Earl W. Essex (1919-1992) was a Pennsylvania attorney and pro-life activist. He and his wife, Kathleen (1938-2004) provided financial support for Catholic, pro-life activist Joan Andrews following her 1986 arrest following an anti-abortion sit-in at The Ladies' Center, a women's health clinic that provided abortions, in Pensacola, Florida. The Earl and Kathleen Essex collection on Joan Andrews contains clippings documenting Andrews' participation in abortion clinic protests; photographs of Andrews; legal documents relating to Andrews' 1986 arrest following a protest at The Ladies' Center in Pensacola, Florida; correspondence between Earl Essex and Andrews' lawyer, Stephen Anthony Flynn regarding financial support for Andrews' defense; and letters Andrews wrote to the Essexes during her imprisonment.

This collection consists of pro- and anti-abortion brochures, posters, reports, and other printed material that Armenta assembled while writing her undergraduate thesis at Harvard/Radcliffe in 1995.

Reproductive rights pioneer Bill Baird, a 1955 graduate of Brooklyn College, served in the United States Army (1955-1957) and worked for Sandoz and Emko pharmaceutical companies (1957-1964). In 1963 he began distributing birth control foam in the New York area, and in 1964 established the Parents' Aid Society in Hempstead, New York. A "Plan Van" also distributed contraception in poorer neighborhoods. During the 1960s he was repeatedly arrested for distributing information about birth control and abortion. Convicted in 1967 for providing contraception to a female college student at Boston University, Baird's appeal culminated in the historic 1972 Supreme Court decision, Eisenstadt v. Baird, which established the right of unmarried persons to possess contraception. In 1978, with his clinic under constant threat, Baird wrote the nation's first clinic self-defense manual. The following year his Hempstead clinic was firebombed, with fifty people inside it. Two other Supreme Court cases, Baird v. Bellotti (1976) and Baird v. Bellotti (1979), gave minors the right to abortion without parental consent. With the escalation of anti-abortion violence at clinics nationwide, Baird worked with Father Frank Pavone, co-founder of Priests for Life, to create a document calling for an end to inflammatory rhetoric and violence; signed in 2002, it was distributed nationwide. Throughout his career, he has lectured widely and demonstrated for abortion and reproductive rights. As of 2015, he serves as co-director, with Joni Scott Baird of the Pro Choice League.

Attorney Thea Rossi Barron worked with physician and pro-life advocate Mildred Jefferson (1926-2010) as the first lobbyist hired by the National Right to Life Committee in 1976. In 1979 Barron returned to private practice and continued to represent Jefferson in her role as president of the Right to Life Crusade.

As the former national campaign director for ERAmerica and a lobbyist for the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Marie Bass and Joanne Howes brought together over thirty years of experience to form the public policy and public affairs consulting firm Bass and Howes, Inc. While it operated largely in a male-dominated field, Bass and Howes came to be centrally involved in most of the key women's policy issues of the 1980s and 1990s, including reproductive rights, women's health, family and medical leave, domestic violence, and women in politics.

The League was established in 1916 to disseminate birth control information in the state of Massachusetts. Collection includes correspondence, articles, and state statutes concerning the early legal difficulties of the League. Correspondents include Blanche (Ames) Ames and Margaret Sanger.

The Boston Association for Childbirth Education (BACE) was incorporated in 1958, although its founders had begun meeting as early as 1953 to discuss how best to reform obstetrical and maternity care and to disseminate information about natural childbirth. Some of the early educators were Justine Kelliher, Abigail Avery, and Sylvia D. Sawin. In seeking to further the acquisition and application of information concerning family-centered maternity care and breastfeeding, BACE sponsored studies, held workshops and classes, published newsletters and other printed material, and collaborated with the International Childbirth Education Association.

A chapter of the National Organization for Women (NOW), Boston NOW brings a feminist voice and vision to a wide variety of issues addressing the economic, political, social, and personal dynamics that affect women's everyday lives. The members of Boston NOW have played a key role in shaping public discourse and policy in Massachusetts through political and legislative activities. They work to educate the public through rallies, forums, workshops, and demonstrations.

