Lorraine Rothman Biography

Controversial women’s advocate and leader of the feminist health movement in the 1970s. She advocated that women could perform self gynecological procedures without medical supervision as well as end very early pregnancies with menstrual extraction. Rothman developed and patented a device that could be used for early abortions at home in 1974. The device could also be used to shorten a women’s period. She defended her invention as a safer alternative to abortion clinics, and a way to give women control and knowledge of their own bodies.