OTD in 1618, a 64-year-old woman was executed in Eichstatt, Germany, for witchcraft. She wasn't a witch; she provided reproductive care, including abortion, to local women. Rest in peace, Anna Harding. I'll be lighting a candle to your memory this evening.

New post on A is for Abortion -- I is for Iowa, where a small town doctor provided abortions for decades, from the 1920s on. Everyone knew. Everyone looked the other way. Maybe Iowa was more tolerant then than now... maryfissell.substack.com/p/i-is-for-i...

Reading 18th century lecture notes -- Alexander Munro primus -- and can't make out this word in juicy quote. Any help much appreciated! have circled/magnified the word. ?Scots? "if there happens to be any ??? quality att one side..."

It's been a year since Pushback bit.ly/4iwTsoL came out, and yesterday @literatibookstore.bsky.social in Ann Arbor did an event for it - thx so much, Literati! Thx to all for such great convos over the past year, books open doors for sure.

Honored to be giving the #SSEMWG Plenary Lecture on Friday: "Hiding in Plain Sight: Abortion in Early-Modern England". If you are at #RenSA2026, it's at 4:30 tomorrow. See you there!

It's Z for Paolo Zacchia on A is for Abortion: maryfissell.substack.com/p/z-is-for-p... Z may be the last letter of the alphabet, but I'm starting another series that will include new features, like audio, in 2 weeks. Stay tuned.

New post to #FindTheMidwife! Gaby Baez talls with me about her research on 18th century Mexican midwives in Inquisition records. www.findthemidwife.com/eighteenth-c...

New post on A is for Abortion! The letter Y, as in youth. maryfissell.substack.com/p/y-is-for-y...

New post on #FindtheMidwife! Sally Pezaro interviews Maurina Barron about her career.

Bet you thought I couldn't find something for the letter X, but... new post to A is for Abortion today! maryfissell.substack.com/p/x-is-for-e...

Proud to be out with these folks in Baltimore today. 25-30 people, mostly 70- & 80-somethings, protesting on a street corner in the rain. Yeah, that's where we are now, it's that urgent.

New post on #FindTheMidwife! Wangui Muigai and Noelene Jeffers discuss a landmark film about Black midwifery in the US South in the 1950s. www.findthemidwife.com/wangui-muigai

Thanks, Nancy Novick, for a great convo: medhum.org/review/book-... ! See here for book itself: bit.ly/4iwTsoL or UK: bit.ly/4aCNEqu.

New post to #FindTheMidwife! It's 1688 and a midwife is at the center of a scandal about a royal birth -- and fake news is not a recent development! www.findthemidwife.com/fake-news-1688

New post on A is for Abortion: W is for Witchcraft. Why did early modern people think that witches might have knowledge about how to get abortions?

So much is so awful this morning... here's a little something cheering, played around with knitting as a break from grading.

New post on #FindTheMidwife! @sallypezaro.bsky.social interviews @eliskabujokova.bsky.social about an entrepreneurial early 19th century Edinburgh midwife. See: www.findthemidwife.com/eliska-bujok...

New post on A is for Abortion. Story of a young wife, living in a Civil War hospital with her husband, who quietly ended a pregnancy. Imagine starting your married life in such a hospital!

Honored to have given a George Washington Corner lecture at the Rochester Academy of Medicine -- what a setting!

New post on A is for Abortion Substack! Today we go to drugstores, not blacksmiths, but we are not so very different from medieval and early-modern people, testing urine to ascertain pregnancy. Local experts included blacksmiths, female healers, and doctors.

New post on #FindTheMidwife today. Sasha Turner talks with us about a 17th century enslaved Barbadian midwife. www.findthemidwife.com/sasha-turner. Thanks Dr. Turner!

Delighted to hear that Pushback is on the shelf @ www.staygoldbooks.com! If you are in Pittsburgh, be sure to catch this lovely indy bookshop in Regent Square. Not in Pgh? bit.ly/4iwTsoL

New post on A is for Abortion! It's about a 15th c French woman who provided reproductive health care (including abortion care) to her community.

Beautiful day to have given a talk @ annual @apha.org annual conference! Thanks so much Spirit of 1848 Caucus for inviting me.

It's a really special joy to get a book in the mail by a former student that started life as a thesis! www.upress.virginia.edu/title/10133/ Paul Child shows us eloquently how Jonathan Swift's life was shaped by ill-health and his attempts to combat it. Congrats, Paul!

New posting on #FindTheMidwife! Noelene Jeffers and @d-squared.bsky.social in conversation about the long history of racism and gynecology: www.findthemidwife.com/deirdre-coop...

Honored to be a featured author at #SFP2025 ! Thanks everyone for the welcoming & insightful conversations -- and for buying my book! bit.ly/4iwTsoL

Had a wonderful time giving a talk @ubgenderinstitute.bsky.social, lots of great conversations, and they gave me some swag! Thx!

New post today: Silphium, the ancient abortifacient plant that went extinct from overuse... or did it?

Honored to present my work on abortion in 1940s and 50s Baltimore to GYN/OB Grand Rounds at Hopkins this morning! Thanks for inviting me. And yeah, that ergot was made in Baltimore. More Baltimore stories: bit.ly/4iwTsoL