num_pages: 352
description: This is the story of one of the boldest women in American history: a self-made millionaire a celebrity in her era a woman beloved by her patients and despised by the men who wanted to control them. In Madame Restell readers are instantly transported to the glamorous mansions and bejeweled carriages of pre-Gilded Age New York where they meet our eponymous heroine: the citys premiere abortionist. An industrious woman who built her business from the ground up Restell was a self-taught surgeon on the cutting edge of healthcare and her bustling boarding house provided birth control abortions and medical assistance to thousands of womenrich and poor alike. As her practice expanded her notoriety swelled and Restell established herself as a prime target for tabloids threats and lawsuits galore. But far from fading into the background she flaunted her wealth defiantly parading across the city in designer duds and expensive jewelry rubbing her success in the faces of the many politicians publishers religious zealots and male competitors determined to bring her down. Unfortunately for Madame Restell her rise to the top of her field coincided with the greatest scam youve never heard about: the campaign to curtail womens power by restricting their access to healthcare. For centuries midwives and female practitioners like Restell had tended to public healthcare needs of both men and women. But after the birth of the medical clinic newly-minted male MDs were eager to edge out their feminine competitionby forcing women back into the home and turning medicine into a standardized male-only practice. At the same time a group of powerful secular menthreatened by womens burgeoning independence in other fieldspersuaded the Christian leadership to declare abortion a sin rewriting the meaning of Christian morality to protect their own interests. By unraveling the misogynistic and misleading lies that put womens health in jeopardy Wright simultaneously restores Restell to her rightful place in history and obliterates the faulty fractured reasoning underlying the very foundation of what has since been dubbed the pro-life movement. Thought-provoking character-driven boldly written and feminist as hell Madame Restell is required reading for anyone and everyone who believes that when it comes to womens rights womens bodies and womens history women should have the last word.
language: English
title: Madame Restell: The Life, Death, and Resurrection of Old New York's Most Fabulous, Fearless, and Infamous Abortionist
publisher: Hachette Books