Madame Restell: The Life, Death, and Resurrection of Old New York’s Most Fabulous, Fearless, and Infamous Abortionist

This impassioned and irreverent biography of abortionist Ann Trow Sommers Lohman (1812–1878), better known as Madame Restell, places her in the “pantheon of women with no fucks left to give.” Journalist Wright (She Kills Me) details how the recently widowed Restell learned from a neighbor in New York City how to compound pills to sell to women looking to prevent or terminate a pregnancy. Her second husband, a newspaper printer, helped write ads that established her new persona as a French-trained physician. By 1839, Restell had a constant stream of clients seeking abortive pills as well as surgical abortions, but her visible wealth and outspokenness about women’s right to control their fertility soon attracted powerful enemies. Following the passage of a stricter anti-abortion law in 1845, she was sentenced to a year in jail for performing a surgical abortion. In 1878, anti-vice crusader Anthony Comstock, posing as the distraught acquaintance of a woman who was in a “delicate situation,” entrapped Restell and arrested her. Rather than face another trial, she took her own life. Wright paints a vivid picture of Restell’s rise to prominence and weaves in intriguing details about the history of birth control and abortion. This feminist history fascinates. (Feb.)