In 1912, the United States Public Health Service (PHS) set out to survey trachoma rates among two populations: Appalachian Whites […]
The Miseries and Heartbreak of Backstreet Abortions: Before and After Roe
In 1967, a group of clergy in New York City founded the Clergy Consultation Service on Abortion (CCS) to “bring […]
Back to the Back Alley? Abortion Rights and Realities in the Trump Era
On the first day of his presidency, Donald Trump reinstated the global gag rule on abortion. This is no great […]
“Buried with Doctor’s Certificate”: Reading the Uses and Abuses of Bodies in a Medical School Thesis
[gblockquote source=’Marie K. Formad, “Some Notes on Criminal Abortion,” thesis submitted to Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania, 1886.’]Case I. May […]
“Witness the ‘Wall of Genitals’”: Anatomical Display at Brooklyn’s House of Wax
Located in the lobby of the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema in Brooklyn, the House of Wax is a dimly lit bar […]
Nurse-Midwives are With Women, Walking a Middle Path to a Safe and Rewarding Birth
In childbirth politics as in all politics, extreme viewpoints make the news, and sensible centrists are ignored. A couple of […]
Strange Pain, Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Womb: A Teacher’s Reflection on Bodies in History
[gblockquote source=’Bettina Judd, patient.‘]HOW TO MEASURE PAIN I In the woman it is a checklist: Can you imagine anything worse […]
Is Your Doctor Experimenting On You?
My friend’s father is in the hospital, and it’s been rough. His cancer treatment did not go as expected. “He’s […]
Disproving Self-Indulgence: Congenital Addiction in the Early Twentieth Century
On October 10, 1989, police arrived at the Medical University of South Carolina. They handcuffed Lori Griffin, a black girl […]
“For Poor or Rich”: Handywomen and Traditional Birth in Ireland
On Achill Island, Ireland, an untrained woman was prosecuted for acting as a midwife in 1932. In her defense, she […]
