Blue Hawaii

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abortifacients, abortion, birth control, blue state, contraception, folk traditions, Hawaii, herbal medicine, reproductive rights

For some people, the title of this blog post might conjure up memories of the old Elvis Presley film of that name.  “Blue Hawaii” featured gorgeous Hawaiian scenery, implausible shots of Elvis supposedly surfing, and pretty much everyone in the movie routinely mispronouncing the islands’ names as ha-WHY and ka-WHY rather than ha-WHY-ee and ka-WHY-ee.

For my purposes, I am more interested in the sociopolitical meaning of “blue” states as opposed to “red” states in recent U.S. history.  Put simply, the blue states are those in which women’s rights, the right to health care, and humane policies are still valued and defended.  These are states in which reproductive health rights are not under siege, states whose citizens have successfully resisted gerrymandering that disenfranchises Black voters, states that have not approved any anti-women legislation, such as fetal personhood measures.

Most people are not aware that Hawai`i legalized abortion in advance of the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade, slightly before New York and California did so.  The relatively easy passage of a liberal abortion law in Hawai`i has been attributed to the multi-ethnic, multi-religious composition of the state.  The relevant stakeholders, from feminist activists to politicians to physicians to ordinary citizens, appear to have viewed abortion law reform as an affirmation of shared commitment to Hawai`i’s pluralistic society as well as a way to improve women’s reproductive health options.  And despite recent efforts by conservative, misogynist zealots, abortion rights are not under threat in blue Hawai`i.

Interestingly, promoters of abortion law liberalization in the early 1970s do not appear to have particularly emphasized indigenous Hawaiian attitudes toward the practice of abortion.  This might have been because people living in Hawai`i circa 1970 were not yet experiencing the widespread renaissance of interest in indigenous Hawaiian language and culture that started a decade or so later.  Now, however, as stated on the book jacket of the 2022 printing of June Gutmanis’ immensely influential The Secrets and Practice of Hawaiian Herbal Medicine, Hawaiian herbal medicine “is emerging as a popular alternative to traditional [i.e., modern allopathic] medical practices today.”

Originally published in 1976, this book is a classic. The late June Gutmanis was a renowned author and researcher who contributed greatly to the revival of Hawaiian culture and traditions.

Gutmanis’ book was first published in 1976 and has been continuously in print since then.  At first glance, she seems an unlikely author for such a well-regarded compendium of Hawaiian herbal lore.  Born in 1926 in Nebraska, she served as a pilot in World War II.  She never got an academic degree but was an avid amateur historian and a founding member of the East Hawai`i Historical Society.  She interviewed many k­ahuna (Hawaiian healers) herself and supplemented her first-person accounts with little-known archival materials.

Gutmanis explains that before European contact Hawaiian youth were expected to experiment sexually from a relatively young age.  Girls and young women were taught several methods of herbal contraception, and there was no stigma attached to using them.  Couples could use birth control to limit or space out their children, or even to not have children at all if that was their choice; and women who had their children too close together were scorned.  To illustrate the acceptability of childlessness in old Hawai`i, Gutmanis quotes Hawaiian folklorist S. M. Kamakau, writing in 1870: “A man and a woman might live together from the time they were young and strong and full of hope until old age approached without having a child or children.”  The elders of the community would help the couple prevent pregnancy.

Koa and other tannin-rich leaf tampons are among the pre-coital contraceptives mentioned by Gutmanis’ sources.  Parts of the hau tree were also used, though Gutmanis laments that her sources don’t specify the parts used.  She speculates that the tree’s bark, which produces a thick, mucus-like sap “may have been used as a spermicide.”

As in most indigenous (and modern) societies about which something is known of contraceptive practices, abortion was also employed for birth control.  Indeed, the Hawaiian language has seven words for abortion.  Abortifacient plants such as noni (Indian mulberry), hau, and `ohi`a `ai (mountain apple) could be taken orally to induce abortion.  An alternative was for the woman to squat over a steam bath infused with parts of the above plants as well as several others.  Surgical abortion with a sharp bamboo blade was sometimes used, but, according to Gutmanis’ sources, was more dangerous than the herbal methods.

Hot infusions of `ohi`a `ai (Mountain apple) were one of the methods traditionally used to induce abortion.

Eating Noni (Indian mulberry) was traditionally believed to induce abortion.

Sources:  June Gutmanis, The Secrets and Practice of Hawaiian Herbal Medicine; Honolulu: Island Heritage, 2013 (2^nd edition; 1^st edition 1976); Patricia G. Steinhoff and Milton Diamond, Abortion Politics: the Hawaii Experience; Honolulu: The University Press of Hawaii, 1977.

The New Face of Misogyny in the U.S.

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abortion, misogyny, reproductive rights, Trump

President-Elect Trump

My last post was cautiously optimistic about the state of women’s reproductive rights in the U.S., since the Supreme Court had just struck down Texas’ most extreme TRAP laws. Unfortunately, because of the blatantly undemocratic system of indirect voting in the U.S. (that is, the Electoral College), Donald Trump, who received 2.84 million fewer votes than the “losing” presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, is destined to enter the White House in January 2017. Trump is an unrepentant misogynist who has boasted about forcing himself on women and groping their genitals.

Trump was supported by sexist, racist, homophobic fundamentalists who have taken his supposed victory as a signal to rush into law a barrage of measures limiting women’s rights over their own bodies. Take the example of Ohio, whose state legislature just passed a bill banning abortion after a fetal heartbeat has been detected (this generally occurs between six and eight weeks’ gestation — before many women even know they’re pregnant). Numerous other state legislatures are contemplating similar bans, and at least four states have “trigger bans” in place. These bills automatically criminalize abortion as soon as a Trump-skewed Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade (and thus leaves decisions about the legality of abortion to the individual states).

Trump has committed himself in writing to putting anti-abortion judges on the Supreme Court, passing a national ban on abortion after 20 weeks, eliminating federal money for Planned Parenthood, and making the Hyde Amendment (passed annually by Congress to ban taxpayer-funded abortions) permanent. The potential results of this wave of fanaticism are appalling, and as always, the effects will disproportionately fall on women of limited economic resources and women of color.

Polls continue to show that the majority of the U.S. population supports the legalization of abortion affirmed in Roe v. Wade. Moreover, if we add the popular votes cast in November for Hillary Clinton to those for Gary Johnson and Jill Stein (the two leading third-party candidates, who, like Clinton, strongly oppose increased restrictions on abortion), we find that they received a total of 71.5 million votes as opposed to Trump’s 62.9 million. A sizable majority of voters are opposed to the Trumpist misogyny being promulgated by legislators on the state level.
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Some pundits are predicting that Trump’s disregard for anti-corruption laws will get him impeached sooner rather than later. But his removal would in no sense help women because the Vice President-elect Mike Pence is even more rabidly anti-reproductive justice than Trump is.

In many ways the U.S. is a pariah of human rights on the international stage. Domestically as well, the country seems destined to enter a dark age of human rights abuses of women — unless a resistance movement can gain force.