"Kiss me Frank, I'm going"

May 1, 2017 10:44 PM

A century ago, abortion was on trial in Canada's capital. Megan Gillis, in the Ottawa Sun, writes about the trials of Dr. J.A. Ouimet, a prominent Hull doctor, and Annie Balcomb, who "together and separately [were] accused between 1911 and 1914 of murdering the abortion-seeking women who died and performing 'criminal operations' on the ones who lived." At the time "birth control was illegal, unwed motherhood meant ruin and only tuberculosis killed more young women than childbirth. In the 1920s, childbirth was killing four Canadian women a day." A window to the past and the desperate situation of women faced with an unintended pregnancy, as well as the racist roots of anti-abortion laws.
posted by jokeefe (11 comments total)

This is the world the GOP wants us to return to. This should be taught in more than women's studies classes. Every history class should have a unit or something on this. Four women a day from childbirth. FOUR WOMEN A DAY. God the next time someone tells me about the "dangers" of modern abortions I'm going to laugh in their face.
posted by Homo neanderthalensis at 11:26 PM on May 1, 2017 [16 favorites]

Fascinating. Thanks for sharing.
posted by samthemander at 12:02 AM on May 2, 2017

I've read many stories about "back in the day", but never with the added view of the high levels of infanticide to boot. Maybe one article on it talked about the crib phenomenon to prevent accidental smotherings but that's it.



I finally read "the handmaids tale" last night. It's written in the style of the time, Half remembered first person pseudo memoir. Like girl in the box. When it originally came out I would not have had the life experience to fill in the blanks, but now I do.
posted by tilde at 4:49 AM on May 2, 2017

Different era, but also an interesting glimpse of pre-Roe reality: The Amateur Abortionists, about the Jane Collective.
posted by Miko at 6:01 AM on May 2, 2017

Working on my family tree, I came across a sister of my great-grandfather; she died in 1912 at age 27, married with five children. The official cause of death: "septicemia, due to an illegal operation". Yeah. Enough's enough.
posted by easily confused at 6:54 AM on May 2, 2017 [5 favorites]

At first I wondered why they included the mourning portrait of young Warner, who had drowned. Then I realized: his whole family is there. They are posed, but their grief is not. The oldest woman in the photo - presumably their mother, Annie Balcomb - is visibly choking back a sob. She is real. She is not a melodrama villain. She is a woman who knows what loss and privation is.

Teenagers should be required to read Cider House Rules. It's not a perfect novel, and for certain you couldn't get it through a lot of school boards. But it's got young male heroes (so boys might pay attention) and it could get through, show them what this world was like, before their empathy circuits shut down for good.
posted by Countess Elena at 7:26 AM on May 2, 2017 [2 favorites]

Mefite Anitanola tells her story: This is how it was for me: I was seventeen in 1952 when I was raped and got pregnant.
posted by rtha at 7:52 AM on May 2, 2017 [1 favorite]

With all due respect for the state of wanton siege reproductive rights are under in the US, the FPP is about pre-R. v. Morgentaler reality.

The article touches on it briefly, but the historical tie-in between the eugenics movement and reproductive rights (or lack thereof) in Canada is chilling.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 10:51 AM on May 2, 2017 [4 favorites]

Very interesting and saddening reading.

I couldn't agree more that we need these stories to be told as widely as possible, so that all those MEN who decide what a woman is allowed to do with her own body can be shown some of the consequences of their 'moral' crusades.

I think it's worth saying again: 'you don't ban abortion, you only ban SAFE abortion'.
posted by Myeral at 3:53 AM on May 3, 2017 [2 favorites]

The saddest part is I'm sure they know, they just don't care.
posted by LizBoBiz at 7:24 AM on May 3, 2017 [2 favorites]

They also just don't have much skin in the game. A wealthy and connected person will always be able to get a safe abortion.
posted by Miko at 10:21 AM on May 3, 2017 [1 favorite]