WEBVTT - Unpregnanted! Comstock Part 2 0:00:08.245 --> 0:00:10.485 School of Humans. 0:00:11.285 --> 0:00:16.605 Hello, friends, how's it going so good? I bet life 0:00:16.645 --> 0:00:18.645 is an infinite nightmare, but we try to find the 0:00:18.725 --> 0:00:22.965 joy in between the pain. Quick reminder of top. We 0:00:23.045 --> 0:00:26.325 are doing our first live show. It's gonna be in Atlanta, 0:00:26.365 --> 0:00:29.765 Georgia on June twenty ninth at this venue called Dynamic 0:00:29.805 --> 0:00:33.725 El Dorado. That's an edgewood for you at Lanton's. And 0:00:33.925 --> 0:00:36.525 it's gonna be fun. We're gonna have stand up improv, 0:00:36.565 --> 0:00:39.445 We're gonna have a history story, we're gonna have some 0:00:39.605 --> 0:00:43.365 fun facts. We're gonna hear some really inappropriate facts too, 0:00:43.845 --> 0:00:46.725 So come on out. It's gonna be fun. That's June 0:00:46.765 --> 0:00:50.365 twenty ninth at Dynamic El Dorado. Also, it's a Saturday. 0:00:50.525 --> 0:00:52.845 Have you guys heard of this. That's a day in 0:00:52.885 --> 0:00:56.285 which you have fun. So come to the show. But 0:00:56.405 --> 0:00:58.605 you might be like, hey, Gabby, I just want to 0:00:58.605 --> 0:01:03.165 hear some history. So fine. End of promo. Into the 0:01:03.165 --> 0:01:08.765 episode we go. So last time on American filth we 0:01:08.845 --> 0:01:15.325 talked about mister Anthony Comstock, Come Come, Come, Come, Come Stock. 0:01:15.445 --> 0:01:19.285 If you recall, he was the man behind the Comstock 0:01:19.365 --> 0:01:23.965 Act that basically made everything fun illegal because he was like, oh, 0:01:24.165 --> 0:01:27.405 all that stuff. It's obscene. We shouldn't be looking at it. 0:01:28.125 --> 0:01:31.205 One thing that was greatly affected by the Comstock Act 0:01:31.845 --> 0:01:37.005 was the distribution and production of birth control. But one 0:01:37.045 --> 0:01:39.965 thing we did leave out of the episode, which was 0:01:40.005 --> 0:01:46.365 another thing that mister Anthony Comstock absolutely abhorred, was this 0:01:46.445 --> 0:01:49.125 little thing called abortion. 0:01:50.085 --> 0:01:54.005 Have you heard of it. If you haven't, I'll just 0:01:54.045 --> 0:01:54.445 tell you. 0:01:54.525 --> 0:01:57.885 It's one of the least contentious reproductive topics in the 0:01:58.085 --> 0:02:01.325 history of time. Nary a person has ever had an 0:02:01.365 --> 0:02:06.925 opinion about that. No, mister Comstock, he hated. He was like, 0:02:06.965 --> 0:02:11.445 that's gross, that's obscene, that's horrific. I want to get 0:02:11.525 --> 0:02:16.845 rid of it entirely, you know, which is so unlike today. 0:02:23.605 --> 0:02:25.285 Anyway. You might be. 0:02:25.285 --> 0:02:27.485 Surprised to know that in the early part of the 0:02:27.565 --> 0:02:33.525 nineteenth century their abortion laws weren't that bad, but it 0:02:33.605 --> 0:02:36.205 was throughout the century. It was thanks to people like 0:02:36.285 --> 0:02:42.605 Comstock who made abortion access less and less available. And 0:02:42.685 --> 0:02:45.005 as there were more laws against it, there were more 0:02:45.045 --> 0:02:49.925 and more doctors and not so licensed doctors who came 0:02:49.965 --> 0:02:54.565 out of the shadows to offer their services to anyone 0:02:54.805 --> 0:02:57.885 who was having a WHOOPSI daisy in their uterus. 0:02:58.925 --> 0:03:00.045 And one of those people. 0:03:00.765 --> 0:03:05.125 Who was perhaps the most notorious abortionist in nineteenth century 0:03:05.165 --> 0:03:08.205 New y York City was a woman who went by 0:03:08.245 --> 0:03:13.165 the name Madame Restelle. Over the course of her career, 0:03:13.645 --> 0:03:16.925 she provided a countless number of women with birth control 0:03:17.005 --> 0:03:20.445 and abortions. And if you can imagine, a lot of 0:03:20.445 --> 0:03:24.325 people did not like that. And when obscenity censor and 0:03:24.445 --> 0:03:29.405 bad boy comstock came around, Madame Rostelle lost her livelihood 0:03:30.125 --> 0:03:32.525 and then her life. 0:03:32.845 --> 0:03:33.845 Ha ha ha. 0:03:34.085 --> 0:03:37.205 What a fun subject we're talking about today. Cue the 0:03:37.205 --> 0:03:46.765 theme song. This is American Filth and I'm Gabby Watts. 