In This Article

• Why Emma Averitt’s story mirrors centuries of systemic abuse against women
• How witch trials and medical misdiagnosis served male power
• The rise of modern laws that criminalize women’s autonomy
• What Republicans are doing now to gut women’s healthcare rights
• Why this Mother’s Day demands more than flowers—it demands action

From Witch Trials to Abortion Bans: The Republican War on Women’s Bodies

Emma was my grandmother. She wasn’t mad—just inconvenient. Her railroad lineman husband abandoned her with three daughters in the depths of the Great Depression. Her brother—a Florida legislator and an attorney with a name fit for a brass plaque—had her committed to the notorious Chattahoochee State Hospital. Not because she posed a threat, but because she posed a burden. Emma likely had Graves’ disease, a thyroid condition that causes anxiety, mood swings, and tremors. But back then, they didn’t diagnose women with medical conditions—they called it “female trouble” or simply “hysteria.” Which was coded as: “We don’t want to deal with her.”

And Chattahoochee wasn’t just any institution. It was the deep end of the American asylum system—a place so infamous for abuse, neglect, and human misery that Hollywood made a film about it. Chattahoochee (1990), starring Gary Oldman and Dennis Hopper, told the true story of a Korean War veteran who was thrown into that same hospital after a suicide attempt and witnessed horrors that could make a prison blush: beatings, overmedication, sexual abuse, solitary confinement, and silence. Real-life horror, not fiction. That’s where Emma was sent into a system designed not to heal but to disappear the inconvenience, especially for women.

Years later, she was institutionalized again. Not by a judge or a doctor, but by her own family, who, facing the cruel arithmetic of America’s social safety net, locked her up so the state would pay for her cancer care. Compassion? Hardly. It was an economic triage in a country that still treats eldercare as a moral failing and public health as a luxury. Emma spent her final years not in comfort or dignity, but in state custody. Because in America, it’s cheaper to silence older women than to care for them.

The Original Crime: Womanhood

This didn’t start with Emma. The systemic abuse of women has deep roots, stretching back to the Middle Ages when being an “independent woman” was often a death sentence. In Europe and later the American colonies, tens of thousands of women were accused of witchcraft and executed—burned at the stake, hanged, or drowned. These weren’t spell-casting sorceresses—they were often midwives, widows, or women who dared to live without male supervision. In many cases, they were landowners without a husband, healers with knowledge of herbs, or outspoken citizens who made their neighbors uncomfortable. That alone was enough to mark them for death.

The witch trials weren’t just medieval superstition but deliberate, institutionalized purges. Which hunts offered the ruling class a legal pretext to strip women of land, labor, or reputation? Male authorities—whether priests, judges, or husbands—could declare a woman dangerous, and the consequences were swift and often fatal. It was a society-wide form of control masquerading as righteousness. Behind the bonfires and confessionals was a brutal message: a woman who steps out of line will be silenced, whether by rope, flame, or public disgrace.

It was institutional punishment, just with fire instead of pharmaceuticals. The methods changed over centuries, but the impulse didn’t. By the 19th century, the fire was gone, but the asylums had arrived. Women who read too much, cried too often, or disobeyed their fathers were now labeled “hysterical” and locked away. This moral panic evolved into a medical one, with doctors diagnosing nonconformity as a disease. Emma didn’t face the stake, but the building at Chattahoochee wasn’t much better. Her only real crime, like thousands before her, was being a woman who didn’t conform to what men—and their institutions—demanded.

Religious Wrath and Patriarchal Policy

For centuries, the church served as the enforcer of male dominance, embedding the belief that women were the source of sin, temptation, and disorder. From Eve’s portrayal as the original transgressor to Paul’s command that women remain silent in church, religious doctrine has long been used to justify female subordination. Women were barred from positions of spiritual authority, denied education, and often punished for asserting independence. The message was clear: a virtuous woman was silent, submissive, and entirely defined by her relationship to a man. Religious institutions taught that female ambition was dangerous, that female desire was sinful, and that female autonomy was a threat to divine order. This theology laid the foundation for centuries of policy, law, and violence that kept women under control.

Today’s right-wing politics has merely swapped pulpits for podiums. Modern evangelical movements—deeply entwined with Republican policymaking—have repackaged these ancient teachings under the guise of “family values” and “religious freedom.” The same patriarchal assumptions persist: women are too emotional to lead, too untrustworthy to decide their own healthcare, and too morally frail to be left in charge of their own bodies. Laws banning abortion, restricting birth control, and punishing educators for teaching gender equality are not moral safeguards—they’re legislative scripture. Behind every call to “protect life” lies an unspoken goal: to return to a time when women knew their place and stayed there. It’s not about faith—it’s about power disguised as piety.

