title: "Barrenness against nature": Recourse to abortion in pre-industrial England.
abstract: Most demographers and quantitative historians are of the opinion that family limitation was unknown to most Europeans prior to the nineteenth century. But, by looking at the practice of abortion in pre-industrial England, it is possible to question such an assertion. The evidence provided in the writings of doctors, herbalists, midwives, and lawyers makes it clear that not only were herbal abortifacients available, but that their use was not impeded by the types of legal restrictions which were set in place during the nineteenth century. The recourse of both single and married women to abortion suggests that they did not stoically accept every pregnancy and that well before the nineteenth century the idea of controlling one's fertility was "thinkable."
authors.affiliation: a Associate Professor of History , University of Victoria , Victoria , British Columbia , V8W 2Y2 , Canada.
authors.forename: Angus
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: McLaren