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Abortion: A History
An ancient entertainer robbed of her livelihood while pregnant; a medieval holy woman performing a ‘miraculous termination’; an abortion provider prosecuted as a witch during the Reformation; a Victorian midwife saving her patients from the workhouse. Women have always sought to end pregnancies, and have long succeeded. This book tells their stories.
From enslaved and Indigenous herbal knowledge on early plantations to Planned Parenthood’s unlikely alliance with postwar churches, Mary Fissell reveals abortion’s long politics, uncovering how Western societies have policed the practice—or chosen not to. For long periods in our past, abortion was widely tolerated by authorities and ordinary people, and far from black and white in Christian it was not a crime in Britain until 1803, nor a religious issue in America until the twentieth century. But those histories of calm have been punctuated by moments of acute repression—as we’re seeing today.
From France and Scotland to Germany and Italy, abortion controls through the centuries have always emerged from wider panics around social change—whether times of war, revolution and economic upheaval, or patriarchal anxiety about women’s growing independence. As restrictions tighten once more, this vividly illuminating history reminds us that such limits never endure.
302 pages, Kindle Edition
Published March 13, 2025
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
May 3, 2025
Pushback tells the story of abortion in the West, from ancient Greece to Roe v. Wade. The subtitle says it's about abortion restrictions, but I found the emphasis to be on the evolving methods women have used for abortions (and how varied and common these methods have always been) and changing societal views about abortion, which, up until the last couple hundred years, were relatively neutral and more explicitly about controlling women than saving fetuses. I found this framework and the specific women's stories highlighted to be really fascinating and useful in contextualizing what's happening now. The author reassures in the conclusion that "Periods of acute repression have not lasted. Like wildfires, moral panics burn out, and times of toleration usually follow . . . Women have long been determined to shape their own reproductive lives, and that determination won't go away." Though I do wish she had gone into more detail about the advent of Roe v. Wade and the years leading up to it. Overall, highly recommend.
August 1, 2026
I was surprised to see that this book was published in 2025, as it is so obviously a reaction to Dobbs that it seemed to be a 2023 book at the very latest. In some editions/places, the book has the alternate title “Abortion: A History”, which is a more accurate description of its content than the “Pushback” one, although with the caveat that it mostly concerns a small number of western countries; most notably, for me, was how Fissell’s description of how abortion is viewed by the followers of the second largest religion in the world ignores everything past the first few centuries. Fissell does not give her own definition of “abortion”, which is contested among both medical professionals and, perhaps more pertinently, advocacy groups that support or oppose it; the pro-choice definition tends to be broad and focuses on not being pregnant/managing fertility, while the pro-life one tends to be more specific and focuses on the deliberate killing of the embryo or fetus. Fissell seems to support the broad view, constantly using the term “ending the pregnancy” and covering things like obstructed miscarriage care in the book, and while she tries to justify this from a historicist perspective, I found it unnecessary, as obstructed miscarriage is not what so many Americans are up in arms about. The book also mostly sidesteps divisive sub-issues, such as abortion based on conditions like Down syndrome and fetal (often female) sex.
