Reagan administration that anti abortion,
birth control and sex ed rhetoric and policies really pick up,
as does violence against abortion clinics. Again, we see even
(36:24):
more Planned parenthood bombings, and speaking of planned parenthood, Planned
Parenthood v. Casey upholds a highly restrictive Pennsylvania law that
included mandatory waiting periods, parental consent, and bias information and further,
and this was really troubling also to notorious RBG. The
(36:46):
court abandoned the legal principles of ROW and allowed laws
designed to limit access to abortion at any stage of pregnancy,
so long as the law does not place an undoe
burden on a woman's access to a worship. And the
definition of an undue burden, my friends, is massive. I
(37:06):
mean quite recently there. I forget the court case, but
these judges were going back and forth, I believe, over
an issue in Texas and this whole undue burden thing,
and women were having to drive thousands of miles and
one of the judges was like, well, it's pretty flat
in Texas. They're not they're not walking, I mean unless
they are, but jeez, what really? No? And I I
(37:30):
rolled my eyes so heavily, so many times reading that
whole undue burden bit, because what what do you what's
supposed to be the undue burden? Like, I mean, simply
by closing clinics, you're placing an undue burden on these
women who have to travel. Well. Yeah, and with the
mandatory waiting period, I mean you have jobs on the line,
and I mean so much that you have to to
(37:53):
do in order to obtain one. And then the nineties
there's just a horrific stream of violence, Yeah, and pretty
rapid succession. We see uh R, David Gunn becoming the
first US abortion provider to be murdered. The following year,
another plan Parent had doctor his security escort and to
(38:15):
Planned Parent had employees were killed in separate shootings. And
in ninety eight we see a bombing that kills an
off duty police officer and a sniper killing a doctor.
So the nineties were incredibly violent and scary for both
abortion providers and seekers. And more recently, in two thousand seven,
in Gonzalez v. Carhart, SCOTUS upholds the so called Partial
(38:40):
Birth Abortion Ban Act, which President George W. Bush had
signed into law in two thousand three, and here's the thing.
There is no medical procedure known as partial birth. Essentially,
it's more of a rhetorical manipulation. Yes, for a later
term abortion, but the law has been interpreted as bar
(39:00):
doctors from performing an intact dilation and evacuation, which is
a procedure where there's no instrumentation before the fetus is removed,
unless the fetus is no longer alive. So it's it's horrifying.
I mean, this is so much context for the debate
and the violence we're experiencing today around abortion and planned parenthead.
(39:23):
But it's horrifying that literally. I mean, since the Rov
Wade ruling, we've just been trying to climb back down
that mountain well, and we've forgotten where we came from
to begin with. I mean, was this history as surprising
to learn for you as it was for me, just
in terms of all of the complexity and the midwiffery
(39:45):
and all of this bait and switch that happened. Oh yeah. Absolutely.
The fact that abortion seems to be yes to people
for whatever reason find abortion to be immoral and have
they yes or to be taboo yes, But the fact
that abortion seems to have been over our history a
tool for so many other arguments and so many other fights,
(40:07):
whether it is getting midwives competition out of the picture,
or whether it is having more control over women in
their bodies. UM, I think that aspect of it is
is pretty pretty stunning and disgusting. And of course it's
not just in the United States, where the abortion issue
is far from settled. I mean we have listeners in
(40:30):
Ireland who know this well. There's still no legal access
over there to abortion on demand, and that law was
recently upheld in Northern Ireland. Um. There are six nations
the Holy See, Malta, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Nicaragua and
Chile that don't allow abortion under any circumstances. So regardless
(40:52):
of where our listeners stand politically and morally on this issue,
because I know that we have listeners who are on
pro choice and who are anti choice and anti abortion.
Although you can be pro choice and anti abortion, those
cert you know, not mutually exclusive. I hope that what
(41:13):
we've talked about has offered important historical context to just
better understand what those politicized platforms really mean and what
they mean to individual women's lives. Because I think a
lot of us are so familiar with the imagery of
(41:33):
coat hangers, and we know that these back alley abortions happened,
and that some terrible things went down, but I don't
think we really understand just how much is at stake
with this entire reproductive rights issue. And so I do
hope to hear from listeners. I'm interested to know whether
they were as surprised by some of this history and
(41:56):
this context as we were. So much of it was unning,
so much of it wasn't even really that surprising when
you think about it, but just how gross it was
to me that women seem to be these pawns in
this constant, ongoing argument. So, listeners, mom stuff at how
(42:16):
stuff works dot com is our email address. You can
also tweet us at mom stuff podcast or message us
on Facebook. And I also want to invite listeners who
have had abortions if you would like to share your
story with us, either openly or anonymously, we are safe
spaces to do that. Again. Our email addresses mom stuff
(42:37):
at how stuff works dot com, at mom Stuff podcast
on Twitter, and you can also message us on Facebook,
and we've got a couple of messages to share with
you right now. I have a letter here from Katie
in response to our Perfectionism episode. She says that she
put the episode on while she's getting ready for work
(42:59):
one morning. By the end, she found herself in tears. So,
Katie writes, I've never used the word perfectionists to describe myself.
Prior to listening to Little Miss Perfect, I hadn't ever
really even thought about the concept of perfectionism. But each
point you touched on during the show hit closer and
closer to home. Starting with the discussion of parental influence.
