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Staff Pick
Don't Breed on Me: A Short History of Abortion
Current price:
$17.95
Publish Date:
Publisher:
PM Press
ISBN:
9798887441788
Pages:
224
Language:
English
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Staff Reviews
Abortion has always been a part of the human story. And for the vast majority of history, it hasn't been a big deal! Sometimes it's even been celebrated, like in ancient Japan where the abortion provider was treated as an honored leader in a spiritual ceremony to send the fetus's soul back to the gods until it's ready to return at the right time. This microhistory of abortion is fascinating, clever, and surprisingly joyful. It's genuinely fun to read.
—
Susie
Description
Humans have always loved to fuck
Don't Breed on Me: A Short History of Abortion is a defiant, funny, and unflinching dive into the millennia-long story of abortion--a practice as old as humanity and as contested as ever. From medieval Europe to Ming Dynasty China, from women enslaved in the American South to German nuns smuggling herbs, abortion has always been here. And so have the people who provided it.
Rooted in global history, folklore, and fierce scholarship, Quasebarth's book is as joyful as it is furious. She opens with a bang and doesn't let up, threading together ancient remedies (like crocodile dung pessaries), feminist saints, lost abortifacients, and the enduring power of reproductive autonomy. Want to meet a medieval Italian surgeon who secretly performed abortions in a city that banned women from medicine? Or a Qing Dynasty widow who casually asks her lover for "red flower medicine" after a scandalous affair? Or a granny midwife dedicated to ensuring reproductive control for herself and her community? They're here, and so are dozens of stories like them--buried, distorted, or erased by colonialism and patriarchy.
Don't Breed on Me is not just a book about abortion--it's a call to remember, reclaim, and reframe. For students, activists, and anyone with a uterus (or who knows someone with one), this book is both an accessible introduction and a vital tool in the fight for reproductive justice. Abortion is care. Abortion is power. Abortion is joy.