The Boston Women's Health Book Collective began in 1969 when a small group of women gathered after a workshop on women and their bodies at a Boston-area female liberation conference to talk about some crucial health issues and to confront a medical establishment viewed as paternalistic and condescending. Perhaps best known for their pioneering handbook Our Bodies, Ourselves (1971 and subsequent editions and international adaptations), the Collective helped to create worldwide networks of women involved in health education and advocacy. See also, Boston Women's Health Book Collective, Additional Records.

A psychiatrist, advocate for women's health care issues, and activist against domestic violence, Marjorie Braude advocated gender equality in medical research, sought to ensure women's access to abortions, supported the introduction of the abortion pill into the American market, and was editor of Women, Power, and Therapy. She also held a landmark conference on domestic violence in Los Angeles in 1994 and was an activist, writer, and speaker on women's medical and psychological issues.

Calderone was a physician and leader in public health, birth control and sex education. A compelling speaker, she was especially popular with youthful audiences who appreciated her candid no-nonsense factual replies to their questions. Dr. Calderone spearheaded a virtual revolution in liberalizing U. S. attitudes toward sex education and as a result, became the target of extremist groups. See also four collections of additional papers for Calderone: MC 622, 73-150--81-M35, 83-M129, and 83-M184.

A psychiatrist and author, Clothier was director of the Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts (1945-1957) and served as League president (1953-1956) before becoming assistant to the president of Vassar College, her alma mater, in 1957. She was also president of the Greater Fall River Committee for Family Planning and a board member of the Euthanasia Educational Council.

A fervent supporter of the Equal Rights Amendment and of abortion rights, Crisp was an active member of the Republican Party, first on the local and then on the national level, for over twenty years. In 1977, she was elected co-chair of the Republican National Committee, and served until 1980. At the 1980 Republican Convention, she spoke out against the platform committee’s decision to oppose the Equal Rights Amendment and also protested the party's opposition to the federal funding of abortion. In 1989, after the Supreme Court restricted federal funding for abortion, Crisp co-founded and served as chair and spokesperson for the National Republican Coalition for Choice.

A sociologist, professor, lecturer, and tree farmer, Sarah Thomas Curwood graduated from Cornell University in 1937 and went on to attend Boston University (Ed.M. 1947) and Radcliffe College (Ph.D. 1956). Curwood taught early childhood education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education (1952-1955) as well as other institutions. From 1968 to 1969, she was the Head Start regional training officer for New Hampshire and Vermont. She was also a consultant for many organizations including the Massachusetts Committee on Children and Youth and Volt Information Services Head Start Planned Variations Program in Buffalo, New York. In addition to her professional activities, Curwood served on the boards or as a trustee of the Massachusetts Mothers' Health Council, Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts, the Eliot-Pearson School of Tufts University, Region One of the Girl Scouts of the USA, and the American Friends Service Committee in Philadelphia.

Danforth worked as a librarian and teacher and served in the Women's Army Corps during World War II. This collection includes Danforth's anti-abortion writings and cartoons, letters, and lists of anti-abortion groups nationwide.

A suffragist, pacifist, artisan, and advocate of birth control and sex education, Mary Coffin (Ware) Dennett was a founder of the National Birth Control League, director of the Voluntary Parenthood League, and editor of the Birth Control Herald. See also Additional Papers of Mary Ware Dennett.

The collection consists of recordings of interviews conducted by Jennifer M. Donnally with people active in the pro-life movement in Massachusetts; interview use agreements; biographical information on interviewees; and transcripts of some interviews, including one with Mildred Jefferson. Interviews were conducted as research for Donnally's PhD dissertation, The Politics of Abortion and the Rise of the New Right.

Ellis has been active in the pro-life movement in Rapid City, S.D. The collection, spanning the 1970s and 1980s, includes research papers by Ellis relating to the pro-life movement and the role of propaganda; letters to the editor; and pro-life advertisements.

Ernst was a lawyer who represented physician Hannah Stone in United States v. One Package of Pessaries, a successful legal action against the U.S. government, which had seized some contraceptives shipped to Stone from Japan.

