AskHistorians Podcast Episode 250: Emily Winderman and the rhetoric of back alley abortion

This week, u/EdHistory101 talks with Emily Winderman about her book, Back-Alley Abortion: A Rhetorical History. The conversation covers specifics around rhetoric and rhetorical histories including the role of the canon, working in the archives while pregnant, how discussion of abortion has shifted over time, and how abortion is not unique when it comes to American rhetoric but does hold a particular position in discourse because it's not just about abortion, how white and Black women have talked to each other and about abortion and the phrase " we won't go back ." Texts she mentions include Reading Rhetorical Theory: Speech, Representation, and Power by Atilla Hallsby, Sign of Pathology: U.S. Medical Rhetoric on Abortion, 1800s–1960s by Nate Stormer, the We Testify Project , Sherie M. Randolph's biography of Florynce "Flo" Kennedy, Tamika L. Carey's work on "impatient rhetoric", Patricia Collins and others on how women are talked about in anti-abortion efforts, and Linda Kerber's The Republican Mother: Women and the Enlightenment--An American Perspective. (43 minutes)

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AskHistorians Podcast Episode 250: Emily Winderman and the rhetoric of back alley abortion is an episode from The AskHistorians Podcast by AskHistorians Podcast.

This episode is 43:16 long.

This episode was published on Apr 30, 2026.

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