The Abortionist

The word “abortionist” usually conjures up images of dangerous back alleys where untrained men take advantage of women.

In the case of Rickie Solinger’s book, instead, we meet Ruth Barnett, who performed approximately 40,000 abortions in the mid-twentieth century (1918-1968) in Portland, Oregon, without losing a single patient.

What I loved about this book is how Solinger takes us behind the scenes of a thoroughly illegal abortion clinic that still managed to provide expert care to all its patients, even as it sought to evade the law and its enforcers at every turn. 

This book had me at Page One as the author followed the strange 1968 journey taken by a young San Francisco teacher, who gratefully received an abortion, performed on top of a clothes washer, from a seasoned pro named Ruth Barnet, only to find a detective at her door some weeks later. 

This is the story of Barnet, based in Portland, OR, who is said to have performed tens of thousands of illegal abortions between 1918 and 1968.

Artfully alternating the tale of Barnet’s life in crime with a historical perspective, Solinger kept me taking notes while at the edge… show more.

Most Americans know Roe v. Wade legalized abortion in 1973, but many don’t know how common and tolerated abortion was before it was legal. This is the story of Ruth Barnet in Portland, Oregon who provided safe abortions from the 1910s into the 1960s. And she did so openly, from a doctor’s office in a downtown Portland office building, with the full knowledge of law enforcement. Solinger shows without a doubt that Roe v. Wade did not start women having abortions; it stopped most women from dying from them. And learning about abortion in the past might provide new ways… show more.