My parents always held us to very high standards in
(43:19):
every aspect of our lives, which I don't necessarily consider
to be a bad thing, as they only wanted the
best for us. But you mentioned one key factor that
my parents unfortunately did not take into account balancing those
high expectations with loving support and enthusiasm. My siblings and
I were under immense pressure to achieve academically, succeed socially,
and maintain the appearance of a perfect family life while
(43:40):
receiving little to no reassurance that we were smart enough,
good enough, pretty enough, or that we would be loved
no matter our failures or shortcomings. As crazy as it
may sound, I didn't fully realize the impact that had
in my adult life until I heard the show. I'm
painfully aware of my habit of procrastination, but I had
never really made the connection with the concept of perfectionism.
I realized I tend to put things off when I'm
(44:02):
concerned the outcome may not be perfect, especially creative pursuits.
I've always loved writing, and I've made several attempts at
blogging and submitting articles for publication, but I always end
up leaving each project i'm finished. I now know this
is due to the inherent imperfections and potential for harsh criticism.
I love the idea you presented to soothe these anxieties,
like letting those worries play all the way out with
(44:22):
the what if prompt. Usually, if I continue to think
about what might happen next if I do or don't
do something, my worries shrink because I can hear how
insignificant the worries actually are. This has helped me follow
through with starting and maintaining a blog. By far, the
biggest shot concerning perfectionism came in the research statistics about
women who exhibit perfectionist tendencies being much more likely to cheat.
(44:44):
I married young and made every possible effort to construct
the illusion of a perfect life and marriage. When my
sex life with my husband became less than perfect, I
looked outside of our marriage to find the idea of
sexual perfection. Eventually, we decided to divorce, and I struggled
immensely with the fallout surrounding the implosion of my seemingly
perfect life. I couldn't stand the idea of my imperfections
being broadcast in such a public and painful way. After
(45:06):
seeing a therapist for well over a year now, I
had yet to make the connection between my being unfaithful
and my penchant for perfection. But thanks to Kristen and Caroline,
I reached a deeper understanding of myself. I'm optimistic that
this new awareness of myself will help me to live
a more fulfilling and balanced life. So truly, thank you.
I am now a devoted sminthy listener. I think what
you two are doing is so important and meaningful. Keep
(45:28):
up the good work well. Thank you so much, Katie,
and I've got a let her here from Naomi. She writes,
your recent episode about lube has brought to mind a
difficult time in my life. I was about five weeks
postpartum after a Sessian birth. My then husband was anxious
to resume marital relations after our son was born. Unfortunately,
(45:49):
though I was ready, it felt like daggers. Turns out
that breastfeeding thanks to hormones can lead to a thinning
of the vaginal wall, or so my research said, and
it's quite common. The answer is lots and lots of lube.
I know that I and many other new moms I've
spoken with have a lot of fear that first time
after a baby is born, in particular if they had
a difficult or traumatic birth experience. Having it feel like
(46:11):
daggers compounds that fear exponentially and can lead to more
trauma psychologically. I heartily wish that someone would have told
me to include lube that first time. I can't tell
you all the pain it would have saved me and
my husband if we'd only known and love is such
an easy answer. I hope you ladies will pass this
on well. Naomi, your wish is granted and listeners. For
(46:35):
all of your stories you can send them to us.
Mom Stuff at how stuff works dot com is your
email address. And for links all of our social media
as well as all of our blogs, videos, and podcasts
with our sources so you can read more of the
delightful history of abortion. Head on over to stuff Mom
Never Told You dot com for moral this and thousands
(46:58):
of other topics. Because at houstuff works dot com.
Welcome to stuff Mob Never Told You. From House to
abortion dot Com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm
President and I'm Caroline. And this is part two of
our two parter on the history of abortion and really
the history of the criminalization and subsequent legalization of abortion
(00:28):
focused here in the United States. Yeah, in our last
episode we essentially ended on the point where abortion had
become illegal across America. Women who sought abortions were considered
immoral and irresponsible. There was no discussion of what responsibility
the father had, if any, and all of this was
(00:49):
set against the backdrop of being the progressive era, where
a lot of people assumed they knew better, that they
knew better than women of whatever class, but particul clearly
poor women. Uh they assume they knew better than women
of color. Uh, they assumed they knew better than midwives.
And that all of these people were just essentially helpless, unintelligent, immoral,
(01:13):
low class people who should be taught just how immoral
they were being by seeking abortions. And there's one person
in particular who is complex and controversial but also a
pioneer and someone who in a very fascinating way encompasses
(01:35):
all of these elements. Is it me, Caroline and it's conger,
Oh my gosh, thank you. It is Margaret Sanger. Okay,
well I think she was also a brunette. I'll take it. Yeah,
another brown eyed girl, yes, exactly. Um. And of course
Margaret Sanger was controversial in her day, just as she's
(01:58):
still controversial now. But in an effort to provide women
a way to prevent pregnancy, she wanted to liberate them.
She wanted to give women a choice in limiting their families,
but in doing so, she also wanted to prevent abortion.
She was not on the abortion train, so to speak.
(02:21):
But this is a woman who also then helped found
Planned Parenthood exactly. And um, she came of age under
the Comstock era laws. And for those of you who
haven't listened to part one, just as a recap, Anthony
Comstock is the worst. He basically is responsible for outlawing
(02:45):
any sort of birth control related information being sent through
the mail. And regardless, sang Or dedicated her life to
legalizing birth control, the very thing that would be illegal
to talk to people about some correspondence about I'm sure
you could not advertise birth control the time. And she
(03:07):
wanted to develop what she called a magic pill to
help save women's lives. Yeah, and so it's worth noting,
like I was saying, that Sanger thought that abortion was
okay only as a last resort to save the mother's life.
