Abortion Then and Now

Graphic by Mikayla Alpert

Ever since 1973, American women have been given the bare minimum when it comes to reproductive rights. Getting to the point where we were granted the bare minimum took centuries of illegal birth control distribution, underground abortion clinics, and dangerous home remedies passed down from generation to generation. But then, slowly, women were able to get prescribed birth control and in 1973, a revolutionary Supreme Court case decision, Roe v Wade, made abortion legal up through the first trimester of pregnancy (12 weeks). Even after this, women still had to jump through multiple obstacles in order to have access to these resources. The process was not easy, and with the rise of the neoconservative movement, it would become harder. But even the bare minimum was cherished for pro-choice activists who knew the day might come when Roe v Wade would be overturned and we would be back to square one. That day, unfortunately, is today.  

What far-right so-called “pro-life” activists fail to realize is that overturning legislation only enacted 49 years ago will not prevent abortions from occurring. Women have been trying to harness control over their own fertility for centuries, and the history of abortion is sacred in the United States. What many fail to understand is criminalizing abortion, criminalizing Indigenous practices, and perpetrating and conserving archaic, racist misguiding.

Abortion Pre-Colonization

While conservative politicians believe that abortion goes against American beliefs and culture, clearly, abortion has always been foundational in this country, long before colonization and European interference. While Christians think they are being morally righteous by banning this practice, in reality, they are going against generations of tradition and matriarchal systems. According to Deoné Newell, a Black and Diné storyteller, activist, and actress, “When a Navajo (Diné) baby is born, we believe they are part of two worlds: the spirit world and the physical world…During pregnancy, the mother and the spirit of the unborn are in communion. The mother decides if it is time to bring that spirit into our world. This decision is reserved strictly for the mother.” This decision is based on a number of reasons that include but are not limited to, war, climate change, famine, intuition, and the wellbeing of the mother. 

The Navajo people are not the only Indigenous community where abortion is a sacred practice that has been practiced for generations in order to secure women the rights to their own fertility. The Wichí people in South America were also known for giving abortions to mothers during their first pregnancies. This was a standard procedure committed so future pregnancies would be safer and smoother for the mother. 

Many Indigenous societies were egalitarian or matriarchal, one of the simplest reasons behind this being women had autonomy over their own bodies. In my opinion, many of these societies were run more efficiently than our contemporary society, because women could choose whether or not to be a mother. One has to wonder, does the basis of a utopia start with women having control over their own bodies?

Abortion Post-Colonization

As colonization neared the 1600s, abortion remained standard practice in what would soon be the United States. Women emigrating to the colonies from Britain took medieval abortion practices and midwives with them. In early colonial America, many Indigenous women and oftentimes women of African descent passed down what they had learned from their matriarchs to newly-arrived midwives from Europe. Shoshone and Bodéwami women shared herbal remedies to prevent pregnancies, stoneseed, and dogbane being the most significant. 

In the colonies, abortion was not heavily regulated. Reproductive healthcare was controlled by highly skilled women, and men didn’t dare mess with their practices. Common law in Britain allowed abortions up to four months during pregnancy, or until the “quickening” when a woman feels the fetus moving, this same timeframe and rule became standard in the colonies. There was a strict gender binary in medicine during colonial times, a binary that did more good than evil. Women formed close bonds in communities with their midwives, and nurses would provide fellow women with herbs to use as contraceptives, and colonial men had no problem with this. 

That was, until secularism and systemic racism began to take a more prominent position in American government and society. Following puritanism and enslavement, the same women who would provide abortions were blacklisted as witches and burned at the stake. Following this persecution, the American government began to place strict bans on abortion as the system of chattel slavery began to unfold. It was not until the mid 1800s and the Civil War that American law would ban abortions and men would take over the reproductive healthcare field, a setback closely related to the system of slavery within the United States. The same men who were outlawing abortions were the same men making sure slavery continued.

Before chattel slavery or generational slavery, men turned a blind eye to abortions and contraception because frankly, it did not concern them. That was until unborn fetuses became their “property”. Women of African descent were closely monitored, and often forced to procreate and give birth to children that would become enslaved. It’s almost as if the anti-abortion movement started from a place of systemic racism and has since continued down a path of discrimination. This sudden control of women’s bodies intertwined with chattel slavery has created generational trauma for Black women in America, trauma no doubt resurfacing with the overturning of Roe v Wade. 

For many women, Roe v Wade was a turning point, not solely because of the implications the ruling had on abortion rights, but because it was a moment where under the law all women were granted reproductive freedom. For women of color especially, after generations of forced sterilization or forced birth, Roe v Wade was one of the first times in American history where they were able to make their own decisions about their own bodies. 

The Influence of Roe v Wade

Under Roe v Wade, women were allowed to seek an abortion up to 12 weeks during pregnancy, or through the first trimester. “Pro-life” propaganda portrays abortion as doctors mutilating women and taking out fully grown toddlers from wombs, but at 12 weeks the fetus is barely 3 inches. Roe v Wade allowed women autonomy over their lives and bodies. It was met with resistance, but it persevered and provided millions of women with the resources they deserve. 

Women seek abortions today for a multitude of reasons. But the reality is, it doesn’t matter what the reason is, and frankly, it is none of society’s business why a woman gets an abortion. It is a decision that should be protected because if women don’t have control over their own bodies, they don’t have control of their futures or souls.

After Roe v Wade

If Roe v Wade is fully overturned, women in blue states will most likely be alright. This will not be the case in conservative states, who have already been stripping away these rights in the past few months. Some women might have to seek abortions in Canada, but realistically, the average American woman does not have the time, money, or energy to travel across international boundaries to get a procedure that will already be extremely traumatic. The reality is, women will not stop getting abortions, they will just stop getting safe abortions. They will resort to brutal methods that are extremely dangerous, whether it's pseudoscientific herbal remedies or coat hangers. 

Abortion has never been and never will be, the first choice a woman seeks to make. No woman gets pregnant so that they can purposefully get an abortion, it is always a second, third, or even fourth choice. And it is a choice that when protected, allows women to gain equal social and cultural status alongside men. Behind the overturning of Roe v Wade is a group of people set on allowing men autonomy over their own bodies, but not allowing this same civil liberty for women simply because they do not want women to progress in society.