Episode 4.2. Josephine McCarty: Abortionist, Spy, Mother of the Year?

Dirty Sexy History

During Josephine McCarty’s trial for murder, she was portrayed as an ordinary woman—a mother of six, she was only looking out for her children when she shot her lover in the face in front of dozens of witnesses. Over the course of her trial, she told the story of her life—she had been a lobbyist, an abortion provider, one of the first female doctors in the United States, and a double agent during the Civil War. Josephine was anything but ordinary, but her experiences mirror those of other nineteenth-century women: struggles with marriage, divorce, and child support; the pursuit of higher education and independent income; and navigating a chaotic healthcare system that was never built for women. Half medical history and half true crime, her story will have you on the edge of your seat. Our guest this week is R.E. Fulton, author of The Abortionist of Howard Street: Medicine and Crime in Nineteenth-Century New York, out today from Cornell University Press.