Abortion in American History: Intimate Decisions, Medical Knowledge, and Legal Decrees in the Two Centuries Before Roe v. Wade
Fri., Jan. 17, 2025, 8:30 a.m.–3:30 p.m.Sat., Jan. 18, 2025, 8:30 a.m.–3 p.m.
Two-day conference | General: $35 (students and Huntington fellows are free) | Optional lunch: $20 each day Conference registration includes general admission to The Huntington. Lunch reservations will close on Jan. 13 at noon.
Education and Visitor Center, Rothenberg Hall
New academic research on abortion history has surged in recent years, spurred by the lead-up to the Dobbs decision in 2022. Dobbs arrived at a time when a solid court majority professed reliance on originalism, a form of legal analysis that uses constitutional history and its presumed original meaning as the basis for court decisions. Historians have been busy presenting amicus briefs, both in Dobbs and in a continuing flurry of state court cases since the ruling returned abortion law to the states. Accurately understanding both legal and reproductive history has never been more important.
Key Details
- Conference registration is for both days and includes general admission to The Huntington.
- Lunch reservations close on Jan. 13 at noon.
- A limited number of lunch tickets will be available for purchase at the conference.
Day of Program
- Please bring registration confirmation with you.
Conference Schedule
Fri., Jan. 17
8:30 a.m. | Registration and Coffee
9 a.m. | Welcome
- Susan Juster (The Huntington), Patricia Cline Cohen (University of California, Santa Barbara)
9:15 a.m. | Session 1
- Moderator: Lauren MacIvor Thompson (Kennesaw State University)
Brooke Lansing Mai (Johns Hopkins University)
“Speaking about Abortion: The Language of Pregnancy Termination in Antebellum New York” (provisional)Nicholas L. Syrett (University of Kansas)
“Madame Restell and the Reproductive Services Market in Antebellum New York”
10:45 a.m. | Break
11 a.m. | Session 2
- Moderator: Kate Masur (Northwestern University)
- Aaron Tang (University of California, Davis)
“How Many States Actually Banned Pre-Quickening Abortion in 1868? An Investigation Into the ‘Most Important Historical Fact’ in Dobbs” Patricia Cline Cohen (UC Santa Barbara)
“Dr. Horatio Storer and the Deceptive Statistics That Instigated the 1860s National Campaign to Criminalize Abortion”
12:30 p.m. | Lunch
2 p.m. | Session 3
- Moderator: Aaron Tang (UC Davis)
Kate Masur (Northwestern University)
“The Fourteenth Amendment and Abortion: Some Problems with Originalist Approaches”Lauren MacIvor Thompson (Kennesaw State University)
“The Comstock Law’s ‘Lost’ Medical Exemption”
Sat., Jan. 18
9 a.m. | Session 4
- Moderator: Lina-Maria Murillo (University of Iowa)
Shannon K. Withycombe (University of New Mexico)
“Human Creatures and Dying Women: Medical and Popular Depictions of Abortion and Fetal Life in the West, 1857–1900”Jacqueline Antonovich (Muhlenberg College)
“Women Physicians and the Politics and Practice of Abortion Care in the American West”
10:30 a.m. | Break
10:45 a.m. | Session 5
Moderator: Jacqueline Antonovich (Muhlenberg College)
Alicia Gutierrez-Romine (California State University, San Bernardino)
“Therapeutic Abortion Exceptions: Shifting Interpretations in 1950s and 1960s California”Lina-Maria Murillo (University of Iowa)
“The Army of Three and the Untold History of America’s Abortion Underground”
12:15 p.m. | Lunch
1:30 p.m. | Roundtable: How Does History Inform the Present? Perspectives from Law and History
- Mary Ziegler (UC Davis)
- Nancy F. Cott (Harvard University)
For questions about this event, please email researchconference@huntington.org or call 626-405-3432.
Ivory anatomical mannequin of a pregnant woman (Europe?: 17th or 18th century?), carved ivory, wood box, 22 x 9 cm. RB 653419. | The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.