Midwives

“In turn of the century Chicago, specialists in obstetrics won increased state supervision and restriction of the city’s midwives in 1896, 1908, and 1915. In each instance, the identification of midwives as abortionists facilitated the passage of new rules controlling midwives’ practices. . . . When reporters and city officials connected midwives and abortion to contemporary anxieties about the sexual vulnerability and independence of single women, politicians at every level acted to control midwives. Reformers, reporters, and politicians all reworked the midwife story and put their own slant on it, yet they followed the medical line that linked midwives to abortion and urged their regulation as the solution. Controlling midwives seemed to be the answer to an array of perceived social problems. Meanwhile, the role of physicians in performing abortions was overlooked. Stigmatizing midwives as abortionists was only weapon used by specialists in their political campaign to suppress midwifery” (Reagan, 119).