Mail-Order Abortions, 1936
It’s not at all hard to find advertisements in the back of sleazier pulp magazines offering mail order at-home abortifacients. Of course it’s difficult to know what compounds would arrive in the mail for your money, especially since the ads were usually quite vague and oblique in their references to “feminine complaints” and the like. The reason this advertisement caught my eye — in addition to its ransom-note typographic aesthetic — is that for its time, it is unusually clear and explicit about the problem it promises to remedy:
I suppose the free included “Marriage Secrets Revealed” booklet — hopefully a flier on the wonders of prophylactic contraception — is no less than your due, if you’ve just paid five bucks in 1936 dollars for your obstinate-case box of Formula XXX:
LATE? Overdue Women FIND QUICK RELIEF
KYBO PERIODIC COMPOUND has PROVEN SUCCESSFUL in many long abnormally DELAYED menstrual cases with NO BAD AFTER
EFFECTS. Many women reporting sensational results. Mrs. L.S. writes: “It has done wonders for me.” Mrs. W.M.D.: “I have been delayed 11 weeks– Kybo brought results in 2 days.” FORMULA XX, $2 a box. For obstinate cases, FORMULA XXX, $5 a box. Orders rushed in plain wrapper. Directions enclosed. TRIAL SIZE 25c. FREE BOOKLET: “Marriage Secrets Revealed.” Quality justifies price.KYBO PRODUCTS CO., 1109 S. State S., Dept. 127, CHICAGO
MONEY BACK GUARANTEE! Satisfaction with first order or your Money Refunded.
This advertisement appeared in the back pages of the December 1936 issue of Spicy Detective Stories.
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Wow. All the other ads on the pages of that edition. Just wow.
KYBO is a term used for temporary outhouse. It has also might have come from “Keep Your Bowls Open”. Growing up in the 50s we Boy Scouts used the term to mean anything relating to shitting.
Oh, and how prescient this post turned out to be, given the breaking news of the day.
That was, I swear, a complete coincidence and accident. Except to the extent, I suppose, that everything we do is perforce situated within the context of the times.