The 21st Century Witch Trials

Today’s gallows come in the form of state laws. Florida’s six-week abortion ban, passed in 2023, effectively makes abortion illegal for most women before they even know they’re pregnant. Texas’s infamous SB8 lets private citizens sue anyone who “aids or abets” an abortion, turning neighbors into bounty hunters and clinics into ghost towns. These aren’t healthcare policies. They’re control mechanisms.

In Idaho, a woman could be charged for a miscarriage if authorities suspect wrongdoing. That’s not science—it’s medieval paranoia. The state even had to be sued by the federal government because it refused to allow abortions in medical emergencies. That’s not pro-life. That’s pro-theocracy.

Anti-abortion groups, with Republican backing, are going after Mifepristone—the abortion pill—through lawsuits and backdoor FDA pressure. The strategy? Remove access to medication, then claim women “chose” not to have abortions. It's bureaucratic gaslighting, wrapped in sanctimony. And it's working.

Some states are passing laws banning the mailing of abortion medication altogether, even if prescribed legally in another state. If this feels unconstitutional, that's because it is. But the game isn’t legality—it’s attrition. Grind down access, and you grind down rights.

Republicans are still gunning for Planned Parenthood. Never mind that only a small fraction of what they do involves abortion. They provide cancer screenings, prenatal care, STD tests, and birth control. But who needs that, right? As long as a woman gives birth, who cares what happens after? Welcome to the “pro-life” logic loop.

Meanwhile, the same politicians gut Medicaid expansion, oppose paid parental leave, and block universal childcare. It’s not about life—it’s about leverage. Once you're pregnant, you're helpful. Once you're not, you're on your own.

The American Taliban? Too Close for Comfort

Let’s not sugarcoat it. What we’re witnessing in America today isn’t just a resurgence of conservative policy—it’s a full-blown revival of authoritarian patriarchy, dressed in flag pins and red ties. The parallels with theocratic regimes are chilling. Like the Taliban, these leaders seek control over women’s bodies, choices, and futures. They don’t need turbans or prayer rugs—they have gavels and campaign ads. And just like their extremist counterparts abroad, they fear one thing above all else: women who can say no. No to forced motherhood. No to religious conformity. No to being ruled by men cloaked in divine authority. They may wrap themselves in the Constitution, but they’re using it like a shroud to suffocate women’s rights.

The Republican strategy is both calculated and relentless. Use religious language to moralize, pack the courts with ideologues to legalize, and deploy state machinery to enforce. It’s a rinse-and-repeat cycle of repression. Abortion bans written by men who’ll never face pregnancy. Laws that criminalize miscarriages, restrict access to life-saving medications, and punish doctors for doing their jobs. Even travel bans between states for reproductive care are now being proposed. And all of this—every invasive ultrasound, every forced birth, every delayed cancer treatment—is wrapped in the Orwellian bow of “freedom.” It’s not freedom. It’s coercion in a Sunday suit. If George Orwell were alive today, he’d instantly recognize the language of control—and he’d warn us, as he did before, that tyranny often marches under the banner of virtue.

This Mother’s Day, Let’s Get Real

If you’re celebrating Mother’s Day this weekend, skip the sentimental Hallmark cards. Celebrate by getting angry. Emma Averitt was a mother. She raised three daughters before being silenced by the men and systems around her. How many more Emmas do we need before we call this what it is—a war on women, waged not with muskets but with moralizing judges and lobbyists?

This isn’t about tradition. It’s about regression. The witch hunts never ended—they just traded bonfires for legislation. And the victims? They’re still our mothers, sisters, daughters, and grandmothers. Maybe this year, we honor them by fighting back.

About the Author

Robert Jennings is the co-publisher of InnerSelf.com, a platform dedicated to empowering individuals and fostering a more connected, equitable world. A veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps and the U.S. Army, Robert draws on his diverse life experiences, from working in real estate and construction to building InnerSelf with his wife, Marie T. Russell, to bring a practical, grounded perspective to life’s challenges. Founded in 1996, InnerSelf.com shares insights to help people make informed, meaningful choices for themselves and the planet. More than 30 years later, InnerSelf continues to inspire clarity and empowerment.

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Article Recap

Emma Averitt’s tragic story reflects a deeper truth: that women’s lives have been controlled, misdiagnosed, criminalized, and erased for centuries. From witch trials to institutional abuse to today’s abortion bans and punitive healthcare laws, the cycle of patriarchal repression continues. The Republican war on women isn’t new—it’s just wearing a modern mask. This Mother’s Day, we owe it to every Emma to call it out and shut it down.

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