Ad for Madame Restell’s services.
To married women – Madame Restell, female physician. New York, 1840. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.
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| V. – The Frequency of Forced Abortions, even among the Married. | |
| All are familiar with the fact, to be perceived everywhere upon the most casual scrutiny, that the standard size of families is not on the average what used to be seen; in other words, that instances of an excess over three or four children are not nearly as common as we know was the case a generation or two back. No one supposes that men or women have, as a whole, so deteriorated in procreative ability as this might otherwise seem to imply. | Anyone can see that families are not as big as they used to be. Most families these days don’t have more than three or four children. But we all know men and women are still good at making babies. |
| There can be but one solution to the problem, either that pregnancies are very generally prevented, or that, occurring, they are prematurely cut short. We have seen that countless confessions prove that this surmise is true. | There can be only one conclusion. People are either preventing pregnancy using contraception, or they are aborting unwanted pregnancies. Many people have confessed to doing one or the other. |
| In the treatise to which we have already alluded, its author has shown by a series of unanswerable deductions, based on material gathered from many sources both at home and abroad, that forced abortions in America are of very frequent occurrence, and that this frequency is rapidly increasing, not in the cities alone, but in the country districts, where there is less excuse on the ground of excessive expenditures, the claims of fashionable life, or an overcrowding of the population. It was proved, for instance, that in one State that was named, one of the wealthiest in the Union, the natural increase of the population, or the excess of the births over the deaths, has of late years been wholly by those of recent foreign origin. This was the state of things existing in 1850; three years later it was evident that the births in that commonwealth, with the usual increase, had resulted in favor of foreign parents in an increased ratio. In other words, it is found that, in so far as depends upon the American and native element, and in the absence of the existing immigration from abroad, the population of our older States, even allowing for the loss by emigration, is stationary or decreasing. . . | The author has shown that many women are getting abortions, and the number is increasing rapidly in both the cities and the countryside. And in the countryside there is less reason to get an abortion. We’ve actually learned that in one of the richest states, immigrants are having more babies than women born in the U.S. In some states, the population would be declining it there were no immigrants. |
| Thus it is seen that abortion is a crime not merely against the life of the child and the health of its mother, and against good morals, but that it strikes a blow at the very foundation of society itself. | From this information we can conclude that abortion is not only a crime against the unborn, bad for women’s health, and morally wrong. Abortion is damaging the foundation of U.S. society. |
Horatio Robinson Storer, Why Not?: A Book for Every Woman (Boston: Lee and Shepard, 1868).
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Summary |
| To Married Women-
Madame Restell, Female Physician, is happy to have it in her power to say that since the introduction into this country, about a year ago of her celebrated Preventive Powders for married ladies, whose health forbids a too rapid increase of family; hundreds have availed themselves of their use, with a success and satisfaction that has at once dispelled the fears and doubts of the most timid and skeptical; for notwithstanding that for twenty years they have been used in Europe with invariable success, (first introduced by the celebrated Midwife and Female Physician. Madame Restell, the grandmother of the advertiser, who made this subject her particular and especial study,) still some were inclined to entertain some degree of distrust, until become convinced by their successful adoption in this country. The results of their adoption to the happiness, the health, nay, often the life of many an affectionate wife and a fond mother, are too vast to touch upon within the limits of an advertisement-results which affect not only the present well-being of parents but the future happiness of their offspring. |
The female doctor Madame Restell is happy to provide medicines that help married women who should not have any more children for health reasons. She has hundreds of satisfied customers. Women who use her medicine see improvements in their happiness, health, and life. These good results also improve the lives of patients’ children. |
| Is it not but too well known that the families of the married often increase beyond the happiness of those who give birth would dictate? In how many instances does the hardworking father, and more especially the mother, of a poor family, remain slave throughout their lives, tugging at the oar of incessant labor, toiling to live and living but to toil; when they might have enjoyed comfort and comparative affluence; and if care and toil have weighed down the spirit, and at last broken the health of the father, how often is the widow left, unable, with the most virtuous intentions, to save her fatherless offspring from becoming degraded objects of charity or profligate votaries of vice? And even though competence and plenty smile upon us, how often, alas, are the days of the kind husband and father embittered in beholding the emaciated form and declining health of the companion of his bosom, ere she had scare reached the age of thirty-fast sinking into a premature grace-with the certain prospect of himself being early bereft of the partner of his joys and sorrows, and his young and helpless children of the endearing attentions and watchful solicitude which a mother alone can bestow, not infrequently at a time when least able to support the heart-rending affliction! | We all know that families often grow bigger than women would like. How often do men and women spend their whole lives trying to support families that are too big. With fewer children, they might have achieved comfort and wealth. And what about the women whose husbands die? If their families are too big they struggle to keep their children or prevent them from leading lives of crime. Even women with lots of money can fall ill and die from too many pregnancies, leaving behind a husband and children who will suffer forever from her loss. |
