This was eventually widened to make it illegal to directly provide, discuss, or hand out information on birth control. The incredibly broad and subjective Comstock Law was quickly used to prohibit the mailing out of any birth control, marriage manuals, anatomy textbooks, or information about abortion. Postal Inspector, and founder of the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice, Comstock lobbied Congress to make it illegal to distribute “obscene, lewd, and lascivious” material through the U.S. And she was popular enough to afford to live in a Fifth Avenue mansion.Įnter Anthony Comstock. She performed surgical abortions, and also opened up a boarding house where clients with unwanted pregnancies could give birth in anonymity. She offered up preventative powders, female monthly pills, and other abortifacients. Madame Restell, a “female physician,” was the premier abortionist in NYC. Until the middle of the 19th century, abortion was legal and viewed as a private medical procedure. The Gilded Age saw an unprecedented reversal of women’s reproductive rights. I love him so much.Ī few historical notes and explanations. I had so much fun writing Nellie’s book, which has been rolling around in my head for a few years now.
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