The Madame Restell Cases

In the aftermath of the overturning of Roe V. Wade by the Supreme Court in 2022, the history of abortion in America is more poignant now than ever and must be remembered. Women facing restrictions to their reproductive freedom historically sought out underground abortions at a terrible cost—criminal charges and even death. In the mid-nineteenth century, without pregnancy prevention or reproductive rights, these desperate women turned to New York City’s most notorious abortionist: Madame Restell. The Madame Restell Cases is a collective biography of five of her patients: Ann Maria Purdy and Eliza Merritt, married women who did not want to bear additional children for their husbands; Eliza Ann Munson, a young woman seduced by her boyfriend, who encouraged her to have an abortion and then abandoned her; Maria Bodine, an unmarried servant impregnated by her employer; and, Cordelia A. Grant, a wealthy man’s mistress who endured five abortions. Compiling firsthand depositions and testimonies, coroner’s inquests, court records, and newspapers, Sharon DeBartolo Carmack gives a voice to the untold stories of these women who risked their lives for access to abortion. A window into reproductive control in the Victorian era, this book chronicles the experiences of ordinary women at the mercy of the time period, the lack of reliable birth control methods, and the disregard for women’s reproductive rights. The Madame Restell Cases is not only an essential look at women’s reproductive issues of the past, but a warning as history threatens to repeat itself.