A provocative pop history that explores the witches—and witch hunts—in the untold story of abortion, from the days of Socrates through the Salem Witch Trials and the 1980s Satanic Panic, all the way to our fraught post-Roe present.

For millennia, across cultures and continents, women and people who experience pregnancy, as well as midwives and those who assist them, have been persecuted as witches (whether they actually practiced the craft or not). In this dauntless, voice-driven reassessment of that history, journalist Sophie Saint Thomas follows the tangled threads of witches and reproductive rights through the ages.

Through it all, she maintains an intersectional eye toward the communities most affected by reproductive oppression (including Native Americans, enslaved Black women, and trans people) and a scathing look at the hypocrisy of anti-choice crusaders (from eugenicists in the Church of Satan to an astrology-following Republican First Lady). With heart, humor, and deeply researched insights, Reproductive Rites brings new context to the urgency of our present moment as we fight for our rights in a post-Roe v. Wade America.

Genre:

“An exciting, racy, angry, and well-informed survey, which ranges across a wide span of history in order to make points of tremendous relevance to the present.”
Ronald Hutton, author of The Witch: A History of Fear, from Ancient Times to the Present
“Through a cross-cultural lens, Saint Thomas offers us a fascinating exploration into the socio-psychological dynamics which underscore the practice of witch persecution and the ongoing oppression of women’s reproductive rights. Her work is an incisive critique of human prejudice and its historical consequences.”
Alan Kilpatrick, author of The Night Has a Naked Soul: Witchcraft and Sorcery among the Western Cherokee

Read an Excerpt

September 23 2024

Reproductive Rights & Witchcraft in the Middle Ages: Birth Control Icon Béatrice de Planisoles

Read about Béatrice de Planisoles in an exclusive excerpt of “Reproductive Rites: The Real-Life Witches and Witch-Hunts in the Centuries-Long Fight for Abortion” by journalist and author Sophie Saint Thomas.

Read full article

Reproductive Rights & Witchcraft in the Middle Ages: Birth Control Icon Béatrice de Planisoles

Sophie Saint Thomas

About the Author

Sophie Saint Thomas is a writer based in New York City and originally from the US Virgin Islands. She is the author of books including Weed Witch. She has been published in GQ, Playboy, VICE, Cosmopolitan, Forbes, Allure, Glamour, Marie Claire, High Times, Nylon, Refinery29, Complex, Harper’s Bazaar, PRIDEMagazine, SELF, and more.

Learn more about this author

Reproductive Rites

Format

Format:

Buy from Other Retailers:

Genre:

Read an Excerpt

Reproductive Rights & Witchcraft in the Middle Ages: Birth Control Icon Béatrice de Planisoles

Sophie Saint Thomas

About the Author

×

Contributors

Formats and Prices

Price

Format

Format:

Buy from Other Retailers:

Description

Genre:

Praise

You May Also Like

Read an Excerpt

Featured Post

Reproductive Rights & Witchcraft in the Middle Ages: Birth Control Icon Béatrice de Planisoles

Sophie Saint Thomas

About the Author