From 1973 to 1977, the Schlesinger Library carried on an oral history project, funded by two two-year grants from the Rockefeller Foundation, on the role of women in the family planning movement. The project concentrated first on the birth control movement and then on abortion law reform. This collection contains tapes and transcripts of the 24 oral histories. The interviews discuss the family background, education, marriage, children, and careers of the interviewees. See also the Project Records, which contain research materials collection by the interviewers, consisting of printed and manuscript material and photographs.

This collection consists of feminist flyers, pamphlets, directories, statements, bibliographies, curricula, programs, invitations, manifestos, articles, catalogs, and other printed materials. The collection includes materials on abortion, birth control, and other women’s health concerns.

Wanda Kay Franz, an associate professor of family resources at West Virginia University and a specialist in child development, has been active in the pro-life movement, publishing and speaking widely against abortion.

Sarah Gamble and her husband, Clarence James Gamble (1894-1966) were active in the birth control movement in the U.S. and internationally. Clarence (Princeton, 1914; Harvard Medical School, M.D. 1920) founded a maternal health clinic in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1929, taught at the Harvard Medical School, and was a researcher at the Harvard School of Public Health. Beginning in 1952, the Gambles traveled around the world, working with doctors and social workers to set up family planning clinics. In 1957 they founded the Pathfinder Fund to promote and support this work.

A socialist and deist, Gilman was an independent thinker, author, and speaker who was an intellectual leader of the women's movement from the late 1890s through the mid-1920s. An advocate of economic independence for women, Gilman considered the ballot of secondary importance. Her interests ranged from sensible dress for women, physical fitness, more rational domestic architecture, and professionalized housework, to birth control, Freud, and immigrants. This collection and other Gilman collections have been digitized. Please see the Charlotte Perkins Gilman research guide for more information about accessing the digitized materials.

An active member of the pro-life movement since 1969, Jane Gilroy published numerous scholarly and popular articles on the movement. She served as vice-chairman and secretary for the 1976 presidential campaign of Ellen McCormack, who ran on an exclusively pro-life platform, and authored a book on the campaign, A Shared Vision: The 1976 Ellen McCormack Presidential Campaign (2010). Gilroy was a founding member and president of the Long Island Chapter of University Faculty for Life. The collection contains mailings, press releases, speeches by McCormack, and clippings from local and national newspapers documenting the 1976 United States presidential campaign of Ellen Cullen McCormack, a Democratic candidate who ran on a pro-life platform.

Patricia Gold was involved in the women's liberation movement in the Boston, Mass., area and active in a number of organizations, including the Massachusetts Organization to Repeal Abortion Laws (MORAL), local chapters of the National Organization for Women, and the Massachusetts Women's Political Caucus. A nurse in Watertown, Mass., she served on the Health Task Force of the Governor's Commission on the Status of Women and was co-chair of Boston NOW's Abortion and Birth Control Task Force.

Co-founder and executive director of the Religious Institute, Debra Haffner is a graduate of Wesleyan University, Yale University School of Medicine (MPH), and Union Theological Seminary (MDiv). She is an ordained Unitarian Universalist minister and worked for Planned Parenthood of Metropolitan Washington before becoming chief executive officer of the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States (SIECUS) from 1988 to 2000. In 2001 she co-founded the Religious Institute, a multifaith organization advocating sexual health, education, and justice in faith communities and society. She is the author of several guides for congregations on sexuality, a college sexuality education textbook, and books for parents on raising sexually healthy children.

Louise Kapp Howe was the author of Moments on Maple Avenue: The Reality of Abortion (1984). This collection includes research material in preparation for her book, typed drafts of the book, and audiotapes of an unnamed conference on abortion.

The Institute for Women's Policy Research was founded in 1987 by Heidi Hartmann, a pioneering feminist economist and recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship Award. A leading think-tank on women's issues, the Institute develops comprehensive, women-focused, policy-oriented research on employment, education and economic change; democracy and society; poverty, welfare, and income security; work and family; and health and safety.