She thought that doing it to limit offspring was dangerous
and vicious. But the whole thing was that she felt
(03:28):
that providing women a safe contraceptive method would make abortion
wholly unnecessary, Which is interesting when you revisit that thought today,
because so many people are still against comprehensive sex said.
They're against providing birth control or contraception of any kind,
and yet they're also against letting people have abortions. So
(03:51):
Sanger's reasoning was, if we teach women and couples, not
just women but couples about contraception, we can prevent this
thing that so many people seemed to dislike so much.
And this conviction was deeply personal for her because she
watched her Irish Catholic mother essentially waste away at forty
(04:12):
eight from tuberculosis after having eleven children and seven miscarriages.
And after she grew up, she worked as a nurse
in New York, where she treated poor immigrant women who
pursued unsafe abortions after using ineffective contraception. So she saw firsthand,
on you know, professional and also a very personal familial level,
(04:37):
the the impact of women not having choice or any
control really over their bodies. Right, and she it's it's
said that she blamed her father, like over her mother's coffin,
for his sex drive that killed her mother. But if
we're going chronologically, Margaret Sanger was super busy in the
(04:58):
years nineteen fourteen and nineteen six team who wasn't seriously
I mean, can't get a break. But so in this time,
in nineteen fourteen, she coins the term birth control. So
anytime in this episode, in the previous episode we've said
the words birth control, those words didn't even really exist
yet in the way that we think of them until
Sanger coined the term. Uh. In nineteen fifteen, she was
(05:19):
indicted for sending diaphragms through the mail, and then in
nineteen sixteen, she opens the country's first birth control clinic
in Brooklyn. Of course, it was shut down just a
few days later, and Sanger was convicted under those Comstock
laws of disseminating birth control info. But she's a sneaky
little minx. And she did that on purpose. It's not
(05:40):
like she was like, Oh, I'm gonna hope that no
one notices and I'm going to be mailing women diaphragms
in Ohio. No, she knew that it was against the
law to disseminate birth control and to disseminate information about
birth control, So she herself leaked the information to the
press so that she could fight basically within the newspapers
(06:02):
and from court these terrible freaking comstock laws. And when
she appealed her conviction, she won, and it led to
a new interpretation of New York's anti contraception statute, exempting
doctors from the rule prohibiting birth control information dissemination if
(06:23):
it was for medical reasons. There we go, So Sanger
gets their first big victory. Then in she found the
American Birth Control League, which is the precursor to Planned parenthood. Yeah,
And the thing is, she wouldn't have been able to
do that had she not gone through the trouble of
mailing diaphragms, you know what I mean, Like, she could
(06:45):
never have had this clinic unless she broke the law.
She had her good friend Catherine money Bags McClintock smuggled
these diaphragms back in her coat from Europe so that
she could mail them. And of course, btw, if you
want to learn more about Kathery McLintock, you need to
go over to our sister podcast, Stuff you Missed in
History Class. They've got a great episode all about her.
(07:06):
But any who, in nine three, uh, the Clinical Research
Bureau opens and it's part of that American Birth Control League.
It's the first legal birth control clinic and it serves
as the abc l's medical arms. So it provides couples
with contraception and counseling, It conducts research and a contraceptive
(07:27):
and reproduction related medical practices. So she's a she's a genius,
like managing to break the law in order to be
able to open essentially what is like a loophole clinic, Like, oh, well,
you know, I can't provide women with birth control or
birth control education, but these doctors can. And so, after
(07:49):
a lot of wrangling and separating and merging and renaming
these two groups, these two related groups become Planned Parenthood
in nineteen forty two and in nineteen forty eight. Just
a few years later, Planned Parenthood awards a grant to
the pretty nutty doctor Gregory Pinkis who works with John
Rock to create the pill. So Sanger was the ideas lady.
(08:12):
She's like cornering Pinkus at cocktail parties, being like, you're
gonna do this for me, and he's like, cool, let's
do it. I'm already testing things in possibly unethical ways,
and wealthy feminist suffragist Katherine McCormick teamed up with her
to encourage that research and development. So you've got these
women with kookie ideas about giving women their freedom to
(08:36):
choose what kind of life they want to live. And
by the nineteen sixties, planned parenthood had become this major
force for women's health, birth control, and family planning. In
the nineteen sixty two, President Alan Gootmacker is this huge
advocate for abortion access in the wake of these health
crises in the United States, the Philidamide and Rebella crises,
(08:58):
which led to a lot of birth defects, a lot
of deformities among children. But abortion services do not become
part of Planned Parenthood until after the ro versus Way
decision in nineteen seventy three. Who but anyway, we've got
to back up because the whole thing about why Margaret
sang are still today is even more controversial than just
(09:20):
supporting birth control and women's independence. Oh my god, imagine
the thought. Also, in one the same year that she
founded the American Birth Control League, she also penned an
essay titled the Eugenic Value of birth Control Propaganda. Yeah,
so she was one of the many, many, high profile
Americans to subscribe to the eugenic theory. But the whole thing,
(09:46):
as Jean H. Baker argues in her book Margaret sang Or,
A Life of Passion, is that her acceptance of the
movement was a calculated, pragmatic tactic. Because Margaret sang Or
was nothing y'all if not pragmatic and tactical and calculated.
