Katie's Reviews > Madame Restell: The Life, Death, and Resurrection of Old New York's Most Fabulous, Fearless, and Infamous Abortionist

Actual rating is 4.5 stars because a LOT of history was crammed in this, but it really drove home that the more things change, the more things stay the same. The proliferation of modern day Anthony Comstocks, the overturning of Roe v. Wade, the moral panic that we're going to run out of white babies unless women stay home and accept whatever their husbands give them...women always have, and always will have, necessary abortions.

Madame Restell was honestly a fulfillment of the American Dream, by making massive amounts of wealth by doing something seemingly objectionable and yet not giving two shits what people thought about her because her services were still wildly necessary. She certainly had her anti-hero moments, but she was providing a safe medical procedure to her patients because they deserved bodily autonomy.

Also, I'm glad I was finally able to listen to a full audiobook narrated by Mara Wilson.