Abortion: A History

by Mary Fissell

The long history of how restricting access to abortion has been used to curtail women’s advancement

Attitudes about abortion cycle between long periods of widespread tolerance, to repression, and back again. What accounts for these pendulum swings? From ancient Greece to the modern West, historian of medicine Mary Fissell argues, abortion repression springs up in response to men’s anxieties about women’s increasing independence.

In Pushback, Fissell shows that, across centuries and continents, abortion has always been commonplace, and persecuting women for ending pregnancies has been about controlling their behavior. As Protestantism de-emphasized celibacy, new abortion restrictions policed unmarried women’s sex lives. Nineteenth-century men unsettled by first-wave feminism hoped to establish medicine as a male profession, and so advocated for abortion bans to undercut women’s new roles as physicians. Fissell presents this history through the hidden stories of women committed to reproductive holy women of the early Catholic Church whose ability to end pregnancies was considered miraculous, midwives accused of witchcraft or criminal conspiracy, and everyday women whose pregnancies threatened their livelihoods—and their lives.

Pushback is essential reading for understanding the complex history of abortion and making sense of recent crackdowns on reproductive rights.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Feminism, Politics, Medicine, Womens Studies, Adult

288 pages, Hardcover

Published March 13, 2025

Reviews

[Abby · Rating 5 out of 5]

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.

[Luisa Bedoya Taborda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Abortion restriction has often been gender backlash.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

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.

[Sanjay Banerjee · Rating 5 out of 5]

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.

[Wren · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must-read for anyone interested in the history of abortion in the Western world.

[Sekar Writes · Rating 5 out of 5]

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.

[Socraticgadfly · Rating 3 out of 5]

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.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

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.

[Viral · Rating 4 out of 5]

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!

[Bill · Rating 3 out of 5]

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.

[Simon Fletcher · Rating 4 out of 5]

A complex, challenging and contentious issue, but Fissell navigates the difficulties well and writes a fascinating social history.