A surgeon and national spokesperson for the pro-life movement, Jefferson became involved in the pro-life movement in 1970. She was a founding member of the Value of Life Committee (VOLCOM) in Massachusetts and subsequently helped formed Massachusetts Citizens for Life (MCFL), which was incorporated in 1973. MCFL's efforts led to the founding of the National Right to Life Committee (NRTLC), an umbrella organization comprising 50 state-run organizations and more than 3000 local chapters. Jefferson served on the boards and held prominent positions within each organization, including VOLCOM's board of governors; NRTLC president (1975-1978), and MCFL president (2007). She also served as president of the Right to Life Crusade, Inc., which she founded in 1978, and played an active role in several allied organizations, including Americans United for Life, American Life League, and Black Americans for Life.

Norma J. Kane was a member of St. Clare of Assisi Church in the Bronx, New York and was co-director of the St. Clare of Assisi Pro-Life Group, which she helped found in 1997. The pro-life collection of Norma J. Kane contains meeting notes and agendas of the St. Clare of Assisi Pro-Life Group; St. Clare of Assisi Pro-Life Group fundraising and outreach materials; and pro-life pamphlets, fliers, and clippings collected by Kane.

Author and activist Lawrence Lader has written extensively on abortion rights and family planning in the United States. He was founding chair of the National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws (now the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League) in 1969 and was instrumental in the campaign that produced the 1970 New York State law legalizing abortion. Beginning in 1976 he served as president of the Abortion Rights Mobilization, and has worked for the introduction of RU 486 (also known as the “abortion pill”) to the United States.

A gynecologist and birth control advocate (Tufts College Medical School, M.D., 1927), Lord-Heinstein was on the staff of the New England Hospital for Women, Physician-In-Charge of the Mothers' Health Office in Salem, MA, and a marriage and family counselor.

Professor of sociology at the University of California, Berkeley, Kristin Luker is the author of five books, many of them on abortion and teenage pregnancy. This collection includes printed material, largely from pro-life and teenage abstinence groups, collected by Luker in the course of her research; printed material from pro-choice groups such as Sex Information and Education Council of the U.S. and Catholics for a Free Choice; transcripts of interviews by Luker, mostly with pro-life activists; and correspondence of Lena Clarke Phelan, abortion reform activist, from viewers after an appearance on the Louis Lomax television show.

The Massachusetts Chapter of the National Organization for Women (NOW) was organized in early 1973 as a way to link and support the activities of all local chapters in the state. Mass. NOW has helped to change Massachusetts laws regarding economic and workplace equality, reproductive rights, racial diversity in employment, equal civil rights regardless of sexual orientation, and violence against women.

In 1970, Norma McCorvey became the anonymous plaintiff, known as "Jane Roe" in Coffee and Weddington's class action suit challenging Texas abortion laws. The suit led to the 1973 Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion in the first trimester of pregnancy, Roe v. Wade. Norma McCorvey gave birth to her third child, known as the "Roe Baby," in 1970 before her case reached the Supreme Court. McCorvey remained anonymous to the public for her role in the case until the 1980s, when she began taking a larger role in the pro-choice movement, counseling women and attending pro-choice rallies. In 1995, McCorvey was baptized by Philip "Flip" Benham, an evangelical minister and director of Operation Rescue. After her baptism, McCorvey joined the pro-life movement and founded the Roe No More Ministry. McCorvey converted to Catholicism in 1998. The collection documents the personal and professional life of Norma McCorvey, as well as the history and the aftermath of the 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision.

A birth control advocate, McKinnon worked with the Margaret Sanger Research Bureau (1936-1947) establishing birth control clinics around the country; was Executive Director of the Planned Parenthood Association, Chicago area (1947-1957); and was a field worker for the Pathfinder Fund, a private organization for international family planning (1958-1966).

Emily Borie (Hartshorne) Mudd was a marriage counselor, advocate for family planning, researcher, and educator (University of Pennsylvania, M.S.W., 1936, Ph.D., 1950). Mudd became counselor and then executive director of the newly founded Marriage Council of Philadelphia (MCP) in the early 1930s. The MCP affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in 1952; in 1956 Mudd became the first woman full professor in the medical school.

