author
Horatio Robinson Storer
1830–1922
A 19th-century Boston physician, he helped shape gynecology as a distinct medical field while also becoming a leading voice in the campaign against abortion in the United States. His life sits at the crossroads of medicine, reform, and controversy.
3 Audiobooks
On criminal abortion in America
by Horatio Robinson Storer
Why not? A book for every woman
by Horatio Robinson Storer
Is it I? A book for every man.
by Horatio Robinson Storer
About the author
Born in Boston in 1830, Horatio Robinson Storer studied at Harvard and went on to build a medical career focused on women’s health. Historians credit him as an early force in separating gynecology from obstetrics in American medicine, and he helped found one of the first medical societies devoted specifically to gynecology.
Storer is also remembered for his major role in the 19th-century physicians’ campaign against abortion. That activism made him an influential figure in debates over medicine, law, and reproductive health, and it remains the most discussed part of his legacy today.
Beyond medicine, he was known as a numismatist and naturalist, showing wide scholarly interests outside his surgical work. He died in 1922, leaving behind a career that was important, ambitious, and still debated by historians.