0:03:46.805 --> 0:03:49.965 Every week I tell you a filthy story from American history. 0:03:50.725 --> 0:03:55.085 This week's episode Comestock, Part two, Unpregnanted. 0:04:09.925 --> 0:04:12.445 Something I will say about this episode is I will. 0:04:12.285 --> 0:04:15.725 Be saying the term abortion a lot, because there's not 0:04:15.925 --> 0:04:20.725 really that many good synonyms. There's terminated, the pregnancy, or 0:04:20.765 --> 0:04:26.685 you could say something more crass like unpregnanted. Also, being 0:04:26.725 --> 0:04:29.885 pregnant is called being knocked up, so you could say 0:04:29.885 --> 0:04:31.845 an abortion is being knocked out. 0:04:33.125 --> 0:04:36.285 That one's very bad and will get me canceled. Don't 0:04:36.365 --> 0:04:39.205 tell us and l Also, I think this is. 0:04:39.205 --> 0:04:41.485 About the third or fourth time I have canceled myself 0:04:41.525 --> 0:04:44.925 on my own podcast, so I need somebody else to 0:04:44.925 --> 0:04:48.645 do it. Please cancel me this week. But like birth 0:04:48.685 --> 0:04:53.525 control powders and tonics and pills, throughout the nineteenth century, 0:04:53.845 --> 0:04:56.365 there was also a big rise in the number of 0:04:56.405 --> 0:05:00.085 abortions being carried out. It's hard to know concrete numbers 0:05:00.125 --> 0:05:02.845 because you know, it wasn't like people were writing down. 0:05:02.685 --> 0:05:04.725 In their diaries I have had an abortion. 0:05:06.445 --> 0:05:09.805 But some reformers from the time estimated that between eighteen 0:05:09.925 --> 0:05:13.445 hundred and eighteen thirty, for every twenty three to thirty 0:05:13.485 --> 0:05:15.765 births there was one abortion. 0:05:16.285 --> 0:05:18.405 So yeah, one in thirty one and twenty five. 0:05:19.045 --> 0:05:21.405 And then you get to the eighteen fifties and you 0:05:21.445 --> 0:05:24.605 might have had one abortion for every six births. And 0:05:24.685 --> 0:05:27.605 maybe that number was even higher because there was also 0:05:27.725 --> 0:05:30.565 a higher rate of still births at the time. And 0:05:30.605 --> 0:05:32.925 people were like, well, maybe that's because they did some 0:05:33.045 --> 0:05:33.885 abortion stuff. 0:05:34.605 --> 0:05:36.925 And sure, maybe these numbers are grim. 0:05:37.325 --> 0:05:40.325 But here's the thing, here's a little silver lining is 0:05:40.365 --> 0:05:45.125 simultaneously as abortion rates went up, the infanticide rate went down. 0:05:46.045 --> 0:05:50.805 How delightful. And then in the eighteen seventies some people 0:05:50.885 --> 0:05:55.725 were thinking that one third of all pregnancies ended in termination. 0:05:56.565 --> 0:06:00.845 The women seeking these procedures and treatments were not just 0:06:01.005 --> 0:06:04.925 single ladies. There's also people who were married who wanted 0:06:04.965 --> 0:06:08.885 to control the size of their family. Basically, anyone and 0:06:08.965 --> 0:06:12.845 everyone was having an abortion. Like even a Confederate general 0:06:12.925 --> 0:06:16.525 had his wife terminate a pregnancy. He's like, the South 0:06:16.565 --> 0:06:22.885 will rise again, but that baby won't. I'm sorry. And 0:06:22.965 --> 0:06:25.605 remember this is the nineteenth century, so a lot of 0:06:25.645 --> 0:06:29.445 the procedures for abortion were quite dangerous and a lot 0:06:29.485 --> 0:06:33.365 of women actually died. Unlike today where everything is grand. 