General Discussion

Orange Free State

(611 posts)

5. In my hometown

Mon Jan 22, 2018, 05:50 PM

Jan 2018

The daughter of a doctor became pregnant in HS by a basketball player. This was mid 60s. They sent her to Switzerland to get an abortion. Her father was a prominent member of the Catholic Church, btw. This was one of those small town things that was widely,known and never openly discussed.
I was researching something unrelated in microfilmed old newspapers at the local library, and was startled to see ads for, basically, abortion pills. This was 1880s I think. They cured “obstructed flow”, and were probably based on pennyroyal. Abortion was very common in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Knowledge of the methods was mostly lost when the laws forbade disseminating information on birth control.

It would be tragic if women start planting pennyroyal again.

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Before 'Roe v. Wade,' The Women of 'Jane' Provided Abortions For The Women Of Chicago [View all] CountAllVotes Jan 2018 OP

Kicking to read later. n/t demmiblue Jan 2018 #1

In my small town in California, during the early 1960s, MineralMan Jan 2018 #2

In '74, two of my HS friends had abortions at Planned Parenthood. CrispyQ Jan 2018 #3

That's how it was in EVERY community, large or small RandomAccess Jan 2018 #6

if you wanted a legal abortion in illinois, mostly you went to wis. mopinko Jan 2018 #4

In my hometown Orange Free State Jan 2018 #5