Pushback : the 2,500-year fight to thwart women by restricting abortion / Mary Fissell.
| Author/creator | Fissell, Mary Elizabeth author. |
| Format | Book |
| Edition | First edition. |
| Publication | New York : Seal Press, 2025. |
| Copyright Date | ©2025 |
| Description | 277 pages ; 25 cm |
| Subjects |
| Contents | Introduction -- The singer : abortion in antiquity -- The saint and the sinner : the Middle Ages and the rise of Christianity -- The maidservant and the witch : crackdowns in early modern Europe -- The botanist : new plants, new worlds -- The seamstress and the midwife : sensational stories in Victorian Britain -- The soldier's wife : anti-abortion campaigns in 19th century America -- The housewife : repression and reform in twentieth-century America -- Coda -- Acknowledgments -- Further reading -- Notes -- Index. |
| Abstract | "Attitudes about abortion cycle between long periods of widespread tolerance, to repression, and back again. What accounts for these pendulum swings? From ancient Greece to the modern West, historian of medicine Mary Fissell argues, abortion repression springs up in response to men's anxieties about women's increasing independence. In Pushback, Fissell shows that, across centuries and continents, abortion has always been commonplace, and persecuting women for ending pregnancies has been about controlling their behavior. As Protestantism de-emphasized celibacy, new abortion restrictions policed unmarried women's sex lives. Nineteenth-century men unsettled by first-wave feminism hoped to establish medicine as a male profession, and so advocated for abortion bans to undercut women's new roles as physicians. Fissell presents this history through the hidden stories of women committed to reproductive self-determination: holy women of the early Catholic Church whose ability to end pregnancies was considered miraculous, midwives accused of witchcraft or criminal conspiracy, and everyday women whose pregnancies threatened their livelihoods-and their lives. Pushback is essential reading for understanding the complex history of abortion and making sense of recent crackdowns on reproductive rights"-- Provided by publisher. |
| Abstract | This historical examination traces the evolving attitudes toward abortion from ancient times to the present. Historian of medicine Mary Fissell explores how societal, religious, and political factors have influenced the regulation and perception of abortion across cultures and centuries. The book highlights the recurring presence of abortion in history and examines periods of restriction in the context of broader social developments, particularly those related to gender roles and women's autonomy. Drawing on examples from religious figures, midwives, and everyday women, the work provides historical context for contemporary debates around reproductive rights. |
| Bibliography note | Includes bibliographical references (on pages 223-262) and index. |
| Issued in other form | Online version: Fissell, Mary Elizabeth. Pushback First. New York : Basic Books, 2025 9781541604087 |
| LCCN | 2024039349 |
| ISBN | 9781541604070 hardcover |
| ISBN | 1541604075 hardcover |
| ISBN | electronic book |
Availability
| Library | Location | Call Number | Status | Item Actions |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Joyner | General Stacks | HQ767 .F57 2025 | ✔ Available | Place Hold |