0:06:35.605 --> 0:06:37.405 Maybe if I say it in a French accent, it 0:06:37.405 --> 0:06:40.605 will sound like I'm saying it less. So how did 0:06:40.605 --> 0:06:44.405 people feel about a bausion in the nineteenth century That 0:06:44.485 --> 0:06:47.845 actually makes it sound even worse. Well, at the beginning 0:06:47.885 --> 0:06:50.285 of it, a lot of people subscribe to this idea 0:06:50.445 --> 0:06:54.445 called quickening, which was the idea that life did not 0:06:54.605 --> 0:06:58.165 begin until a woman felt the fetus move inside of her, 0:06:58.525 --> 0:07:00.965 which would be about three to four months into pregnancy. 0:07:02.205 --> 0:07:04.525 So it's kind of like, ah, if you do something 0:07:04.565 --> 0:07:08.725 three months before, we don't care. But once you feel it, eh, 0:07:08.845 --> 0:07:12.405 we got an issue with it. There were specific laws 0:07:12.485 --> 0:07:16.685 passed about a bossion in New York State, for example, 0:07:17.045 --> 0:07:19.245 in eighteen twenty seven, there was a law that said 0:07:19.285 --> 0:07:22.485 providing or getting an abortion was a crime, and you 0:07:22.525 --> 0:07:24.405 could be punished with a year in jail and a 0:07:24.445 --> 0:07:29.005 one hundred dollars fine. But laws like this, most of 0:07:29.045 --> 0:07:32.645 them were passed not to criminalize abortion, but to protect 0:07:32.725 --> 0:07:36.725 women from being pressured into getting one, And so in general, 0:07:36.845 --> 0:07:39.845 no one was really getting arrested because of this law, 0:07:40.325 --> 0:07:43.165 and then when people did get arrested, they often weren't 0:07:43.245 --> 0:07:47.845 prosecuted for it. But then in the mid century that 0:07:48.005 --> 0:07:51.885 started to change. There were more anti abortion laws which 0:07:51.885 --> 0:07:57.205 were like quickening, we reject that life starts at conception, 0:07:58.205 --> 0:08:00.885 so if you have an abortion or provide one, we 0:08:00.965 --> 0:08:06.045 will actually now arrest you and send you to prison. Also, 0:08:06.085 --> 0:08:08.965 you can't advertise these services in the newspapers. 0:08:09.205 --> 0:08:09.765 Gross. 0:08:10.485 --> 0:08:12.525 I don't know what accent that was. It came from 0:08:12.565 --> 0:08:15.445 a very dark place inside of me. And if you 0:08:15.565 --> 0:08:20.725 all can believe it. As abortion access became less and less, 0:08:21.605 --> 0:08:25.685 the whole process became more and more dangerous because women 0:08:25.765 --> 0:08:30.605 were going to quack medical practitioners who provided these services illegally, 0:08:31.005 --> 0:08:34.965 and I imagine in deep dark basements where it was 0:08:35.085 --> 0:08:38.805 gross and not hygienic at the same time. 0:08:38.885 --> 0:08:40.485 However, some of. 0:08:40.445 --> 0:08:43.845 These so called quacks were actually pretty good at what 0:08:43.965 --> 0:08:49.365 they did, and one such example was Madame Rastelle. Yeah, 0:08:49.405 --> 0:08:54.245 we're finally getting to the topic of the episode. 0:08:55.485 --> 0:08:58.445 Some things people called her throughout her career were. 0:08:58.845 --> 0:09:04.485 Female abortionist, a professor of infanticide, a child murderous, and 0:09:04.645 --> 0:09:08.565 this longer quote, the wretched creature who builds her fortune 0:09:08.645 --> 0:09:12.045 upon the misfortunes of her sex, caring no more for 0:09:12.125 --> 0:09:15.365 their suffering of mind or body than does the butcher 0:09:15.365 --> 0:09:17.485 for the lives of the animals, which it is his 0:09:17.685 --> 0:09:24.845 business to take a little bit dramatic, methinks. Madammoselle was 0:09:24.885 --> 0:09:29.085 a pseudonym. Her real name was Anne Troe Lohman, and 0:09:29.125 --> 0:09:32.845 she was the planned parenthood of mid nineteenth century New 0:09:32.965 --> 0:09:37.285 York seting. She was born Anne Troe in a small 0:09:37.285 --> 0:09:40.805 town in England in eighteen eleven or eighteen twelve. She 0:09:40.965 --> 0:09:43.605 was one of eleven children, though it's likely many of 0:09:43.645 --> 0:09:47.005 them did not survive into adulthood, and she grew up 0:09:47.085 --> 0:09:49.205 quite poor where she was. 0:09:49.165 --> 0:09:50.605 Born in Painswick, England. 