Many chapters, especially the earlier ones, use literary and legal codes as a basis. While often prompted by lack of direct sources and often interesting in and of themselves, they are not the same as actual practice; while Fissell constantly argues that these sources prove that abortion was “known”, and therefore reasonably common, I see no reason why this should necessarily be the case, and it was strange to see her make this argument while also saying that we have no way of knowing how common infanticide/infant exposure was. In the absence of clear evidence, she sometimes turns to bizarre speculation even when the introduction promised not to, such as viewing Augustine using contraceptives or abortion as a more likely explanation for his low number of children than fertility issues or miscarriages/deaths in infancy that went unrecorded. In some cases where literary texts can be contrasted against actual practice, the evidence didn’t really support what Fissell was arguing. So, for instance, she tries to establish a link between witch hysteria and abortion hysteria based mostly on the Malleus Maleficarum, but the trial records that she cites were mostly supposed witches causing miscarriages and committing infanticide. While it would obviously be difficult to conduct a rigorous and thorough exploration of abortion across millennia, Fissell is often seemingly deliberately selective in what she includes. Thus, the chapter on the burgeoning anti-abortion movement in nineteenth-century America portrays it as the scheme of male doctors in response to first wave feminism, ignoring the fact that a number of early feminists, including medical authorities like Charlotte Lozier, were against abortion for reasons (such as that it was often brought on by poverty and stigma surrounding sex outside marriage) that Fissell herself is not blind to; tellingly, this chapter mentions the increase in female doctors but does not quote anything from them about abortion. Said chapter also highlights the nativist and eugenicist views of some anti-abortion advocates, when the similar views held by people like Margaret Sanger and Marie Stopes go unmentioned, even though both Planned Parenthood and what used to be known as Marie Stopes International have acknowledged them.
When it comes to proving the thesis that abortion restrictions arise during periods of anxiety about women’s freedom in society, the book is even weaker, and sometimes barely even bothers to prove it at all, so focused is it on just recounting abortion methods. Take, for instance, the first chapter on abortion in antiquity. By her own (not precisely accurate) account, classical Athens was a society in which women had few rights and their conduct was restrained by both law and custom, and therefore where one might expect negative views on abortion to be common, but the chapter argues that Greeks viewed abortion as acceptable and unremarkable, a claim made based off of medical texts that are not necessarily reflections of reality. She spends so much time speculating on how women in Athens got abortions that she neglects to tell the reader that the opening story about the singer has engendered lots of debate, given that it makes very little sense from a modern medical perspective if taken at face value. There were no specific laws against abortion in Athens and probably Greece as a whole, which is significant given that some societies, like Assyria, had rather draconian laws about it; though there is one occasion, which goes unmentioned by Fissell, where a man named Antigenes tried to prosecute his wife for murder after she had an abortion without his consent (whether he was successful is unknown). The Hellenistic period, where it is often argued that Greek women had an increasing amount of freedom, is omitted. The section on Rome, meanwhile, is similarly guilty for taking writers like Juvenal on their word, even concerning matters like working women’s reproductive lives that they likely had little actual knowledge of, and neglecting to mention that Roman laws against abortion were passed prior to Christianity becoming the dominant religion, which appear to be mostly referring to married women getting abortions without their husbands’ consent; nevertheless, she finds the time to hallucinate Julia the Elder’s banishment being about the politicization of abortion. While this chapter might have been particularly egregious, other ones, like the one on the Medieval period, show little interest in the status of women, and thus it is difficult to know whether attitudes on abortion reflected an enlightened approach towards them.
Overall, while providing some interesting information about writers’ thinking on abortion throughout time, this book is better read as a historical document about feminist writing post-Dobbs than a groundbreaking work in its own right.
Many chapters, especially the earlier ones, use literary and legal codes as a basis. While often prompted by lack of direct sources and often interesting in and of themselves, they are not the same as actual practice; while Fissell constantly argues that these sources prove that abortion was “known”, and therefore reasonably common, I see no reason why this should necessarily be the case, and it was strange to see her make this argument while also saying that we have no way of knowing how common infanticide/infant exposure was. In the absence of clear evidence, she sometimes turns to bizarre speculation even when the introduction promised not to, such as viewing Augustine using contraceptives or abortion as a more likely explanation for his low number of children than fertility issues or miscarriages/deaths in infancy that went unrecorded. In some cases where literary texts can be contrasted against actual practice, the evidence didn’t really support what Fissell was arguing. So, for instance, she tries to establish a link between witch hysteria and abortion hysteria based mostly on the Malleus Maleficarum, but the trial records that she cites were mostly supposed witches causing miscarriages and committing infanticide. While it would obviously be difficult to conduct a rigorous and thorough exploration of abortion across millennia, Fissell is often seemingly deliberately selective in what she includes. Thus, the chapter on the burgeoning anti-abortion movement in nineteenth-century America portrays it as the scheme of male doctors in response to first wave feminism, ignoring the fact that a number of early feminists, including medical authorities like Charlotte Lozier, were against abortion for reasons (such as that it was often brought on by poverty and stigma surrounding sex outside marriage) that Fissell herself is not blind to; tellingly, this chapter mentions the increase in female doctors but does not quote anything from them about abortion. Said chapter also highlights the nativist and eugenicist views of some anti-abortion advocates, when the similar views held by people like Margaret Sanger and Marie Stopes go unmentioned, even though both Planned Parenthood and what used to be known as Marie Stopes International have acknowledged them.
