Abortionist

Rickie Solinger

Before Roe vs. Wade, hundreds of thousands of illegal abortions were performed in the U.S. every year. Award-winning author Rickie Solinger tells the revealing story of Ruth Barnett, who performed 40,000 such abortions between 1918 and 1968 and never lost a patient. 8-page photo insert "This twenty-fifth anniversary edition places abortion politics in the context of reproductive justice today and explains why abortion has been--and remains--a political flashpoint in the United States. Before Roe v. Wade, hundreds of thousands of illegal abortions occurred in the United States every year. Rickie Solinger tells the story of Ruth Barnett, an abortionist in Portland, Oregon, from 1918 to 1968, to demonstrate how the law, not back-alley practitioners, endangered women's lives in the years before legalized abortion. Women from all walks of life came to Barnett, who worked in a proper...