Bodies of Power: A History of Male Control Over Abortion

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 It isn’t news that all throughout history, men have attempted to control women. This has ranged from public to private life, from the workplace to the exam room. Patriarchal systems of oppression have been virtually limitless in their reach. In modern times, these ancient social systems still heavily impact the women of today. A current hot topic in politics is of course abortion. Historically, men in power have been the ones in charge of making important and impactful decisions regarding reproductive healthcare. For many women and pro-choice advocates, the prevalence of men dictating private choices about pregnant people’s bodies is extraordinarily frustrating. Male dominated legislatures imposing laws and restrictions on women’s autonomy has paved the way for the post-Roe world we live in today. In this podcast we will explore the fascinating history of attempted male control over abortion care. 

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JD Vance audio clip:
Interviewer: “Should a woman be forced to carry a child to term after she has been the victim of incest or rape?” 
Vance: “My view on this has been very clear and I think the question betrays a certain presumption that’s wrong. It’s not whether a woman should be forced to bring a child to term, it’s whether a child should be allowed to live even though the circumstances of that child’s birth are somehow inconvenient or a problem to the society. The question really to me is about the baby. We want women to have opportunities, we want women to have choices, but above all we want women and young boys in the womb to have the right to life.”

Trump audio clip:
Interviewer: “Do you believe in punishment for abortion, yes or no? Is it principle?”
Trump: “The answer is that there has to be some form of punishment.”
Interviewer: “For the woman?”
Trump: “Yeah, there has to be some form.”

That was JD Vance and Donald Trump speaking on abortion. It’s no surprise that there is so much dialogue surrounding this issue this day in age seeing as these are the two men who are to be sworn into office as the President and Vice President of the United States of America in January. These pro-birth viewpoints are not an isolated occurrence, they are a product of thousands of years of control over women’s bodies. While abortions have existed pretty much as long as humans have, one of the first recorded descriptions of abortion appears in an ancient Egyptian medical text called the Ebers Papyrus in 1550 BCE. It provides instructions to end one’s pregnancy by pharmacological means, which was the primary method in the majority of early references to abortions, until the end of the 18th century when surgical techniques were developed.

In regards to regulations of abortion throughout history, public opinion has varied widely across regions and cultures. One early example is in the Code of Assura in 1075 BCE. This text is an ancient legal code of the Assyrians who were an important civilization in the Mesopotamian empire, located in modern day Iraq. Their law stated, “If a woman of her own accord drop that which is in her, they shall prosecute her, they shall convict her, they shall crucify her, they shall not bury her.” In this case it is obvious that hostile perspectives and punishments for abortion go a long ways back. 

Contrastingly though, Roman law did not categorize abortion itself as a crime. Rather the lack of consent from the husband for an abortion was the thing to be punished, underscoring the notion of male control over a woman’s body throughout history. 

Fast forwarding to the founding of the United States, abortion wasn’t outlawed until the mid-1800s. Prior to then, abortion was generally accepted up until around the 4 month mark in pregnancy, and was a common part of life for many women. In the late 1700s and early 1800s, reproductive care was unregulated and primarily provided by skilled midwives, many of whom were black and indigenous women. While abortions weren’t widely banned until after the Civil War, enslaved women still didn’t have a say about their bodies and their slave owners did not allowed them to have abortions and so were forced to have them in secret.

Around the time of the Civil War, groups of male doctors banded together with the support of the Catholic Church to push a movement to outlaw abortion in the States despite their lack of knowledge in reproductive healthcare. The male-dominated medical field sought to take away power from the female-dominated profession of midwifery, including the power to administer abortions. Ultimately they were successful, and abortions were banned in all 50 states by 1910 with some exceptions at the discretion of doctors, 95% of which at the time were men. It is important to recognize however, that wealthy white women were sometimes still able to access abortions with their privileges in society, while others were not as fortunate.

Over the decades, public pressure intensified for the liberalization of abortion laws nationwide. The revolutionary nature of the 1960’s as well as the shockingly high death toll of unsafe, illegal abortions, resulted in some states pulling back on some of their restrictions, and in 1973, the Supreme Court established the right of abortion access after their ruling in the Roe v. Wade case. Unfortunately some limitations in the system still remained for marginalized communities such as people of color, that restricted their ability to access abortion care. Overall though, abortion became far more widely accessible and safe for women who needed it. 