When it comes to proving the thesis that abortion restrictions arise during periods of anxiety about women’s freedom in society, the book is even weaker, and sometimes barely even bothers to prove it at all, so focused is it on just recounting abortion methods. Take, for instance, the first chapter on abortion in antiquity. By her own (not precisely accurate) account, classical Athens was a society in which women had few rights and their conduct was restrained by both law and custom, and therefore where one might expect negative views on abortion to be common, but the chapter argues that Greeks viewed abortion as acceptable and unremarkable, a claim made based off of medical texts that are not necessarily reflections of reality. She spends so much time speculating on how women in Athens got abortions that she neglects to tell the reader that the opening story about the singer has engendered lots of debate, given that it makes very little sense from a modern medical perspective if taken at face value. There were no specific laws against abortion in Athens and probably Greece as a whole, which is significant given that some societies, like Assyria, had rather draconian laws about it; though there is one occasion, which goes unmentioned by Fissell, where a man named Antigenes tried to prosecute his wife for murder after she had an abortion without his consent (whether he was successful is unknown). The Hellenistic period, where it is often argued that Greek women had an increasing amount of freedom, is omitted. The section on Rome, meanwhile, is similarly guilty for taking writers like Juvenal on their word, even concerning matters like working women’s reproductive lives that they likely had little actual knowledge of, and neglecting to mention that Roman laws against abortion were passed prior to Christianity becoming the dominant religion, which appear to be mostly referring to married women getting abortions without their husbands’ consent; nevertheless, she finds the time to hallucinate Julia the Elder’s banishment being about the politicization of abortion. While this chapter might have been particularly egregious, other ones, like the one on the Medieval period, show little interest in the status of women, and thus it is difficult to know whether attitudes on abortion reflected an enlightened approach towards them.
Overall, while providing some interesting information about writers’ thinking on abortion throughout time, this book is better read as a historical document about feminist writing post-Dobbs than a groundbreaking work in its own right.
June 12, 2025
4 ⭐️
This is a great work of non-fiction that details the historical Western attitudes around abortion, starting in ancient Greece and Rome and ending in mid-20th century US right before the Roe v. Wade decision. What surprised me the most reading this was the sheer amount of documentation about abortion throughout the centuries, including how open providers were about what they were doing (Fissell details how abortion providers would actively advertise in US newspapers, albeit using couched language that everyone understood to refer to abortion).
I would love to read scholarship in a similar vein that researches abortion outside of Western cultures; perhaps the biggest impact to abortion attitudes and state intervention was the rise of Christianity (and different sects within it), so it would be fascinating to have non-Christian contexts to compare to.
This is a great work of non-fiction that details the historical Western attitudes around abortion, starting in ancient Greece and Rome and ending in mid-20th century US right before the Roe v. Wade decision. What surprised me the most reading this was the sheer amount of documentation about abortion throughout the centuries, including how open providers were about what they were doing (Fissell details how abortion providers would actively advertise in US newspapers, albeit using couched language that everyone understood to refer to abortion).
I would love to read scholarship in a similar vein that researches abortion outside of Western cultures; perhaps the biggest impact to abortion attitudes and state intervention was the rise of Christianity (and different sects within it), so it would be fascinating to have non-Christian contexts to compare to.
