Fighting the Root Causes of Abortion In this week's FD original, historian Caleb Morell reviews Monica Klem and Madeleine McDowell's recently published Pity for Evil: Suffrage, Abortion, and Women's Empowerment in Reconstruction America. This academic treatment of nineteenth-century American feminists shows how their opposition to abortion went hand-in-hand with their advocacy for women's social, legal and political elevation.