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

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? Or a granny midwife dedicated to ensuring reproductive control for herself and her community? They're here, and so are dozens of stories like them--buried, distorted, or erased by colonialism and patriarchy.

Don't Breed on Me is not just a book about abortion--it's a call to remember, reclaim, and reframe. For students, activists, and anyone with a uterus (or who knows someone with one), this book is both an accessible introduction and a vital tool in the fight for reproductive justice. Abortion is care. Abortion is power. Abortion is joy.

Madeline Quasebarth is a dedicated public health professional with extensive expertise in sexual and reproductive healthcare, reproductive rights, and maternal and fetal health care access. She holds a master's in health sciences from Johns Hopkins University and a master's in the social sciences from the University of Chicago, and a doctorate in public health at Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine.