Abortive Avoidance: The Victorian Medical Profession, Reproductive Rights, and Obscenity.

This article examines the limited access to information and resources for women in managing their reproductive health during Victorian Britain. It discusses how women had to rely on folk remedies and advice from friends and neighbors, as the medical profession largely avoided the topic of abortion and birth control. The article also explores the intersection of pornography and scientific texts, highlighting how pornographic publishers used scientific language to discuss taboo subjects like birth control and abortion. It further analyzes the short story "A: B: O" by Walter de la Mare, which critiques the prevailing attitudes towards abortion and medical practices of the time. The text argues that controversial genres like pornography provided a space to discuss censored topics in the medical domain. [Extracted from the article]