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Title details for The Trials of Madame Restell by Nicholas L. Syrett - Available

The Trials of Madame Restell

Nineteenth-Century America's Most Infamous Female Physician and the Campaign to Make Abortion a Crime

by Nicholas L. Syrett
Madeleine Maby
Audiobook
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For forty years in the mid-nineteenth century, "Madame Restell," the nom de guerre of the most successful female physician in America, sold birth-control medication, attended women during their pregnancies, delivered their children, and performed abortions in a series of clinics run out of her home in New York City. It was the abortions that made her famous. "Restellism" became the term her detractors used to indict her. Restell began practicing when abortion was largely unregulated in most of the United States, including New York. But as a sense of disquiet arose about single women flocking to the city for work, greater sexual freedoms, changing views of the roles of motherhood and childhood, and fewer children being born to white, married, middle-class women, Restell came to stand for everything that threatened the status quo. From 1829 onward, restrictions on abortion began to put Restell in legal jeopardy. For much of this period, she prevailed—until she didn't. A story that is all too relevant to the current attempts to criminalize abortion in our own age, The Trials of Madame Restell paints an unforgettable picture of the changing society of nineteenth-century New York and brings Restell to the attention of a whole new generation of women whose fundamental rights are under siege.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    October 31, 2023

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781666649581
      • File size: 309781 KB
      • Duration: 10:45:22

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Library Journal

      March 1, 2024

      Syrett's (women, gender, and sexuality studies, Univ. of Kansas; An Open Secret) latest traces the life of Ann Trow Summers Lohman (1812-78), a prominent 19th-century health care practitioner known as Madame Restell. Lohman provided a full range of medical services, helping women who were trying to become pregnant, as well as those who wanted to avoid or end a pregnancy. When Lohman first began her practice, gestational health care was overseen by midwives, and it was not considered a crime to terminate a pregnancy before quickening. But American politicians, doctors, and religious crusaders, concerned about population changes caused by immigration to the U.S. and hoping to regulate women's autonomy, soon put legislative restrictions in place. Narrator Madeleine Maby relays Lohman's biography, from her childhood in England, where her parents were overwhelmed by their large family, to her establishment of a successful business and the troubles that came soon thereafter. Maby brings an air of empathy and authority to her narration, honoring a courageous woman who helped countless others gain control over their reproductive health. VERDICT A timely, well-researched account that provides historical insight into present-day debates about abortion and reproductive rights in the United States.--Laura Trombley

      Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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