The Scarlet Letter Stands for What?

 I always thought the scarlet letter in Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter stood for adultress. My copy from high school is one of the books gone missing during my imprisonment, so no text easily at hand to double check Dana Medoro's A Private Matter: Abortion and The Scarlet Letter.

The author makes what seems like a good argument.

While I cannot prove that Nathaniel Hawthorne happened on precisely this page, it encapsulates a cultural phenomenon of which he must been aware. The letter folds the secret of a declined alternative within it, complicating the view that sex, pregnancy, and childbirth follow one from the other in an escapable train of consequences for Hawthorne’s protagonist.

Seems abortion was common and known in Hawthorne's time being legal. 

Too bad Stephanie R is not around to give her opinion.

I have thought of creating t-shirts with a "P" in puce for pervert. Seems to me a better notice to the public of my danger to their safety than the sex offender registration registry.

And from The Pretenders:

sch 8/19/22