Author

Aiden Damon

Date of Award

2021

First Advisor

Chris Coggins

Second Advisor

Katie Boswell

Third Advisor

Jana Byars

Abstract

Abortion is a vital and intensely divisive issue on the political stage of America and the world, and one about which policy makers and social activists on all sides feel passionately. When discussing the lives of countless children or one's right to keep their body as their own, there is rarely a middle ground. Many of us are guilty of assuming history to be at least somewhat linear, progressing gradually from one position to another. When we think of the years and decades which immediately preceded the legalization of abortion, we think of gruesome stories of both unwanted birth by women and girls too young or unfit to be mothers, or we think of blindfolds and motel rooms and unwound coat hangers. It is hard to imagine better options, or a gentler world, giving way to this. It is for this reason, I believe, that the longer, more complicated history of abortion practices and the legal policy surrounding them are widely unknown and nearly forgotten.

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