Foreword / Rebecca Traister
Introduction: A short history of abortion and its representations before Roe / Karen Weingarten
Abortion stories. Metamorphosis insectorum surinamensium / Maria Sibylla Merian (1705), translated by Wijnie de Groot for this collection
"The mystery of Marie Roget: a sequel to 'The murders in the Rue Morgue' " / Edgar Allan Poe (1845)
WPA oral histories by formerly enslaved people, including Lulu Lee, Anna Lee, William Coleman, and William Byrd (recorded 1937-38 but cover the period before the end of the Civil War)
The great trunk mystery of New York City / Anonymous (1871)
The country of the pointed firs / Sarah Orne Jewett (1896)
Abortion / Eugene O'Neill (1914)
Summer / Edith Wharton (1918)
"Motherhood" / Georgia Douglas Johnson (1922)
"Engaged" / Genevieve Taggard (1922)
"Mr. Durant" / Dorothy Parker (1924)
Daughter of the Earth / Agnes Smedley (1929)
Missis Flinders / Tess Slesinger (Story magazine 1932)
"Cora unashamed" / Langston Hughes (1934)
"A cold front" / William Carlos Williams (1939)
"the mother" / Gwendolyn Brooks (1945)
Peyton Place / Grace Metalious (1956)
"What else did I think I could do?" from The abortionist / Dr. X (1962) as told to Lucy Freeman
"One woman's abortion" / Mrs. X (1965)
"Facing the abortion question" / Shirley Chisholm (1969)
They weep on my doorstep / Ruth Barnett (1969)
The abortees' songbook / Patricia Maginnis (1969)
"The lost baby poem" / Lucille Clifton (1972)
Afterword / Renee Bracey Sherman.