Baker writes, she needed allies and eugenics, the expert qualifications
(10:06):
of its proponents, the scientific trappings of its evidence, it's
expanding network of journals and associations, it's general acceptance among Americans,
and even its international connections. Represented an opportunity to find
friends and join a popular movement. But the thing is
she wasn't exactly welcomed with open arms by racists and
(10:27):
classis eugenicists. In fact, a lot of them dismissed her
and said that she didn't really understand the theory, and
they really weren't too interested in her birth control based
notoriety either. Um And the main reason that they kind
of gave Singer the side I was that she rejected
the notion of race suicide and that rich white people
(10:48):
should have more babies. Really, her thing, as we've said,
was trying to liberate women. In the process, she challenged
eugenicists sex for reap production idea. She really believed in
the importance of the environment in improving society because she'd
been born into one of those overpopulated, impoverished families. So
(11:11):
she really thought that overpopulation was the problem, not the
quote unquote good stock, as Teddy Roosevelt put it, which
is a euphemistic way of saying white folks. Yeah, white
folks working farm jobs and whatever. Uh So, when we
look at that essay from there's some good parts of it, right.
(11:34):
So she called birth control a new weapon of civilization
and freedom. She wrote, not until the parents of the
world are thus given control over their reproductive faculties will
it ever be possible, not alone, to improve the quality
of generations of the future, but even to maintain civilization
at its present level. And she really dismisses politicians and
(11:54):
theorists idealistic codes of sexual ethics, the same things that
people say today in criticizing things like abstinence only sex said,
because the whole idea of like people like sex, people
are gonna do the sex. Let's not have these idealistic
thoughts about people not having sex, and let's try to
(12:16):
meet them where they are. But of course there's the
in her essay as well, in which she writes the
eugenic and civilizational value of birth control is becoming a
parent to the enlightened and the intelligent. So I mean,
basically it seems like she I don't know, I mean
that she's sort of trying to get on their good
(12:37):
sides by being like, yeah, yeah, yeah, eugenics, that's totally cool,
And I've got this great way that you can make
that happen. It's through this little thing called birth control.
And if we can teach you about eugenics and the
importance of that, then in the process we can teach
mothers about prophylaxis, sexual hygiene, and infant welfare. So while
(12:59):
I I honestly I don't see her motives as entirely pure,
because even moderately aligning with eugenics is is not okay um.
But it does seem like she has ulterior motives to
what she's saying. Yeah, because it does get worse. I mean,
I'm not gonna lie here. She basically said, listen, we
can't stand by as the poor, criminal, and disabled have
(13:21):
more kids than the wealthy do. But she wasn't arguing
that we should, for instance, abort the children of poor
people or disabled people. She was saying, rather, all of
us should be having fewer children. She's got this really
long quote about how the unbalanced and this is this
is under the category of bad. Uh. She says, there's
(13:43):
this unbalanced between the birth rates of the fit and
the unfit, which is a huge menace to civilization and
the wealthy. She's saying, or the fit should not be
taking cues from the poor and the unfit by having
a children. We should all be limiting our reproduction. She
(14:04):
did go on to a point eugenicist to her clinics board, uh,
and eventually her former critics as people who were like Singer,
you're not doing eugenics right. Even her former critics came
to see birth control that she was advocating for as
a weapon against the high birth rates of the so
called deficient, though as Jane Baker writes, they still favored sterilization.
(14:29):
And not surprisingly though this whole you know, association with
direct association with eugenicists and the viewpoints that she's espousing
in this essay are used commonly today and attempts to
discredit Singer and convince people that birth control to some extent,
and abortion to an even greater extent, our efforts specifically
(14:53):
to wipe out Black people, and in fact, black activists
in the late sixties acute 's planned parenthood of committing
genocide by providing birth control in their neighborhoods, wondering, hey,
why are you setting up shop here? This seems a
little suspicious, But it's important to note as well that
back in the nineteen thirties, leaders in the black community,
(15:15):
including W. E. B. Du Boy and Mary McLoud Bethoon,
supported Sayer's birth control advocacy and her so called Negro Project,
or effort to open clinics for black women in the
segregated South where only white women had access to birth control,
and also to train black doctors. Yeah, and she in
(15:40):
an interview in ninety was telling the reporter when we
first started out, an anti Negro white man offered me
ten thousand dollars if I started in Harlem first. His
idea was simply to cut down the number of negroes,
spread it as far as you can among them. He said,
that is of course not our Yeah. I turned him down,
(16:01):
but that is an example of how vicious some people
can be about this thing. So her motivation, while yes
she was opening birth control clinics in black neighborhoods or
in poorer neighborhoods in general, her motivation was not to
cut down on the numbers of poor people or people
of color. Her motivation was to be the provider of
(16:23):
this birth control and family planning and reproductive services information
that women weren't getting elsewhere, particularly in this case women
of color. I mean Immani Gandy over at r H.
Reality Check argues that, to be honest, uh saying er
was more ablest than she was capital r racist. Did
(16:45):
she say racist things? Yes? Was she elitist probably, but
she had far more negative things to say about the
mentally and physically disabled in society going on to procreate
than she did about people of color. Well, in those
planned parenthood and birth control clinics being set up in
black communities might also make more sense when we look
(17:09):
at what was going on and the links that women,
especially poorer women and socio economically disadvantaged women, we're having
to go to in order to deal with unwanted pregnancies.
