Jennifer Haigh's novel, Mercy Street, centers around a clinic that provides women's health care services, including abortion.

As most know, it is already difficult to gain access to legal abortion services in many parts of the United States; but legislation to outlaw access is now gaining traction, both by the Supreme Court and in many conservative states. However, some might not be aware that abortion was unregulated in the U.S. until the mid-1800s. According to Planned Parenthood, before this time, "Common law allowed for abortion prior to 'quickening' – an archaic term for fetal movement that usually happens after around four months of pregnancy." Medical literature of the day regularly discussed abortion methods, focusing on herbal remedies (surgical intervention was rare at the time, and dangerous). Care was often provided by midwives, and men generally stayed out of women's gynecological practices. This began to change after the Civil War, and by 1910 abortion was banned...