April 5, 2025
An absorbing history of abortion in the West, demonstrating that, for all of the recent controversy about the practice, it has enjoyed centuries-long periods of acceptance by the powerful.
May 21, 2025
A must-read for anyone interested in the history of abortion in the Western world.
April 15, 2026
One (nauseating) slogan the current "pro-life" movement loves to throw around is that abortion isn't birth control, a phrase no doubt meant to imply that people getting abortions are careless floozies who should have used real birth control rather than resort to extreme measures (never mind that the lunatic "pro life" movement is also trying to ban birth control). And yet, as Pushback so eloquently points out, nothing could actually be further from the truth. The practice of abortion predates hormonal birth control such as the pill, predates condoms and predates diaphragms. For millennia, people who can get pregnant have used what we would call abortions—induced through vigorous exercise, self-managed with an herbal concoction or performed by a trusted midwife or physician—to dictate their own reproductive outcomes.
Pushback is, functionally, a very brief history of abortion in the Western world, a history which is both much more complex than the "pro-life" movement likes to portray it as and much more simple than one might think. But perhaps more importantly, Pushback is also a reminder than abortion, in all its forms and for all its reasons, is simply healthcare.
Unfortunately, Pushback is also a chilling reminder than societies facing times of turmoil and upheaval will restrict what healthcare people who can get pregnant can access. Just as abortion goes the length of human history, so do attempts to control the lives and access of those who may need such a thing.
A thoughtfully written and engaging body of work, Pushback is essential reading because it counters many (false) narratives around abortion. While clearly well-researched, this is not an exhaustively academic text. This book is, for back of a better way to describe the prose, quite fun to read!
But Pushback is also essential reading because it serves as a reminder than abortion has existed for centuries. And no matter what the "pro-life" movement does to exert control over something that is none of their business, abortion will continue to exist.
Pushback is, functionally, a very brief history of abortion in the Western world, a history which is both much more complex than the "pro-life" movement likes to portray it as and much more simple than one might think. But perhaps more importantly, Pushback is also a reminder than abortion, in all its forms and for all its reasons, is simply healthcare.
Unfortunately, Pushback is also a chilling reminder than societies facing times of turmoil and upheaval will restrict what healthcare people who can get pregnant can access. Just as abortion goes the length of human history, so do attempts to control the lives and access of those who may need such a thing.
A thoughtfully written and engaging body of work, Pushback is essential reading because it counters many (false) narratives around abortion. While clearly well-researched, this is not an exhaustively academic text. This book is, for back of a better way to describe the prose, quite fun to read!
But Pushback is also essential reading because it serves as a reminder than abortion has existed for centuries. And no matter what the "pro-life" movement does to exert control over something that is none of their business, abortion will continue to exist.
November 8, 2024
Abortion is one of those topics that sparks debate and stirs up emotions. In Pushback, the author takes us on a journey through the long history of abortion, revealing how it’s been a part of women’s lives for centuries through different times, cultures, and circumstances. The personal stories in this book paint a vivid picture of how abortion has been viewed across eras, and the reasons behind the opposition might surprise you.
For most of history, pregnancy itself was understood in ways that feel foreign to us now. The debate was not really about the fetus but controlling women.
One thing stands clear, though: no matter the laws, legal or not, women find ways. And let’s be honest and realistic: turning them away only pushes them toward unsafe options. This raises a real question for society: are we ready to listen to women with empathy, or are we too caught up in our own opinions to care?
After finishing the book, I can see readers of the book might landing in different places. Some might walk away with a fresh perspective, while others may feel their views are confirmed. But either way, this book adds layers to the conversation.
Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.
For most of history, pregnancy itself was understood in ways that feel foreign to us now. The debate was not really about the fetus but controlling women.