0:09:50.685 --> 0:09:54.125 It was a textile town, so likely her parents worked 0:09:54.125 --> 0:09:58.205 at a mill or were in agriculture and her parents 0:09:58.245 --> 0:10:01.045 they were likely illiterate, and because of that, it's very 0:10:01.205 --> 0:10:05.045 likely that Anne didn't have any formal education. The next 0:10:05.085 --> 0:10:07.085 thing we know about her for sure was that in 0:10:07.125 --> 0:10:11.525 eighteen twenty nine she married a tailor named Henry Summers. 0:10:12.085 --> 0:10:15.325 She was seventeen, he was twenty six. A little yucky, 0:10:15.405 --> 0:10:18.165 but not illegal. Actually it was quite typical of the time. 0:10:18.645 --> 0:10:20.525 Drake would thrive during this time. 0:10:23.125 --> 0:10:23.485 Anyway. 0:10:23.525 --> 0:10:26.805 They had a daughter in eighteen thirty named Caroline, and 0:10:26.885 --> 0:10:29.205 at that point they're like, dam we really got to 0:10:29.245 --> 0:10:32.685 get our shit together because we don't have any opportunities here. 0:10:33.445 --> 0:10:35.765 So in eighteen thirty one they hopped on a boat 0:10:35.845 --> 0:10:40.365 to New York City. They moved to a neighborhood in 0:10:40.405 --> 0:10:43.845 Lower Manhattan, and it's likely that Henry got a job 0:10:43.885 --> 0:10:47.085 as a tailor and Anne got a job as a seamstress. 0:10:47.605 --> 0:10:49.885 A friend of hers said later that she was working 0:10:49.965 --> 0:10:54.685 making pentaloons. But unfortunately for Anne and Caroline, just a 0:10:54.685 --> 0:11:04.725 few months after they arrived, Henry caught a fever and died. Damn, 0:11:04.765 --> 0:11:06.765 thought Anne, I'm in a tight spot. 0:11:07.725 --> 0:11:09.045 You know. She had her job as. 0:11:08.965 --> 0:11:12.325 A seamstress of pantaloons, but the problem with that work 0:11:12.485 --> 0:11:14.565 was that it was difficult, the hours were long, and 0:11:14.605 --> 0:11:17.565 the pay was low, so it really wasn't cutting it 0:11:18.085 --> 0:11:22.925 or sewing it. But then Anne met another man who 0:11:22.965 --> 0:11:26.245 had a similar fervor to her to better himself. His 0:11:26.325 --> 0:11:29.125 name was Charles Lowman. He was also an immigrant, but 0:11:29.165 --> 0:11:32.125 from Russia, and he worked as a printer for a newspaper. 0:11:32.885 --> 0:11:35.285 He was also in some radical groups that liked to 0:11:35.285 --> 0:11:37.725 think and write about such things as birth control and 0:11:37.805 --> 0:11:43.045 reproductive health, those crazy guys. So Charles and Ann got 0:11:43.045 --> 0:11:45.925 married and they moved into a new apartment, and they 0:11:46.045 --> 0:11:49.045 just happened to live next to this guy named William Evans. 0:11:49.645 --> 0:11:52.085 His name is really not important at all, but the 0:11:52.165 --> 0:11:54.325 thing about him that is important is that he was 0:11:54.365 --> 0:11:55.085 a doctor. 0:11:55.765 --> 0:11:57.125 But not just any doctor. 0:11:57.205 --> 0:12:01.805 He was a quack aka he had no formal medicinal training. 0:12:02.125 --> 0:12:04.245 But what he would do is he would make tonics 0:12:04.285 --> 0:12:07.645 and tinctures and potions and all sorts of stuff and 0:12:07.765 --> 0:12:10.725 sell it to people, being like, yeah, this this thing 0:12:10.765 --> 0:12:13.765 that I made up in my kitchen, it's going to 0:12:13.845 --> 0:12:17.125 cure you. I mean, most likely it won't do anything 0:12:17.165 --> 0:12:19.845 at all, But sometimes it's just nice to know you're 0:12:19.845 --> 0:12:25.485 trying out something a little placebo effect. But this William Evans, well, 0:12:25.565 --> 0:12:30.285 he was making money, making bank doing this, I mean 0:12:30.325 --> 0:12:34.005 not bank, but like he was making enough. And Anne, 0:12:34.485 --> 0:12:37.805 with perhaps some encouragement from her husband, was like, maybe 0:12:37.845 --> 0:12:41.845 I should try making some medicinal potions, powders and pills. 0:12:42.125 --> 0:12:43.165 And sell those. 0:12:44.725 --> 0:12:46.845 She knew she'd make more money doing that than being 0:12:46.845 --> 0:12:52.125 a seamstress. Yes, and learned something very important about America. Then, 0:12:53.005 --> 0:12:58.965 lying is much more profitable than honest labor. At first, 0:12:59.005 --> 0:13:02.045 she tried the usual stuff, you know, making elixirs and 0:13:02.125 --> 0:13:05.485 other medicines that could cure a whole variety of elms 0:13:05.725 --> 0:13:10.565 and illnesses. But then her business took a turn when 0:13:10.685 --> 0:13:13.485 one woman who bought some of her medicines was like, Hey, 0:13:14.685 --> 0:13:17.725 I have a little bit of a whoopsidaisy in my womb. 0:13:18.925 --> 0:13:22.965 Do you have anything that could fix that? Aka, I 0:13:23.045 --> 0:13:27.485 need to have one abortion on now. 0:13:27.525 --> 0:13:30.725 In the late eighteen thirties, when Antroloman got this request 0:13:30.725 --> 0:13:35.445 from her patient, birth control and abortion related merchandise. 0:13:35.765 --> 0:13:36.605 Wasn't a new thing. 0:13:37.325 --> 0:13:40.205 As I said in the last episode, people with uteruses 0:13:40.285 --> 0:13:43.045 have been trying not to have babies the whole time 0:13:43.125 --> 0:13:46.685 we've been around, and most of the solutions to getting 0:13:46.765 --> 0:13:51.085 rid of a little whoopsidaisy baby involved drinking or eating 0:13:51.125 --> 0:13:53.405 a gross combination of ingredients. 0:13:54.645 --> 0:13:56.165 Like indigenous women. 0:13:56.525 --> 0:13:59.725 They would try to induce a miscarriage using various roots 0:13:59.725 --> 0:14:02.605 and herbs. In Texas, there's a case of a black 0:14:02.645 --> 0:14:06.605 woman who drank a combination of calamel and turpin t yummy. 0:14:07.565 --> 0:14:08.725 And then there are some white. 0:14:08.565 --> 0:14:11.285 Ladies in the Midwest, and what they did is they 0:14:11.365 --> 0:14:15.245 rubbed gunpowder on their titties and drank tea made of 0:14:15.365 --> 0:14:20.205 rusty nail water. I bet it had a sharp taste. 0:14:21.405 --> 0:14:25.125 But besides ingesting gross stuff, some other things that birth 0:14:25.125 --> 0:14:29.685 control manual suggested for inducing miscarriages was, you know, jumping 0:14:29.765 --> 0:14:35.365 up and down a classic, exercising too vigorously, and douching. 0:14:36.445 --> 0:14:37.965 And as I said, you know, some. 0:14:37.885 --> 0:14:43.165 Doctors and quack doctors alike did do surgical abortions. They're 0:14:43.205 --> 0:14:47.325 just very dangerous, sometimes fatal, and even worse than that, 0:14:47.525 --> 0:14:52.845 they were all so expensive. Some doctors charged about one 0:14:52.925 --> 0:14:57.445 hundred dollars for a surgical abortion, which was a hefty sum. 0:14:57.565 --> 0:14:59.965 Or doctors would sell you a device that you could 0:15:00.085 --> 0:15:03.845 use at home. One doctor sold this eight dollars silver 0:15:03.965 --> 0:15:06.325 probe that you would just stick into your uterus and 0:15:06.405 --> 0:15:10.005 shake it around until something happened. And there is plenty 0:15:10.045 --> 0:15:13.405 of demand for these products. One lady used that silver 0:15:13.525 --> 0:15:16.845 probe twenty one times and apparently she died on the 0:15:16.925 --> 0:15:17.405 last one. 0:15:20.245 --> 0:15:23.965 Anyway, back to Anne. 0:15:23.245 --> 0:15:25.285 And you know, she had this patient who was like, help, 0:15:25.325 --> 0:15:27.125 I need to get rid of this thing inside of me. 0:15:27.325 --> 0:15:30.125 And Anne was like, hmmm, I think I smell a 0:15:30.165 --> 0:15:34.245 business idea coming along. So she indeed made some medicine 0:15:34.285 --> 0:15:36.565 for this lady to take home to remove the whoops 0:15:36.565 --> 0:15:40.405 of daisy and that started Anne down her trajectory that 0:15:40.445 --> 0:15:43.005 would make her one of the most hated yet beloved 0:15:43.045 --> 0:15:47.765 women at the time in New York City. Notorious infamous, 0:15:48.725 --> 0:15:58.005 We'll be back. After these soothing advertisements, Anne quickly made 0:15:58.005 --> 0:16:01.165 a crap ton of money after she saw that first patient. 0:16:01.285 --> 0:16:03.285 She had more and more women come to see her 0:16:03.325 --> 0:16:06.725 for her medicines. With that, she took her daughter back 0:16:06.725 --> 0:16:09.085 to England for a time to hang out with her family. 0:16:09.805 --> 0:16:12.445 But then when they returned to New York City, Anne 0:16:12.445 --> 0:16:15.525 and her husband started ramping up their business. They got 0:16:15.565 --> 0:16:19.525 a fancy office and Ann started going by Madame Restelle, 0:16:20.405 --> 0:16:23.525 saying that she named herself after a French doctor who 0:16:23.565 --> 0:16:27.005 taught her all the secrets to preventing and terminating pregnancies. 0:16:27.725 --> 0:16:29.445 She was like, oh, yeah, when I was back at 0:16:29.445 --> 0:16:32.365 home visiting my family, Actually I was touring around Europe 0:16:32.445 --> 0:16:37.165 learning all these treatments, because back then, if anything was 0:16:37.245 --> 0:16:41.405 advertised as French or Parisian, it was often a euphemism 0:16:41.485 --> 0:16:42.525 for birth control. 0:16:43.805 --> 0:16:44.965 Why. I don't know. 0:16:45.245 --> 0:16:48.445 Maybe it's because an IUD looks like the Eiffel Tower. 0:16:49.565 --> 0:16:53.605 The Eiffel Tower didn't even exist then. Ah, And so 0:16:53.925 --> 0:17:00.285 Madame Restelle started advertising her services in the newspaper. Her 0:17:00.325 --> 0:17:03.205 first advertisement appeared in the New York Sun in March 0:17:03.245 --> 0:17:08.685 of eighteen thirty nine. Under some very coded euphemisms, the 0:17:08.765 --> 0:17:11.445 ad said, is it not but too well known that 0:17:11.485 --> 0:17:15.365 the families of the married often increase beyond the happiness 0:17:15.405 --> 0:17:16.765 of those who give birth? 0:17:16.805 --> 0:17:19.485 Would dictate, is it desirable? 0:17:19.605 --> 0:17:23.045 Is it moral for parents to increase their families regardless 0:17:23.045 --> 0:17:26.245 of the consequences to themselves or the well being of 0:17:26.285 --> 0:17:31.045 their offspring when a simple, easy, healthy and certain remedy 0:17:31.125 --> 0:17:34.445 is within our control. She was then like, come visit 0:17:34.485 --> 0:17:37.965 me at my office, where married females can obtain the 0:17:38.085 --> 0:17:44.565 desired information, and let's just say a lot of women 0:17:44.685 --> 0:17:51.965 wanted to obtain that desired information, married, unmarried, every sort 0:17:52.045 --> 0:17:58.165 of Lady. Madame Rostelle's office in New York was open 0:17:58.205 --> 0:18:01.685 from nine am to ten pm every day, and often 0:18:01.725 --> 0:18:03.965 there is a horde of women in the waiting room, 0:18:04.365 --> 0:18:06.765 a line running out the door and around the block. 0:18:07.765 --> 0:18:10.925 At first, she was offering abortion pills and potions. 0:18:11.725 --> 0:18:12.845 She didn't call them potions. 0:18:12.845 --> 0:18:15.605 I'm just calling them back because it's fun, and she 0:18:15.645 --> 0:18:17.045 would send this stuff out in the mail. 0:18:17.565 --> 0:18:19.285 But then she diversified her. 0:18:19.245 --> 0:18:23.325 Business to include all sorts of services. You know how 0:18:23.365 --> 0:18:25.805 a lot of people think of Planned parenthood today as 0:18:25.845 --> 0:18:28.405 like an abortion factory, but it actually provides a lot 0:18:28.445 --> 0:18:32.405 of other services. That's how people start thinking about Madame Rostelle. 0:18:32.445 --> 0:18:35.565 They're like, she's the lady who gives abortions. Yucky, we 0:18:35.645 --> 0:18:36.445 don't like her. 0:18:37.005 --> 0:18:38.005 But she was also. 0:18:37.885 --> 0:18:41.445 Giving all types of health care to women. She was like, yeah, 0:18:41.485 --> 0:18:45.405 I'm just a physician, a female physician for females. Her 0:18:45.485 --> 0:18:49.845 various services include a contraception and then some herbal remedies 0:18:49.845 --> 0:18:50.365 that would. 0:18:50.205 --> 0:18:51.605 Help restore instruation. 0:18:52.405 --> 0:18:55.045 And another service she provided was that she had a 0:18:55.045 --> 0:18:59.405 boarding house where pregnant women could go and deliver their 0:18:59.445 --> 0:19:05.085 babies anonymously, and then she would coordinate adoptions and then 0:19:05.085 --> 0:19:07.325 she all so had her surgical abortions. 0:19:07.565 --> 0:19:10.925 But she had a sliding scale. Remember she had grown. 0:19:10.725 --> 0:19:12.805 Up poor, so she was like, hey, if you're a 0:19:12.805 --> 0:19:15.685 poor person, you only have to pay twenty Rich ladies, 0:19:15.685 --> 0:19:17.245 though you guys got to pay one hundred. 0:19:17.565 --> 0:19:19.445 Sorry, not sorry. 0:19:20.765 --> 0:19:23.325 And of course Madame Pistelle, she had haters the whole time. 0:19:24.045 --> 0:19:27.685 Can you believe it, someone who provides abortion has haters? 0:19:29.045 --> 0:19:29.245 You know. 0:19:29.285 --> 0:19:31.565 At the beginning of her business, people were still kind 0:19:31.605 --> 0:19:35.005 of like, hey, you can't prosecute someone until after three 0:19:35.205 --> 0:19:38.365 four months of them being pregnant, until that quickening stuff 0:19:38.445 --> 0:19:42.645 is happening. But as attitudes started changing, more and more 0:19:42.685 --> 0:19:47.365 people wanted doctor's like and to rot in prison. They 0:19:47.405 --> 0:19:51.245 were like, ugh, if women have access to birth control, 0:19:51.485 --> 0:19:54.245 if women can have abortions, they're going to be more 0:19:54.285 --> 0:19:58.325 sexually active. That's disgusting. We're gonna have all these single 0:19:58.405 --> 0:20:01.085 ladies committing all this sin. And then a lot of 0:20:01.125 --> 0:20:04.045 feminists actually hated birth control because they were like, ough, 0:20:04.085 --> 0:20:08.405 this just encourages men to have more sexual liaisons and 0:20:08.485 --> 0:20:09.525 as you guys all know. 0:20:09.565 --> 0:20:11.805 Sexuality is bad for society. 0:20:13.085 --> 0:20:17.685 Her enemies were like, Madame Rosselle is making everyone im moral. Also, 0:20:17.765 --> 0:20:21.685 she's only aborting the babies of rich people, which means. 0:20:21.685 --> 0:20:23.405 That she's aborting white babies. 0:20:24.005 --> 0:20:26.045 And soon we're just gonna have all these other babies 0:20:26.085 --> 0:20:31.525 and not enough white ones. Another thing that people hated 0:20:31.565 --> 0:20:34.925 about Madame Rousselle was that she was this thing called 0:20:35.445 --> 0:20:37.045 a successful woman. 0:20:37.485 --> 0:20:38.205 Have you heard of this? 0:20:39.245 --> 0:20:41.085 Like she was making a lot of money, she was 0:20:41.165 --> 0:20:45.925 operating her own business. People hated that. They hated her wealth, 0:20:46.005 --> 0:20:49.805 which she flaunted in her fancy carriages and fancy clothes, 0:20:50.605 --> 0:20:53.085 and they're all like, oh, she's not even a real MD. 0:20:53.445 --> 0:20:58.085 She shouldn't be doing this medical stuff. The only people 0:20:58.245 --> 0:21:03.405 who should be doing medicine are men, because men get licensed. 0:21:03.445 --> 0:21:13.325 Men are smart men men. Despite her successes, though madem 0:21:13.365 --> 0:21:17.725 Mirtelle could not avoid the law. The first time she 0:21:17.805 --> 0:21:20.765 was arrested was less than a year after she opened 0:21:20.765 --> 0:21:23.925 her business in eighteen thirty nine, and at that point 0:21:24.005 --> 0:21:26.765 she was accused of performing an abortion on a woman 0:21:27.005 --> 0:21:31.285 who later died. The woman was named Maria Pardi, and 0:21:31.325 --> 0:21:33.965 she had visited Madame Ristelle looking for a tonic to 0:21:34.205 --> 0:21:40.085 unpregnant herself. Madame Martelle obliged, but then Maria stopped taking 0:21:40.085 --> 0:21:42.805 it because she was afraid she might get poisoned. So 0:21:42.885 --> 0:21:44.725 what she did instead is she went back to Madame 0:21:44.765 --> 0:21:46.405 Morstelle and was like, Hey, can I actually have a 0:21:46.405 --> 0:21:49.125 surgical abortion? I don't want to take this weird juice, 0:21:50.045 --> 0:21:53.765 and she was given the surgical abortion, and then she 0:21:53.845 --> 0:21:56.805 got sick and she was convinced it was from the procedure. 0:21:57.445 --> 0:22:01.085 But after Mademoiselle was arrested, her charges were eventually dropped 0:22:01.165 --> 0:22:06.285 because there simply wasn't enough evidence. Few years later, in 0:22:06.325 --> 0:22:10.485 eighteen forty five, abortion laws changed again in the stay 0:22:10.485 --> 0:22:13.365 of New York. It became extra legal for anyone to 0:22:13.405 --> 0:22:18.885 get or perform an abortion, and two years later Madame 0:22:18.885 --> 0:22:22.885 Mirstelle was arrested again. There's this woman named Maria Bodine 0:22:23.245 --> 0:22:25.485 who had gone to see Madame Mirstelle and asked for 0:22:25.805 --> 0:22:31.325 an abortion, but she was already too far along. Mademoiselle 0:22:31.405 --> 0:22:32.965 was like, yeah, you're definitely more than three or four 0:22:32.965 --> 0:22:35.125 months pregnant, so I'm not going to do it because. 0:22:34.885 --> 0:22:36.045 I don't want to get arrested. 0:22:37.045 --> 0:22:40.285 But then Maria's lover was like, hey, I demand that 0:22:40.325 --> 0:22:43.405 you give her an abortion, so Mademoistelle was like. 0:22:44.125 --> 0:22:45.405 Okay, fine. 0:22:46.565 --> 0:22:49.885 But then after the procedure, Maria got sick and went 0:22:49.925 --> 0:22:52.445 to a doctor who was like, m I can tell 0:22:52.485 --> 0:22:56.005 that you got an abortion, and that doctor reported her 0:22:56.085 --> 0:23:00.405 and Madame Mirstelle, so she had to spend a year 0:23:00.405 --> 0:23:06.565 in prison and pay a hefty fine. When she got 0:23:06.565 --> 0:23:10.485 out of prison, and Tree Lowman decided to make a change, 0:23:10.925 --> 0:23:13.205 at least on the surface. She was like, I'm not 0:23:13.245 --> 0:23:16.765 going to do surgical abortions anymore, but I am going 0:23:16.845 --> 0:23:21.685 to resume my business and just sell these concoctions that 0:23:21.805 --> 0:23:25.205 I make and not do the surgical ones. 0:23:25.405 --> 0:23:26.645 Wink wink mm. 0:23:27.885 --> 0:23:30.845 Because even though she limited her business, she just kept 0:23:30.845 --> 0:23:34.525 getting richer and richer. By that point, she and her 0:23:34.565 --> 0:23:38.125 family had moved into a ginormous mansion on Fifth Avenue, 0:23:38.645 --> 0:23:42.005 and that's where she moved her offices as well. And 0:23:42.045 --> 0:23:44.845 for even more people to take her seriously, she applied 0:23:44.845 --> 0:23:49.525 for citizenship, which was granted in eighteen fifty four. And 0:23:49.565 --> 0:23:52.525 the thing is other women also provided this type of 0:23:52.565 --> 0:23:55.525 medical services, but she was just so well known in 0:23:55.605 --> 0:23:58.605 making such a huge impact on the city that the 0:23:58.725 --> 0:24:06.285 mayor himself officiated Madame Rostelle's daughter's wedding. Misseelle wasn't going 0:24:06.365 --> 0:24:09.125 to stay on top for much longer, because, as we 0:24:09.165 --> 0:24:13.685 all know, a woman with power pooh, sheesh, that's not 0:24:13.765 --> 0:24:18.165 gonna last. People hate when women are powerful, and she 0:24:18.285 --> 0:24:21.925 especially wasn't gonna last. If anti abortion, anti birth control, 0:24:22.005 --> 0:24:26.285 anti fun crusader Anthony Comstock had anything to say about it, 0:24:27.685 --> 0:24:39.005 We'll be back after these soothing advertisements. After the Comstock 0:24:39.085 --> 0:24:43.005 Act was passed in eighteen seventy three, mister Anthony Comstock 0:24:43.165 --> 0:24:47.525 was on a rampage. And the great thing about him 0:24:47.645 --> 0:24:51.445 is not only did he want to destroy all obscene material, 0:24:52.205 --> 0:24:56.205