The following is an excerpt from the introduction of Surgery & Salvation: The Roots of Reproductive Injustice in Mexico, 1770–1940 by Elizabeth O'Brien, which is now available wherever books are sold. In the early morning hours of March 12, 1884, a pregnant eighteen-year-old walked on a derelict pathway in Mexico City. Known colloquially as Devil’s Alley, the street has been featured in generations of ghost stories and urban legends. It was also infamous as a site of sexual commerce. Historians do not know what brought the girl to the backstreet, but we do know that...