Speakers include: Mary Fissell (John Hopkins); Laurence Totelin and Rhian Williams (Cardiff); Andrea Espinoza-Carvajal (Exeter); Zubin Mistry (Edinburgh)

On 24 June 2022 the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade, striking down the constitutional protections for abortion care that had been established in 1973 and confirmed almost twenty years later by the ruling in Planned Parenthood v. Casey. The decision in Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization constituted a historical moment in itself, and the majority opinion also claimed to be correcting ‘Roe’s faulty historical analysis’. The history of abortion was part of the arguments, and it has been rewritten by the US Supreme Court on multiple levels.

The story of abortion in past societies is much more diverse and complex than the opinion in Dobbs allows, and this workshop will explore that variation, the range of factors which have shaped and continue to shape both its experience and its telling. Mary Fissell, J. Mario Molina Professor in the History of Medicine at Johns Hopkins University, will get the discussion going, talking about her draft book Long Before Roe, an immediate riposte to the US Supreme Court’s historical analysis, and other speakers will cover key episodes and projects in the ancient, medieval and modern worlds of contested reproductive rights. There will be an opportunity for wider reflections on the intersections between history, politics, law and women’s bodies.

You can register to attend in person–in the Queen’s Building, University of Exeter–or on-line, and further details about the programme and attendance will be emailed to you following registration. Registration is free and we very much welcome students to come and participate in the workshop.

If you would like to read any of Mary Fissell’s draft chapters before the coming to the event please email Rebecca Flemming (r.flemming@exeter.ac.uk), requesting the ancient, medieval, early modern or Victorian chapters. These are not for citation or quotation but to help support discussion and Mary would welcome any feedback.

Draft Programme

9.30 Coffee and registration
10.00 Welcome
10.05-11.15 Mary Fissell (Johns Hopkins): ‘Writing the history of abortion after the overturning of Roe v. Wade’
11.15-11.45 Coffee
11.45-1pm Laurence Totelin (Cardiff), ‘An abortion easily procured: abortives in the ancient Euporista (Remedies Easily Procured) genre’.Rhian Williams (Cardiff): ‘Emmenagogues in the Roman World: Sometimes abortifacient, sometimes fertility treatment’.
1-2pm Lunch
2-3.15pm Zubin Mistry (Edinburgh): ‘Knowing about abortion in historical societies: Reflections from the Early Medieval West’ Andrea Espinoza Carvajal (Exeter): ‘An alternative form of control. Moral governance and women’s bodies since Ecuador’s return to democracy in 1979’.
3.15-3.45 Tea/coffee
3.45-5.30pm Round up discussion: Politics, History and Abortion
5.30pm Drinks