Restell, Madame, 1812-1878

Ann Trow Lohman (May 6, 1812 – April 1, 1878), better known as Madame Restell, was a British-born American abortion provider who practiced in New York City. Ann Trow was born in Painswick, Gloucestershire, England in 1812 At the age of sixteen, she married Henry Sommers, an alcoholic tailor from Wiltshire.[2] After three years living in England, they emigrated to New York in 1831 where Sommers died of Typhoid in 1833.[2] Ann Trow Sommers was left alone with an infant daughter, Caroline,[3] and forced to make a living as a seamstress and midwife.[2] Ann remarried in 1836, to a German–Russian immigrant, Charles Lohman. Charles and Ann developed a story to validate Ann's interests in midwifery and women's health. According to their story, she had travelled to Europe to train in midwifery with a renowned French physician named Restell.[3] She began selling patent medicine, and (probably in partnership with her husband and brother) creating birth control products such as "preventative powders" and "Female Monthly Pills", advertised under the name "Madame Restell". She sold these products through the post and performed house visits.[3] When these "Monthly Pills" proved insufficient for a woman to end a pregnancy and thus maintain good standing in society, Restell devised another solution. Self-professed doctors and pharmacists, she and her husband became surgeons. The new title ensured more profitable procedures could be performed under the same legal penalty given for offering medication-induced abortions.[5] Abortifacients used in this era were often blends of herbs such as ergot, calomel, aloe, or black hellebore. These were thought to upset the digestive tract, inducing a miscarriage. Surgical abortions included rupturing the amniotic sac, or dilating the cervix (premature labor), or even in-utero decapitation.[2]

National Police Gazette Restell.jpg
Madame Restell advertised her services as a "Female Physician" in newspapers such as the Herald and even the New York Times. She and her husband Charles operated out of a large brownstone mansion on the northeast corner of Fifth Avenue and 52nd Street.[6] Soon, Restell's success began to attract copiers and competition. This drew the attention of the AMA, which officially launched a campaign in 1857 to end abortion. In order to rally support for their cause, the AMA targeted Restell, the most celebrated abortion provider and deemed her the enemy.[3] The term "Restellism" became a euphemism for abortion. With the swift changes of law in New York, Restell was constantly being hounded by authorities and anti-abortion crusaders to end her practice.[3] Madame Restell became so well known throughout New York City that copies of her trials were published in the Times and the Police Gazette. She was listed as a New York City attraction in tour guides.[3] Madame Restell was arrested by Comstock, who posed as a customer looking for birth control pills and took the police around the next day to have her arrested. Bail was set at $1,000. She was said to have reached into her purse to pull out $10,000, but the judge would accept only regular bail bonds,[14] so Restell had to pay a bondsman. Following Restell's arrest in early 1878, a maid discovered her in the bathtub at her home on Fifth Avenue; she had slit her own throat on the morning of April 1, 1878.[12] Upon her death, she was found to be worth between $500,000 to $600,000 ($12.4 million-$14.9 million in present-day terms).[11]

Abortionist and purveyor of patent medicines, Madame Restell was born Ann Trow in England, daughter of a laborer. She married a tailor, Henry Summers, and in 1830 their daughter Caroline was born. Early the next year the family immigrated to the United States, arriving in New York where they made their living as needleworkers. In August 1831, Henry Summers died of bilious fever. In 1836 she met Charles Henry Lohman, a printer; by 1839 they had married and launched an abortion and patent medicine enterprise. Restell was repeatedly charged for her illegal activities, and in 1878, facing charges brought by Anthony Comstock of the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice, committed suicide.