Ann Trow Lohman (May 6, 1812 – April 1, 1878), better known as Madame Restell, was a British-born American abortion provider and midwife who practiced in New York City.

[2] Ann Trow Sommers was left alone with an infant daughter, Caroline,[3] and was forced to make a living as a seamstress and midwife.

[3] She began selling patent medicine, and (probably in partnership with her husband and brother) creating birth control products such as "preventative powders" and "Female Monthly Pills", advertised under the name "Madame Restell".

[3] When these "Monthly Pills" proved insufficient for a woman to end a pregnancy and thus maintain good standing in society, Restell devised another solution.

Surgical abortions included rupturing the amniotic sac, or dilating the cervix (premature labor), or even in-utero decapitation.

Only surgical abortions were forbidden, and this was only after the quickening, that is, when the woman started to feel the fetus move (this was typically around 4 months time).

In order to rally support for their cause, the AMA targeted Restell, the most celebrated abortion provider and deemed her the enemy.

With the swift changes of law in New York, Restell was constantly being hounded by authorities and anti-abortion crusaders to end her practice.

Enoch E. Camp and George Wilkes' National Police Gazette covered New York's "crime news" and detailed stories about theft, abortion, and rape.

[7] The Gazette claimed that in addition to performing abortions, "...most of the abandoned infants found almost daily throughout the city came from her [Restell's] establishment.

"[8] Conservative editors such as Samuel Jenks Smith of the New York Sunday Morning News also publicly condemned Restell's profession.

According to Smith, doctors believed Restell was engaging in dangerous work, and that "...what she was doing was impossible without endangering the lives of the patients.

Restell promised monetary compensation to anyone who could prove that her methods were dangerous, and while she was initially found guilty, her appeal overturned said verdict.

[12] Her case was made more famous due to the short story by Edgar Allan Poe, "The Mystery of Marie Rogêt".

A new addendum to the law made selling abortifacients or performing abortions at any stage during the pregnancy a misdemeanor punishable by a mandatory year in jail.

[13] This conviction, however, was "universally hailed," and media coverage of the trial prompted discussion surrounding for-profit abortions performed by physicians.

Traveling salesmen in cities such as Boston and Philadelphia heard of her financial success and sold pills to capitalize on similar profits.

[16] Before her own legal troubles, Restell heard stories of abortion providers in Philadelphia and Lowell, Massachusetts indicted for murder—indicators of growing opposition to the practice on a national scale.

[17] A similar case was that of Dr. John Stevens, a physician who performed an abortion on a young Boston woman named Gallagher.

[18] Though the Civil War distracted many Americans from the abortion debate, its end allowed some physicians to return to their anti-abortion campaign.

[15] Postal Inspector Anthony Comstock was an influential moral reformer, who sought not only to regulate sexual activity, but the very way society thought about sex.

Following Restell's arrest in early 1878, a maid discovered her in the bathtub at her home on Fifth Avenue; she had slit her own throat on the morning of April 1, 1878.