Because as we have said before, I mean, regardless of
whether abortion is illegal or not, women have had them
and will always have them. So if we go back
(17:33):
to nineteen thirty kind of will while Sanger is building
up for biz, abortion was listed as the official cause
of death for almost women around the United States and
nearly eighteen percent of maternal deaths recorded that year. And
this is coming from the goot Mocker Institute and down
the road. Antibiotics would help reduce the death toll um,
(17:58):
but I mean, if if there's another in the institute
researcher who estimated the annual illegal abortion death toll in
the nineteen thirties the entire decade at seventeen thousand, because
I mean, these numbers start to get a little unreliable
because I just mentioned is what is officially recorded but
(18:18):
since there were so many back alley procedures happening and
things happening in women's homes. Um, undoubtedly the number is
higher than that. But what did we do, How did
we solve this issue of this, you know, this health
crisis essentially improving safe abortion, no, no enforcement, get the
(18:40):
police involved. Yeah, So instead of trying to help women,
educate families, anything of that, you know, very human nature,
we essentially make women criminals. We we interrogate them while
they are hospitalized after their bodged procedures. Yeah. And in
nineteen sixty five, the thirty five years later, illegal abortion
(19:03):
was still accounting for seventeen percent of all deaths attributed
to pregnancy and childbirth that year. So, I mean, the
situation hasn't improved. It's not like fewer women are seeking abortions,
and low income women are especially hit hard by this issue.
So a study of low income women in New York
(19:25):
City in the nineteen sixties found that eight percent had
ever attempted to terminate a pregnancy via illegal abortion, and
seventy of those women attempted self induced abortion. And of
all the women they talked to, thirty eight percent of
them knew someone who had sought an illegal abortion. And
(19:46):
of course when it comes to illegal abortions and self
induced abortions, it gets very very dangerous, that's right. That
same study of women in New York found that one
in four white women's childbirth fatality has happened because of
an abortion, compared to one in two women of colors.
So there you start to see that same socio economic
(20:07):
issue cropping up. And from nineteen seventy two to nineteen
seventy four, in fact, the mortality rate due to illegal
abortion for non white women was twelve times greater than
that for white women. And regardless though of these statistics,
regardless of the fact that women knew that these kinds
of procedures were very dangerous and illegal, they sought them
(20:31):
out anyway. So again this is coming from the Gootmacker Institute.
In the nineteen fifties and sixties and estimated two hundred
thousand to one point two million abortions were performed in
the United States uh and by the nineteen sixties though,
all states but Pennsylvania had exemptions to their abortion laws.
(20:52):
So by this time the laws on a state by
state basis are starting to open up a little bit
people are starting to get together there even like coalitions
of doctors who are you know, having seen all these
patients coming in having you know, damaged themselves from illegal
or attempted self induced abortions, see the problem and realize
(21:16):
that something needs to be done with this. So we
we are seeing more access, but obtaining an abortion during
this time was still not very simple. Most hospitals would
have a board of doctors set up and it would
usually of course be all dudes, um where if you
were a patient in need of an abortion, you would
have to go before this board and essentially have your
(21:39):
procedure approved. But even getting that far meant that you
likely had to be a white woman with a little
bit of disposal income and time. So much time the
time to do this, I mean, you had to go
before the standing hospital committee. It might require an additional
physical exam by a doctor, it might require a mental
(22:02):
health exam by a psychiatrist, and then you might have
to have some type of law enforcement officer certifying that
a woman had actually been sexually assaulted. In the case
of saying I need the abortion because I was raped
or assaulted, yeah, I mean because during this time I
should have clarified that this is only to obtain one
of those therapeutic abortions. This wasn't abortion on demand, right,
(22:25):
And you know, you brought up the issue of UM
laws and attitudes starting to loosen up a little bit.
I mean, I think it's worth referring back to that
author Leslie Reagan who we quoted in our first episode,
where she talked a lot about the professionalization of medicine
and how that turned so many people against midwives and
against trusting women to know their own bodies. And she
(22:49):
pointed out, and I think it's worth noting here that
there's always been a distinction between quote unquote organized medicine
and individual physicians because organized medicine capital capital M in
all of the air quotes, was at this time, yes,
officially against abortion and in some cases maybe only accepting
(23:10):
of abortion in the cases of rape or ancestor things
like that. UM. But it was the doctors who were
on the front line, so to speak, who we're seeing
these desperate women who needed these procedures, who might be
trying to help women and provide them anyway. Well, and
you also have women kind of creating their own abortion
(23:32):
services in a way UM in nineteen three, the feminist
abortion counseling service of the Chicago Women's Liberation Union It's
a long name creates an underground abortion service code named Jane.
And the story of Jane is worth its own podcasts, honestly,
because it all started when one woman um was approached
(23:57):
by a friend of hers who had knew someone who
really needed an abortion. And this woman knew a doctor,
and so that kind of started the whole Thing's like,
she knew one doctor who could do it. So then
like the word spread that that this woman could hook
you up with a doctor who would perform an abortion.
And she realized that the more women who were coming
(24:19):
to her, how big this need was. And since abortion
and reproductive rights were such a huge issue within second
wave feminism and women's liberation, UH, they decided to kind
of align with the Chicago Women's Liberation Union and about
one women set this underground service up that provided more
(24:44):
than eleven thousand safe and affordable abortions through nineteen seventy
three when Roe v. Wade happened. And it's fascinating that
you could even find them through the phone book. It
was actually listed under the name Jane. How and some
of those women who were working in this network actually
themselves became trained in administering an abortion. And it was
(25:04):
one first person account that we read of a woman
who went through this Jain process and she was astounded. Basically,
she's like, here are these like soccer moms. Essentially, she
didn't say that, but it was like, here are these
like well to do white ladies who have kids of
their own, and they're like having me over for tea
to prep me for the procedure, to tell me what
(25:26):
to expect and how to prepare and and where to go.
And she's like, you know, it just blew my mind
that these women were being so supportive. Well, and when
though the actual day would come, the women would have
to be blindfolded during the procedure so that they could
never see the abortionists because uh, if they knew that
then that abortionists could be liable for obviously for being arrested.
