Did you know:

—in old-timey-times women got abortions w no constraints?

—ads for abortion were so common in the 1800s they were blasé?

—native women controlled their fertility & men had no say?

Today's @OrdEquality ep will blow your freakin’ mind http://bit.ly/OrdinaryEquality

There's this perception that women didn't have abortions in the past— that we were somehow better & more “moral” in the past— but, that could not be further from the truth.

Women have always controlled their fertility throughout the entire history of time. — Dr. @lmacthompson1

We interviewed @LorettaJRoss Prof, Co-founder @sistersong_woc & Godmother to the reproductive justice movement:

"Emperor Augustus was complaining about elite Roman women not having enough children... Roman women were using knowledge from Egypt to practice fertility control..."

"I discovered that the kidnapped, enslaved Black women who were brought over in the slave trade actually brought knowledge about abortifacients with them. And so, they were secretly controlling their own fertility on these plantations." — @LorettaJRoss on @OrdEquality

"Black women have been fighting for reproductive self-determination since our arrival in this country." — @LorettaJRoss on @OrdEquality http://bit.ly/OrdinaryEquality

Wa'kerakats:te Louise "Mama Bear" Herne is a Condoled Bear Clan Matron of the Mohawk Nation. She said:

The woman is the power. It's up to her to be able to decide if she's fit enough to carry a pregnancy, or whether she's going to return it to creation.

http://bit.ly/OrdinaryEquality

Prof John Riddle author of “Eve's Herbs: A History of Contraception & Abortion in the West" said on @OrdEquality today:

During the period of witchcraft suppression of the things that the witches were accused of doing 7 items were listed &— 6 of those 7 had to do with sexuality.

In early America, women were thinking & writing abt how it was exhausting to have 10 children in a row. So, it's no surprise that they were wanting to control what they could in their lives that were otherwise so incredibly politically & socially circumscribed. Dr. @lmacthompson1

The fab voice of @cameronesposito brings us these classic (& real) old-timey abortion ads from famous abortionist Madame Restell in 1865 on @OrdEquality today!

http://bit.ly/OrdinaryEquality

Learn more about the historical prevalence of abortion ads from Dr. @lmacthompson1, who we interview in today's episode of @OrdEquality, on this fantastic thread: https://twitter.com/lmacthompson1/status/1136250871690465280?s=20

Anthony Comstock was the porn-obsessed Inspector Javert of obscenities.

He relentlessly hounded Madame Restell until he had her arrested & she tragically died by suicide the day before her trial!

This dude kick-started the crusade against birth control & abortion.

Medical doctors are also part of the reason we have LESS access to abortion

"After the civil war, state after state began criminalizing abortion & doctors who were male tried seize everything having to do with childbirth & pregnancy from midwives who were women." — @KathaPollitt

So, women have long known how to regulate pregnancy. When colonizers arrived on the shores of what is now the USA, the native people on this land already knew how to terminate pregnancies, & in colonial times abortion services were advertised openly. http://bit.ly/OrdinaryEquality