One thing stands clear, though: no matter the laws, legal or not, women find ways. And let’s be honest and realistic: turning them away only pushes them toward unsafe options. This raises a real question for society: are we ready to listen to women with empathy, or are we too caught up in our own opinions to care?
After finishing the book, I can see readers of the book might landing in different places. Some might walk away with a fresh perspective, while others may feel their views are confirmed. But either way, this book adds layers to the conversation.
Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.
September 11, 2025
Per at least one other reviewer, the book is as much about the history of different methods of abortion as it is about the fight to thwart abortion.
And, per another reviewer, while we do have bits of story about how White European emigrants to the Western Hemisphere learned from the American Indians already here as well as what knowledge enslaved Africans brought with them, on plant-based chemical abortions, mingling this knowledge with their own, we don't otherwise have anything from the non-Western world. Surely, there is material from China, India and the Arabic world about plant-based and other abortion methods there, but, it's not in this book. Ditto, the history of professional abortion providing in these countries, and any pushback there, is not discussed.
So, looking at it in terms of global medical history, since abortions have existed globally? 3.25 stars.
And, per another reviewer, while we do have bits of story about how White European emigrants to the Western Hemisphere learned from the American Indians already here as well as what knowledge enslaved Africans brought with them, on plant-based chemical abortions, mingling this knowledge with their own, we don't otherwise have anything from the non-Western world. Surely, there is material from China, India and the Arabic world about plant-based and other abortion methods there, but, it's not in this book. Ditto, the history of professional abortion providing in these countries, and any pushback there, is not discussed.
So, looking at it in terms of global medical history, since abortions have existed globally? 3.25 stars.
June 17, 2025
The book provides a great narrative colouring that would be best to supplement a more in-depth or theoretically provoking study. The most valuable expression of the book is the historical scope of abortive practices that it insists upon and proves. However it probes a lot of questions that go unanswered, e.g, the evolution of certain ideologies and the structures that upheld these ideas, for me it was very much overly-narrative; frustratingly a lot of the ‘facts’ that were there, were not dated, so these evolutions were hard to piece together and hard to manage in a historical context. Overall a great easy read with a powerful message regarding the endurance of abortive practices across time and their necessity.
November 3, 2025
This was a solid book about the history of abortion care and the history of attempts to restrict abortion access. It's useful to show how abortion care has existed for thousands of years, and for much of that time the opposition to abortion was very explicitly and outwardly based on the belief that women should not have autonomy. It also does a great job of showing how the Catholic Church's position on abortion evolved over centuries. My biggest critique is the book is quite Euro/Americentric - I wish it talked more about what abortion rights and access has looked like in Asia and Africa. Otherwise, a solid book!
March 31, 2025
An empathetic look at the history of not only abortion but also women managing their own health. While the topic of abortion is heated, Fissell does a great job at showcasing how for most of history abortion wasn't seen as taboo as it is today. This book educates the reader on how banning abortion has never been successful and how not letting women manage their own reproductive health can lead to harmful outcomes for both women and their families.
February 8, 2026
Mary Fissell accomplishes a difficult task, that of giving us a long view of the history of abortion and the oppression of same using stories from women who obtained abortions and from women and men who performed them. This technique adds a personal dimension to a tale that some of us know well.
April 22, 2026
A history of abortion methods and societal attitudes to regulation of fertility. There is a helpful summary of each chapter and a coda showing that there are cycles of tolerance and repression over time. Quite a slog to read unless you have an academic interest.
July 30, 2026
Very well researched well written book.
I am so surprise to find out that abortions have gone through millennials being tolerated as part of the society.
This makes me all the more angry with the current legal situation in most countries around the world where abortions are being restricted.
I am so surprise to find out that abortions have gone through millennials being tolerated as part of the society.
This makes me all the more angry with the current legal situation in most countries around the world where abortions are being restricted.
November 4, 2025
A complex, challenging and contentious issue, but Fissell navigates the difficulties well and writes a fascinating social history.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews