Madame Restell is a sharp witty Gilded Age medical history which introduces us to an iconic
yet tragically overlooked feminist heroine: a glamorous women's healthcare provider in
Manhattan known to the world as Madame Restell. A celebrity in her day with a flair for high
fashion and public petty beefs Restell was a self-made woman and single mother who used her
wit her compassion and her knowledge of family medicine to become one of the most in-demand
medical workers in New York. Not only that she used her vast resources to care for the most
vulnerable women of the city: unmarried women in need of abortions birth control and other
medical assistance. In defiance of increasing persecution from powerful men Restell saved the
lives of thousands of young women in fact in historian Jennifer Wright's own words despite
having no formal training and a near-constant steam of women knocking at her door she never
lost a patient. Restell was a revolutionary who opened the door to the future of reproductive
choice for women and Wright brings Restell and her circle to life in this dazzling sometimes
dark and thoroughly entertaining tale. In addition to uncovering the forgotten history of
Restell herself the book also doubles as an eye-opening look into the greatest American scam
you've never heard about: the campaign to curtail women's power by restricting their access to
healthcare. Before the 19th century abortion and birth control were not only legal in the
United States but fairly common and public healthcare needs (for women and men alike) were
largely handled by midwives and female healers. However after the Birth of the Clinic
newly-minted male MDs wanted to push women out of their space-by forcing women back into the
home and turning medicine into a standardized male-only practice. At the same time a group of
powerful secular men-threatened by women's burgeoning independence in other fields-persuaded
the Christian leadership to declare abortion a sin rewriting the meaning of Christian morality
to protect their own interests. As Wright explains their campaign to do so was so
insidious-and successful-that it remains largely unrecognized to this day a century and a half
later. By unraveling the misogynistic and misleading lies that put women's 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 funny and feminist as hell Madame
Restell is required reading for anyone and everyone who believes that when it comes to women's
rights women's bodies and women's history women should have the last word--
