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Don’t Breed on Me : A Short History of Abortion

Madeline Waugh Quasebarth
Format: Paperback
Publisher: PM Press
Published: March 24, 2026
ISBN: 9798887441788
192 pages
Country of publication: United States

£15.99

Humans have always loved to fuck! Don’t Breed on Me: A Short History of Abortion is a defiant, funny, and unflinching dive into the millennia-long story of abortion – a practice as old as humanity and as contested as ever. From medieval Europe to Ming Dynasty China, from women enslaved in the American South to German nuns smuggling herbs, abortion has always been here. And so have the people who provided it. Rooted in global history, folklore, and fierce scholarship, Quasebarth’s book is as joyful as it is furious. She opens with a bang and doesn’t let up, threading together ancient remedies (like crocodile dung pessaries), feminist saints, lost abortifacients, and the enduring power of reproductive autonomy. Want to meet a medieval Italian surgeon who secretly performed abortions in a city that banned women from medicine? Or a Qing Dynasty widow who casually asks her lover for ‘red flower medicine’ after a scandalous affair?

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