(25:50):
But they even mentioned that some Chicago police were helpful
in a way about it, like there were a couple
of times when you know, women would show up to
the Jane House obviously and look a little confused, and
there would be a police officer who would be like,
you just go, you know, kind of a wink and
a nudge like, yeah, you're at the right place going
up there, um, which I mean, that's it seems like
(26:12):
a rare exception to the rule of people generally being
awful in regard to women seeking abortion at the time,
But it speaks so much to the lengths that women
were willing to go to that they would train themselves well.
Also they had a doctor who trained them to um
and even performing abortions and like setting up this whole
(26:34):
network in Chicago. And there was even a black woman
talking about her motivation for joining Jane so that when
women of color would come through that it would be
comforting for them to see her in the room. And
how interesting though write that in our first episode we
talked about how the Progressive era really Chicago was sort
(26:55):
of an incubator for all of these progressive era movements,
but I mean they also existed of worse across the country.
And then you had that group of upper class white people,
both women and doctors and whoever, telling other people that
they knew better than them. And now here you've got
this wonderful underground supportive network of again middle to upper
(27:18):
class white women and women of color who were like, no,
I'm I'm here for my sisters to help them through
this time. And partially because of the protests and activism
of the Women's Liberation movement and concerted efforts by groups
of doctors, also religious groups, politicians, attitudes and laws were
(27:39):
finally starting to change. In fact, by the time Roe v.
Wade passed, most states had rolled back their abortion laws. Um,
there was only there only I think Pennsylvania was the
only place that completely outlawed abortion under any circumstances. So,
as has been pretty clear throughout Part one and now
(28:01):
our Part two discussion on abortion, it's really hard to
separate the fight for birth control from the fight for abortion.
They're all sort of one and the same, especially when
you look back at the era of the Comstock laws
in the turn of the twentieth century, and so many
people equated the two. It's it's they can't seem to
be separated in so many people's minds. And so I
(28:24):
wanted to hit on some birth control milestones that were
happening at the same time as the abortion laws were
being rolled back in so many states across the country.
So in nineteen sixty five, speaking of the Comstock laws,
the U. S. Supreme Court did away with them, saying
that the private use of contraceptives was a constitutional right,
(28:46):
and immediately ten states loosened their birth control restrictions, followed
in the next three years by I think thirteen others,
and then in nineteen seventy, just five years later, President
Nixon signed Title ten into law, which made contraceptives available
regardless of income and also provided funding for educational programs
(29:08):
and research and contraceptive development. Hey, that's a pretty cool
thing that old Nixon did. Right there, we go, all right,
thanks for that. At least Nixon um Planned Parenthood gotten
money from Titled tin and Medicaid patients to subsidize birth control,
STD screenings and other reproductive health services for patients who
(29:28):
might lack health insurance coverage. So that's a really big deal.
Well yeah, and that's why Title ten is so important
still today. I mean, it's still it's still with us,
and it's still helps Planned Parenthood and other reproductive health
clinics help people in this country. And then into the
Supreme Court finally, okay, is birth control used by unmarried women? Thanks?
(29:54):
I mean, like thank you, no, thank you, but like
guys country, United States people. It took that long for
it to be like, all right, unmarried women, like, we'll
let you have this as well. And isn't it wild
to think that it took the Supreme Court to decide
that it's wild? And yet not in this country's history,
(30:15):
especially considering all of the history we've just been going over.
But on the abortion front, what's happening simultaneously in this time,
If we hop back a little bit to nineteen sixty two,
the American Law Institute calls for abortion to be legal
under certain circumstances, so like in instances of rape and incests.
(30:35):
They were this this whole group of judges, lawyers, law
enforcement who's saying, like, come on, like we we have
to loosen the restrictions on women who go through these
certain situations. In nineteen sixty seven, if we hop back
across the pond, Britain passes the Abortion Act, allowing for
abortion as long as two medical professionals agreed that pregnancy
(30:56):
endangered the mom's life or the mental or physical health
of the men and her children, or in cases of
fetal deformity and handicap. It's also in this year that
Colorado becomes the first U. S state to rework their
abortion laws based on those American Law Institute recommendations. So
this is what Kristen's talking about when she mentioned how
in America we start seeing this rollback on the across
(31:19):
the board ban on abortion. And in nineteen seventy we
get some really good news. Hawaii becomes the first state
to decriminalize abortion, and this is through twenty weeks and
only for residents. The big news also that year, New
York is the first to legalize abortion without that residency
requirement and through the twenty four week of pregnancy if
(31:41):
performed by a physician. And in the first year abortion
became legalized in New York, six of the women who
had abortions in that state came from out of town.