| Is it desirable then-is it moral for parents to increase their families, regardless of consequences to themselves or the well-being of their offspring when a simple, easy healthy and certain remedy is within our control? The advertiser feeling the importance of this subject and estimating the vast benefits resulting to thousands by the adoption of means prescribed by her, would respectfully arouse the attention of the married by all that they hold near and dear to its consideration. Is it not wise and virtuous to prevent evils to which we are subject by simple and healthy means within our control? Every dispassionate, virtuous, and enlightened mind will unhesitatingly answer in the affirmative. This is all that Madame Restell recommends or ever recommended. Price Five Dollars a package, accompanied with all and particular directions. For the convenience of those unable to call personally, “Circulars” more fully explanatory will be sent free of expense (postage excepted) to any part of the United States. All letters must be post-paid, and addressed to MADAME RESTELL Female Physician. Principal office 148 Greenwich street, New York. Office hours from 9 A.M. to 7 P.M. Philadelphia office, 39 ½ South Eighth street. | Knowing all this, is it moral for parents to keep having children when there is an easy way to prevent it? Every smart and moral person will answer yes. This is all that Madame Restell provides. Medicine costs five dollars. People who live far away can request a free pamphlet to learn more. |
To married women – Madame Restell, female physician. New York, 1840. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.
Background
Midwives traditionally oversaw the care of pregnant women in the U.S. But by the mid-1800s, the medical field was becoming more professionalized. Any person who could afford it began to believe that only those who attended college and studied medicine were true medical professionals. During this same era, women were discouraged from pursuing education and careers outside the home, so most women could not become doctors. As a result, men dominated the medical profession, and they took steps to push midwives out of business.
The shift to a male-dominated medical profession had a profound effect on the care women received during pregnancy and childbirth. One of the earliest ways doctors departed from traditional midwife practice was their approach to family planning. Prior to the mid-1800s, women could easily obtain a safe abortion for an unwanted pregnancy. Such a choice was considered the business of women. But in the mid-1800s, doctors began discouraging abortions. They claimed abortions were unsafe for women, unfair to the unborn, and a crime against morality. But in reality, white, middle-class doctors were aware that white, middle-class women were limiting their family size. They worried that if white women continued to have smaller families, immigrants and people of color would soon outnumber white, middle-class Americans.
About the Document
These two documents demonstrate the different ways abortion was viewed by the midwife and doctor communities in the mid-1800s. The first is an 1840 advertisement for abortion services by famous abortion provider Madame Restell. It demonstrates why abortion was considered a necessary medical service for women in the 1800s. The second document is an excerpt from a pamphlet by Dr. Horatio Storer, the father of the modern antiabortion movement. It demonstrates how common abortion was in 1868, and that white supremacy was at the heart of the antiabortion movement from its earliest days.
Vocabulary
- abortion: The deliberate termination of a pregnancy
- midwife: A woman trained to deliver babies and treat common medical conditions
- white supremacy: The belief that white people are superior to all other races and should dominate all other races
Discussion Questions
- According to the advertisements, what are some reasons women sought abortions in the mid-1800s?
- Why is Dr. Horatio Storer against abortion?
- Taken together, what do these two documents reveal about the origins of the modern debate over abortion rights in the U.S.?
Suggested Activities
- The debate over abortion rights continues today. Ask students to find an example of a proabortion and antiabortion statement from the last few years and compare them with these two early examples. Have the arguments changed much in the last 150 years? What does this comparison reveal about the history of the debate over abortion in the U.S.?
- To learn more about midwives, see Diary of a Midwife.
- To help students better understand the reasons why women in the 1800s may have chosen to abort pregnancies, read the diary entry from On the Wagon Train and consider how pregnancy and childbirth complicated one woman’s migration across the U.S.
- To learn more about Madame Restell and the origins of the antiabortion movement, see Life Story: Madame Restell.
- To better understand how women were pushed out of the medical field as it professionalized in the 1800s, see Life Story: Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell.
- See Life Story: Asenath Smith for more information about the way abortion was viewed in the early U.S.
- Male physicians did not always take the health and comfort of their female patients seriously in the pursuit of successful treatment. To learn more, see Life Story: Anarcha, Betsy, Lucy.
- To teach a lesson on the history of women’s reproductive rights in the U.S., use this life story together with the following:
- Life Story: Asenath Smith for more information about the way abortion was viewed in the early U.S.
- Life Story: Madame Restell
- Comstock Act
- Fight for Healthy Women and Families
- Privacy and Pregnancy
Themes
SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND MEDICINE, AMERICAN CULTURE
