In The Abortionist, Rickie Solinger uses the life of Ruth Barnett, an Oregon abortionist active from the 1910s to the 1960s, to trace the history of reproductive issues during the period. She identifies not only the legal traditions within which Barnett operated but the social practice regarding those laws. She identifies a difference in policies of enforcement between the interwar period and the post World War II years.

Questions to Think About:

Why did abortion--even while it was illegal--have what Solinger calls "a protected status" until after World War II in the U.S.? What does this protected status tell us about the time period between the wars?

What kind of a woman was Ruth Barnett in the 1910s and 1920s? How would she have fit in the context of expectations about women of her class at that time?

Who was Mararet Sanger, and how did Portland authorities respond to her activities? Why did she receive such different treatment than active abortionists did? What does this tell us about the time period between the wars?

To what extent can the anti-abortion doctors' objections to abortionists' activities be traced to an emerging sense of professional "turf"? Using Harvey Green's book, how might this be a reaction to a growing sense of uncertainty?

Does the location of this story matter? Does Portland seem fundamentally different from New York City?

What does this book tell us about sexual behaviors of women during the first half of the twentieth century?

What is Solinger's thesis? What is her argument?

What sorts of sources has Solinger used to recreate this story? How much of her story is shaped by issues of privacy?

Why did Solinger write this book?

Further resources for studying women from 1915 to 1945, and the history of birth control and abortion during the period:

Library of Congress's American Memory Project's Votes for Women site.

National Archives' Exhibition about the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

A brief biography of birth control pioneer Margaret Sanger.
The Margaret Sanger Papers Project website at New York University.

The Emma Goldman Papers Project website at The University of California, Berkeley, with information on Goldman, the great anarchist and birth control activist.

Prepared by Professor Catherine Lavender for History 339 (Themes in U.S. History, 1914-1945), The Department of History, The College of Staten Island of The City University of New York. Send email to lavender@postbox.csi.cuny.edu
Fall Semester 1997. Last modified: Tuesday 21 October 1997