In nineteen seventy two, for instance, an estimated one hundred
thousand women try ravel to New York in order to
(32:02):
have an abortion. I mean, and that also goes to
not just the literal geographical links that women would go
to for an abortion, but think about again the time,
the cost. I remember, my mom, who has been a
flight attendant for about four hundred years, has told me
stories about how when she was first starting out flying,
(32:23):
and she was flying the short turnaround trips, which is basically,
you go out one day and you come back the
same day on the same plane. And she would take
up young women to New York and see them either
traveling alone or with an older woman, and that those
same women would be coming back on the night flight
on the same same return trip to Atlanta. So with
(32:45):
the wink in the nod of like, okay, well you're
gonna go have something done in New York. You're traveling
to New York for a purpose. Oh my gosh. And
just thinking this has been making me think too about
especially the situations in Texas where so many clinics are
being shut down and the thousands of miles that women
have to drive in order to get to a clinic. Yeah,
(33:08):
with all of those tens and tens and tens of
thousands of women who are traveling to New York, not
everybody could do that. You know, you had to have
the time and the money and the resources to be
able to travel and have the procedure done well. Then,
in nineteen seventy three, Old Scotus hands down its decision
(33:29):
in Roe v. Wade, legalizing abortion, and like I said,
though by this time abortion reform legislation had been introduced
in all but five states, and Ruth Peter Ginsburg actually
was one of many who were concerned over how Row
went down because it was legalized on the basis of
(33:49):
the Fourteenth Amendment and right to privacy, and she and
others were concerned that by not going the state by
state route, it would, as it husband, be immediately challenged. Well, yeah,
it was, and it has been ever since, starting in
nineteen seventy six with the High Amendment, Representative Henry Hide
(34:13):
introduced his namesake Amendment, which prohibited federal medicaid funds for
abortions for poor women. So right out of the gate,
we have poor women being shoved the side. Yet again,
here's the thing. In this whole whole history of abortion,
poor women, women of color are always the ones who
(34:33):
are hit the hardest. Yeah, I mean, we think of
the no federal funding for abortion argument as being a
modern thing, part of the modern planned parenthood debate that's
going on, that's raging and won't stop raging. But no,
I mean this was immediately after Row, that the no
we are going to let you use federal funds for
abortion thing that started out right away. It's also the
(34:55):
same year, interestingly enough, that abortion becomes part of platforms.
The Republicans adopt their anti choice platform and the Dems
aligned themselves with a pro choice platform. This is also
the year that Planned Parenthood sees its first arson and
a series of bombings follows in Night and next up
on this depressing timeline because it took us so long
(35:18):
to get to nineteen seventy three, and now we're just
tumbling right back down this hill. In Ballade versus Bared,
the ruling found that states could insist that a minor
obtained parental consent or persuade a judge that she was mature,
or that an abortion without parental notification was in her
best interests. So essentially we start to complicate the process
(35:41):
for obtaining an abortion on demand. And in nineteen eighty
that high Amendment rears its head again. In Harris v. McRae,
the ruling stated that states were not required to fund
abortions for which federal reimbursement was not available thanks to
that high Amendment. Further hides funding restrictions were found not
(36:03):
to violate the Fifth Amendment, so it's against this backdrop
In the eighties during and post Reagan administration that anti abortion,
birth control and sex ed rhetoric and policies really pick up,
as does violence against abortion clinics. Again, we see even
(36:24):
more Planned parenthood bombings, and speaking of planned parenthood, Planned
Parenthood v. Casey upholds a highly restrictive Pennsylvania law that
included mandatory waiting periods, parental consent, and bias information and further,
and this was really troubling also to notorious RBG. The
(36:46):
court abandoned the legal principles of ROW and allowed laws
designed to limit access to abortion at any stage of pregnancy,
so long as the law does not place an undoe
burden on a woman's access to a worship. And the
definition of an undue burden, my friends, is massive. I
(37:06):
mean quite recently there. I forget the court case, but
these judges were going back and forth, I believe, over
an issue in Texas and this whole undue burden thing,
and women were having to drive thousands of miles and
one of the judges was like, well, it's pretty flat
in Texas. They're not they're not walking, I mean unless
they are, but jeez, what really? No? And I I
(37:30):
rolled my eyes so heavily, so many times reading that
whole undue burden bit, because what what do you what's
supposed to be the undue burden? Like, I mean, simply
by closing clinics, you're placing an undue burden on these
women who have to travel. Well. Yeah, and with the
mandatory waiting period, I mean you have jobs on the line,
and I mean so much that you have to to
(37:53):
do in order to obtain one. And then the nineties
there's just a horrific stream of violence, Yeah, and pretty
rapid succession. We see uh R, David Gunn becoming the
first US abortion provider to be murdered. The following year,
another plan Parent had doctor his security escort and to
(38:15):
Planned Parent had employees were killed in separate shootings. And
in ninety eight we see a bombing that kills an
off duty police officer and a sniper killing a doctor.
So the nineties were incredibly violent and scary for both
abortion providers and seekers. And more recently, in two thousand seven,
in Gonzalez v. Carhart, SCOTUS upholds the so called Partial
(38:40):
Birth Abortion Ban Act, which President George W. Bush had
signed into law in two thousand three, and here's the thing.
There is no medical procedure known as partial birth. Essentially,
it's more of a rhetorical manipulation. Yes, for a later
term abortion, but the law has been interpreted as bar
(39:00):
doctors from performing an intact dilation and evacuation, which is
a procedure where there's no instrumentation before the fetus is removed,
unless the fetus is no longer alive. So it's it's horrifying.
I mean, this is so much context for the debate
and the violence we're experiencing today around abortion and planned parenthead.
(39:23):
But it's horrifying that literally. I mean, since the Rov
Wade ruling, we've just been trying to climb back down
that mountain well, and we've forgotten where we came from
to begin with. I mean, was this history as surprising
to learn for you as it was for me, just
in terms of all of the complexity and the midwiffery
(39:45):
and all of this bait and switch that happened. Oh yeah. Absolutely.
The fact that abortion seems to be yes to people
for whatever reason find abortion to be immoral and have
they yes or to be taboo yes, But the fact
that abortion seems to have been over our history a
tool for so many other arguments and so many other fights,
(40:07):
whether it is getting midwives competition out of the picture,
or whether it is having more control over women in
their bodies. UM, I think that aspect of it is
is pretty pretty stunning and disgusting. And of course it's
not just in the United States, where the abortion issue
is far from settled. I mean we have listeners in
(40:30):
Ireland who know this well. There's still no legal access
over there to abortion on demand, and that law was
recently upheld in Northern Ireland. Um. There are six nations
the Holy See, Malta, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Nicaragua and
Chile that don't allow abortion under any circumstances. So regardless
(40:52):
of where our listeners stand politically and morally on this issue,
because I know that we have listeners who are on
pro choice and who are anti choice and anti abortion.