This of course is until June of 2022 when the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, returning the issue of abortion back to the states, resulting in 13 of them currently holding a complete ban, and 6 more with an early gestational limit.

The issue of abortion remains a hugely relevant and important topic of discussion in our modern society, and this outspokenness and advocacy of reproductive rights has always been mirrored by the pro-life crowd. While spending some time in the Smith College Special Collections, I came across a pamphlet from 1986 titled, “Forgotten Fathers: Men and Abortion,” written by Vincent Rue. This piece describes the impact of a man’s partner electing to have an abortion. While some of the points had some validity to them and everyone is allowed to respond to life events emotionally however they see fit, the writing as a whole carried a sense of entitlement to women’s bodies and deflected responsibility from men. For example, some of the claims that are made include suggesting that if a man’s partner has an abortion, this can cause the man to abuse his spouse or children. In addition it claims that because men are marginalized and made passive in the abortion decision, it can result in male sexual dysfunction. These are just two examples, but the idea that it is the woman’s fault for these things appears to place blame on women who are making choices that are best for them and this is recognizable in many pro-life groups to this day.     

One place this can clearly be paralleled today is on the website for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. One article on their website is titled “‘The Hollow Men’: Male Grief & Trauma Following Abortion” Here they make claims like “The Court has held that a woman’s right not to procreate trumps a man’s right to procreate, making his involvement in the abortion decision irrelevant.” and “no state in our Union allows a husband to be informed of his wife’s impending abortion. This unequal protection under the law clearly needs review and revision.” It is obvious that this group feels that it possesses a right to women’s bodies and that they feel personally victimized by women making their own healthcare decisions. This is ironic as men have primarily been the ones dictating what women can and can’t do with their own bodies for thousands of years, and when women begin to gain some autonomy for themselves, these men are obviously starting to feel threatened. 

As we’ve seen throughout history the control of female bodies has been a central issue in regards to abortion care. From ancient laws to current political discourse, men have continuously tried to dictate women’s choices about their reproductive health. It is unlikely that this male sense of entitlement is going anywhere soon, seeing as it has existed for literally all of recorded human history. 

This fight is ongoing and it is our job now to continue to speak out and advocate for abortion access for everybody in this country regardless of what state you might happen to reside in. As we continue along the path of equality and representation it is important to uplift the voices and experiences of those who have been marginalized such as women of color, low income women, and other vulnerable groups, while also welcoming allies from all walks of life, man, woman, or anywhere in between. Ultimately the path forward relies on solidarity, the fight for abortion is not just a women’s issue, it’s a human rights issue, and if we are going to learn anything from the past, standing together is our best shot at creating change in the future. 

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“ABORTION IN ANTIQUITY on JSTOR.” Www.Jstor.Org, n.d. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26307468?seq=3.

Dickinson, Jan E. “Confusion, Inequity and Inconsistency: Abortion in Australia.” Australian and New Zealand Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology 55, no. 2 (April 1, 2015): 103–4. https://doi.org/10.1111/ajo.12332.

Hindustan Times. “Donald Trump: There Has to Be Some Form of Punishment for Women Who Have Abortions,” March 31, 2016. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6n-SgCndBWE.

Internet History Sourcebooks Project. “Ancient History,” n.d. https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/ancient/1075assyriancode.asp.

KFF. “Abortion in the United States Dashboard | KFF,” November 6, 2024. https://www.kff.org/womens-health-policy/dashboard/abortion-in-the-u-s-dashboard/.

Planned Parenthood Action Fund. “Abortion in U.S. History,” n.d. https://www.plannedparenthoodaction.org/issues/abortion/abortion-central-history-reproductive-health-care-america#:~:text=Leaders%20didn%27t%20outlaw%20abortion,how%20to%20induce%20abortions%E2%80%A6.

Planned Parenthood Action Fund. “Historical Abortion Law Timeline: 1850 to Today,” n.d. https://www.plannedparenthoodaction.org/issues/abortion/abortion-central-history-reproductive-health-care-america/historical-abortion-law-timeline-1850-today.

Rue, Vincent Ph.D. “The Hollow Men: Male Grief & Trauma following Abortion.” United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, n.d. https://www.usccb.org/prolife/programs/rlp/rue.pdf.

Rue, Vincent Ph.D. Forgotten Fathers: Men and Abortion, Life Cycle Books, 1986.
The Young Turks. “J.D. Vance: Calls Rape ‘Inconvenient,’” September 25, 2021. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2CnevX5qkDQ.