Yesterday, 10th August was International World Day Against Witch Hunts.
Hammer of Witches, published in 1486 by the German Dominican, theologian and inquisitor Heinrich Kramer (1), states:
“…in various ways midwife sorceresses kill the fetuses in the womb and cause miscarriages, and when they do not do this, they offer the new-borns to demons” (page 211)
and
“‘No one harms the Catholic faith more than do midwives.’ In instances where they do not kill children, they take the baby out of the room as if to do something, and raising them up in the air they offer them to the demons.” (page 212)
And here we are nearly 600 years later still fighting the accusations of witchcraft and using religion as justification to prevent women accessing abortion.
Judge Alito in the US Supreme Court cited (2) Sir Matthew Hale (3), the English 17th Century Witch Trial judge who sentenced numerous ‘witches’ to death and who is responsible for the school of thought that women cannot be raped by their husbands (an idea not completely overthrown in the US legal system until 1981) in support of his legal justification for overturning Roe vs Wade. Hale was also anti-abortion in all circumstances, because of course he was and Alito cited the misogynistic Hale on these grounds, describing Hale as ‘great’ and ’eminent’. High praise for a man who clearly hated women and who presided over the witch trial which later inspired the more famous Salem Witch trials.