Although you can be pro choice and anti abortion, those
cert you know, not mutually exclusive. I hope that what
(41:13):
we've talked about has offered important historical context to just
better understand what those politicized platforms really mean and what
they mean to individual women's lives. Because I think a
lot of us are so familiar with the imagery of
(41:33):
coat hangers, and we know that these back alley abortions happened,
and that some terrible things went down, but I don't
think we really understand just how much is at stake
with this entire reproductive rights issue. And so I do
hope to hear from listeners. I'm interested to know whether
they were as surprised by some of this history and
(41:56):
this context as we were. So much of it was unning,
so much of it wasn't even really that surprising when
you think about it, but just how gross it was
to me that women seem to be these pawns in
this constant, ongoing argument. So, listeners, mom stuff at how
(42:16):
stuff works dot com is our email address. You can
also tweet us at mom stuff podcast or message us
on Facebook. And I also want to invite listeners who
have had abortions if you would like to share your
story with us, either openly or anonymously, we are safe
spaces to do that. Again. Our email addresses mom stuff
(42:37):
at how stuff works dot com, at mom Stuff podcast
on Twitter, and you can also message us on Facebook,
and we've got a couple of messages to share with
you right now. I have a letter here from Katie
in response to our Perfectionism episode. She says that she
put the episode on while she's getting ready for work
(42:59):
one morning. By the end, she found herself in tears. So,
Katie writes, I've never used the word perfectionists to describe myself.
Prior to listening to Little Miss Perfect, I hadn't ever
really even thought about the concept of perfectionism. But each
point you touched on during the show hit closer and
closer to home. Starting with the discussion of parental influence.
My parents always held us to very high standards in
(43:19):
every aspect of our lives, which I don't necessarily consider
to be a bad thing, as they only wanted the
best for us. But you mentioned one key factor that
my parents unfortunately did not take into account balancing those
high expectations with loving support and enthusiasm. My siblings and
I were under immense pressure to achieve academically, succeed socially,
and maintain the appearance of a perfect family life while
(43:40):
receiving little to no reassurance that we were smart enough,
good enough, pretty enough, or that we would be loved
no matter our failures or shortcomings. As crazy as it
may sound, I didn't fully realize the impact that had
in my adult life until I heard the show. I'm
painfully aware of my habit of procrastination, but I had
never really made the connection with the concept of perfectionism.
I realized I tend to put things off when I'm
(44:02):
concerned the outcome may not be perfect, especially creative pursuits.
I've always loved writing, and I've made several attempts at
blogging and submitting articles for publication, but I always end
up leaving each project i'm finished. I now know this
is due to the inherent imperfections and potential for harsh criticism.
I love the idea you presented to soothe these anxieties,
like letting those worries play all the way out with
(44:22):
the what if prompt. Usually, if I continue to think
about what might happen next if I do or don't
do something, my worries shrink because I can hear how
insignificant the worries actually are. This has helped me follow
through with starting and maintaining a blog. By far, the
biggest shot concerning perfectionism came in the research statistics about
women who exhibit perfectionist tendencies being much more likely to cheat.
(44:44):
I married young and made every possible effort to construct
the illusion of a perfect life and marriage. When my
sex life with my husband became less than perfect, I
looked outside of our marriage to find the idea of
sexual perfection. Eventually, we decided to divorce, and I struggled
immensely with the fallout surrounding the implosion of my seemingly
perfect life. I couldn't stand the idea of my imperfections
being broadcast in such a public and painful way. After
(45:06):
seeing a therapist for well over a year now, I
had yet to make the connection between my being unfaithful
and my penchant for perfection. But thanks to Kristen and Caroline,
I reached a deeper understanding of myself. I'm optimistic that
this new awareness of myself will help me to live
a more fulfilling and balanced life. So truly, thank you.
I am now a devoted sminthy listener. I think what
you two are doing is so important and meaningful. Keep
(45:28):
up the good work well. Thank you so much, Katie,
and I've got a let her here from Naomi. She writes,
your recent episode about lube has brought to mind a
difficult time in my life. I was about five weeks
postpartum after a Sessian birth. My then husband was anxious
to resume marital relations after our son was born. Unfortunately,
(45:49):
though I was ready, it felt like daggers. Turns out
that breastfeeding thanks to hormones can lead to a thinning
of the vaginal wall, or so my research said, and
it's quite common. The answer is lots and lots of lube.
I know that I and many other new moms I've
spoken with have a lot of fear that first time
after a baby is born, in particular if they had
a difficult or traumatic birth experience. Having it feel like
(46:11):
daggers compounds that fear exponentially and can lead to more
trauma psychologically. I heartily wish that someone would have told
me to include lube that first time. I can't tell
you all the pain it would have saved me and
my husband if we'd only known and love is such
an easy answer. I hope you ladies will pass this
on well. Naomi, your wish is granted and listeners. For
(46:35):
all of your stories you can send them to us.
Mom Stuff at how stuff works dot com is your
email address. And for links all of our social media
as well as all of our blogs, videos, and podcasts
with our sources so you can read more of the
delightful history of abortion. Head on over to stuff Mom
Never Told You dot com for moral this and thousands
(46:58):
of other topics. Because at houstuff works dot com.
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