Restricting Abortion Access: a Modern-Day Witch Hunt

Examining the Parallels Between The War on Women and Histories Witch Hunts

With the spooky season of Halloween having recently passed and as the last of the midterm results are finalized, I find myself reflecting on where we are in history. At first, I felt haunted by images of witches and couldn’t figure out why. Initially, I’d cast these images aside because I was reluctant to draw a parallel between our current war on women via the socio-political battle for access to abortion, and the witch trials of yore. It echoed a similar refrain of the “Handmaid’s Tale” reference, which I, and others, find problematic. But as I allowed myself to look more deeply, I began to see how eerily today’s anti-abortion campaigns echo the witch hunts of our past. Here’s what these distinct moments in history have in common:

They both are fundamentally derived from a “ruling class campaign of terror”. 

In Barbara Ehrenreich and Deirdre English’s book Witches, Midwives and Nurses: A History of Women Healers (first published in 1973) the authors make clear: “The witch hunts were well-organized campaigns initiated, financed and executed by Church and State” (pg. 36). We have seen the same dedication of anti-abortion groups funded and motivated by extreme religious agendas mobilize for decades, which ultimately led to the overturning of Roe v Wade. 

Though upwards of 70% of people in this country want abortion access to be legal (about 60% with some restrictions), 12 states have banned abortion outright, and 25 states before pregnancies are even viable (24 weeks gestation). The disconnect between the will of the people and those in power is because women have unequal representation in the government/“ruling” class, resulting in the decisions about women’s bodies and lives being made based on people’s perceptions of what womanhood means, not the lived experience of it. 

This is a ruling class campaign of terror because a small minority of the people in this country have been able to usurp the will of the majority for their own extreme religious agenda, which has created a state that is terrorizing, deadly and hostile toward women. 

What the church claimed they were fighting against during the witch hunts in the past was the “magic” of women that was “inherently evil and the work of the devil” (Ehrenreich and English). People in power are still fighting the magic of women in this country by subjugating them under the rules of patriarchal and hierarchical systems. We see this not only in the fight for access to reproductive healthcare but by the lack of federal paid family leave, unequal pay in the workforce (especially with regards to domestic labor); and in the inherent bias against victims of violent crime such as rape.

They are both state-sanctioned femicides. 

The United States falls short of protecting women not only with the legislation it refuses to pass but also with its continued inattention to the maternal morbidity and mortality crisis (people dying during childbirth from preventable causes), which is getting worse, not better. The rate of maternal mortality is anywhere between 3-5 times greater for Black and Indigenous women in this country, solely because of their race and it is more dangerous for people to give birth now than it was one generation ago. 

Eliminating access to abortion in most states will literally kill more pregnant people by forcing birth in a country that is already an incredibly dangerous place for people to be pregnant. It is not a coincidence that the states with the worst maternal morbidity and mortality also have complete or near-complete abortion bans either. 

Women are now also at risk of increased violence from abusive partners during forced pregnancies. Domestic violence is more common than any other health problem among women during pregnancy. Abortion bans can give an abuser even more control over their partner not only via sexual coercion or contraceptive sabotage , but also because their violence is supported by state-sanctioned violence against women (e.g. bans that include arrest, jail, or being fined for a woman having an abortion). 

Of note, some historians argue that the witch hunt of the 1400s to 1600s cannot be called “femicide” or “gendercide” because men were also persecuted and killed too. This is another parallel to the current socio-political climate because not all people who get pregnant, have an abortion, or give birth are women. We must include trans-men and non-binary folks in the conversations we are having about abortion and reproductive rights because the needs of everyone in this movement are intersectional. 

They are both built on the construct of double standards and center on the white narrative. 

In the book, Witches, Midwives and Nurses, the authors point out that while medical healing was available to men in power (who were of means and in the church), women’s healthcare was labeled as “witchcraft” or “magic” instead of medicine (and therefore was deemed a crime). This was especially true for the peasant class,.

The same double standard applies today: Even though men can be responsible for more unwanted pregnancies than women, and may also benefit from the decision to terminate a pregnancy, only women’s use of abortion services is a punishable offense.

The imagery of a “witch” and “witchcraft” often conjures a panic-stricken white woman on the gallows or burning at the stake. The first person, however, to be accused of witchcraft during the the Salem Witch Trials, was Tituba–a woman of color who was accused by white women and then beaten into a false confession. Of note, most of the women who were burned at the stake (which at the time was considered the worst punishment for witchcraft) were Black women. 

We see the same double standard and racism today. People of color are and will continue to be affected more significantly and directly by abortion bans and are forced to abide by laws written by white people who will never experience those laws in quite the same way.

People from LGBTQIA+ communities also face significant obstacles or violence when obtaining reproductive health care, and will now have to choose between hiding their true identities in order to receive medical care, or resorting to dangerous at-home methods (folks from transgender communities are three times more likely to end a pregnancy without clinical supervision). 

Roe was never meant to be “the law of the land”, it was merely a time when we had a break from our persecution. 

We saw it in the witch trials of the past and we are seeing it today: Once accused, women will never be able to convince people of their innocence for a crime they did not commit. 

When the court opinion was first leaked in May, I saw so many brave people coming forward to share their abortion stories to try to normalize this healthcare option and appeal to the humanity of those who championed the anti-abortion agenda. People should not have to endure the tortured confessions of their own abortion stories to try to reason with or placate the small group of extremists trying to assume power over bodily autonomy.

Instead of accusations of sorcery, magic, spells and hexes, today’s persecutors accuse us of promiscuity, ignorance, negligence, poverty, and murder. What’s to stop them from tracking our every move and menstrual cycle with apps? They’re already trying to legislate crossing state lines. Who gets to decide now how babies are made (e.g. IVF) or lost (e.g. miscarriage)? It's now a small percentage of people and a 6-3 vote of unelected politicians who are the final judge for the “crime” of reproduction–our guilt is already written into law. 

As hard as it is to see the truth of where we are in history we must ask ourselves the question: If this isn’t a witch hunt then why is society making it a crime to be a woman and a sexual being? 

But what this ruling class doesn’t want us to remember is how much collective power we have. 

The truth is, since Roe has been overturned, abortion hasn’t been lost yet: the people of Kansas in August and five more states during the midterms voted with an overwhelming majority to protect the right to abortion. 

We have so much power in our votes and voices, but more importantly, in the magic of our bodies, spirits, and sexuality and that is what this “ruling class” is so afraid of. If this is a modern-day witch hunt, then I will stand proudly as a powerful woman: A societal “other” that embodies a threat to the fragile patriarchal system.

Even if this is not a witch hunt, I still see magic in this moment: a collective uprising demanding that this time in history not be one of violence and terror, but a commitment to autonomy, power, and freedom for everyone.