Abortion has always been a part of America--even if Alito won't admit it

[Nevilledog]

Link to tweet

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2022/05/alito-opinion-roe-missing-history-abortion/

*snip*

Too often, when “this Nation’s history and tradition” is boiled down into such a broad generalization, it’s the “history and tradition” of the white Christian men who have held power in the United States since its inception. But make no mistake, this country does not belong to them alone, and our history encompasses so much beyond their experiences and beyond the white supremacist ideals our nation was founded upon.

Before this land was stolen by colonizers who called it America, it belonged to Native peoples who had inhabited it for centuries. And, as it turns out, people indigenous to America have a long, intimate “history and tradition” related to abortion and reproductive care. For one, they shared knowledge of which herbs can help a woman control her body. Stoneseed and dogbane, which have natural contraceptive properties, were used by the Shoshone peoples and the Bodéwadmi to prevent pregnancy. Studies of indigenous cultures also turn up evidence of commonplace abortion practices—a South American matrilocal native tribe known as the Wichí reportedly abort the first pregnancy of any tribal member; it’s a matter of routine, to make the childbirths that follow easier. North American native tribes, too, have documented abortion practices that prioritize the health and well-being of the person carrying the fetus and their quality of life.

This is conveniently absent in Alito’s opinion. We know why: That is what happens when The Narrative is controlled by a certain class of people. We lose the history that belongs to everyone else. We are not a nation of solely—or even primarily—white Christians.

But sure, even if we want to take a Eurocentric framing here, abortion has always been a normal part of life.

In the Middle Ages, as male church and state leaders began to deem women as the inferior gender, formal education was reserved generally for their own sex. By the mid-14th century, these men passed laws to regulate how surgery could be practiced and by whom, further pushing women out of the field. The creation of professionalized medicine was instigated by a desire to shift power and authority from women to men, while keeping the (unpaid) domestic expectations of women fully intact. The health of the household remained a responsibility that was gendered female.

*snip*

[Solly Mack]

1. K&R

[Docreed2003]

2. K&R

[Maeve]

3. In the 1890's you could get mixtures to induce abortion from Sears

If you know what to look for in the old catalogs, it was in there. But men didn't know; women did.

[Phoenix61]

7. They didn't need to know. It was women's business.

Midwives took care of those type of things.

[uponit7771]

4. K&R, Who's history? White males only ... Alito's opinion is fucked up at every angle

[Guilded Lilly]

5. Nailed it. This country's history and traditions...

Have always served the insatiable egos of White male plunderers.

[sop]

6. Interesting article.