Formerly known as the National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws, the National Abortion Rights Action League, and the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League, NARAL Pro-Choice America was founded in 1969 and engages in political action and advocacy efforts to oppose restrictions on abortion and fight for reproductive freedom.

The Massachusetts Organization for the Repeal of Abortion Laws (MORAL) was incorporated on September 11, 1972, as the Massachusetts state affiliate for National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws (NARAL). MORAL was a non-profit political organization whose purpose was to develop and sustain a constituency which utilized the political process to protect a woman's right to a legal abortion.

A national lobbying and membership organization devoted first to obtaining, and later to maintaining, the availability of safe, legal abortions. See also NARAL Additional Records.

Formed in 1969, the National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL) was the first national gathering of grassroots activists advocating the repeal of state abortion laws. The collection consists of NARAL affiliate newsletters and newsletters of unaffiliated groups/organizations in the United States.

The National Organization for Women was formed on June 30, 1966. The Statement of Purpose declares that "the time has come to confront, with concrete action, the conditions that now prevent women from enjoying the equality of opportunity and freedom of choice which is their right, as individual Americans, and as human beings." In June 1986, after a series of abortion clinic arsons and bombings, NOW, the Delaware Women's Health Organization, and the Pensacola Ladies Center filed a complaint against Joseph Scheidler, the Pro-Life Action Network, and other individuals and organizations of the "pro-life" movement. Within this collection, Series XLI: Reproductive Rights: NOW v. Scheidler, 1975-1998, 2002 contains records relating to the suit.

This collection consists of court records and other materials from New York City concerning obscenity charges brought against Charles Manches and Charles McCabe by Anthony Comstock of the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice. Manches was charged with sale of contraceptives and McCabe with the sale of an obscene pamphlet.

Oettinger was a social worker, dean, and government official. In 1965, she was the first public official to speak out in favor of family planning and in 1968 was appointed to the newly created position of Dey Assistant Secretary for Population and Family Planning. She retired from the federal government in 1970. In the international arena, Oettinger was a U.S. representative on international bodies, and a delegate to international conferences, on social welfare, family planning, and child welfare. Since leaving government, Oettinger has served as a consultant in population and family planning for a number of organizations; she has also lectured at many colleges and universities.

Harriet Fleishl Pilpel was a lawyer who specialized in family and marriage law, birth control, copyright and literary property, and civil liberties. See also Harriet F. Pilpel, Oral History Interview (Please note: Written permission of Eleanor J. Piel is required to access the interview.)

This collection consists of mailings, pamphlets, and ephemera produced by pro-life organizations between 1988 and 2017.

This collection includes pro-life movement newsletters and periodicals for which the Schlesinger Library holds three or fewer issues. Newsletters were created by state-wide pro-life groups, individuals, "crisis" pregnancy centers and religious groups between 1972 and 2009.

A civic worker, political campaigner, and advocate of civil rights, birth control, and women's rights, Martha (Ragsdale) Ragland helped organize Planned Parenthood groups at the local and state levels in the 1930s and early 1940s, and in 1938 organized a speaking tour for Margaret Sanger in Tennessee. She held offices in the League of Women Voters at the local, state, and national levels and worked for better housing and health services, tax equalization, and reform of the Tennessee constitution. In 1948 Ragland headed the women's division of the Democratic Party in the general election and chaired the women's division in the Estes Kefauver (1948) and Albert Gore (1952) campaigns for the U.S. Senate. A delegate to the Democratic National Convention and member of the platform committee (1952), she was also a member of the Democratic National Committee (1952-1956).

Radical lesbian activist, professor, and author Janice G. Raymond received a BA in English literature from Salve Regina College in 1965, an MA in religious studies from Andover Newton Theological School (1971), and a PhD in ethics and society from Boston College (1977). She joined the faculty at the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 1978, retiring as Professor of Women's Studies and Medical Ethics in 2002. From 2000 to 2007, she served as adjunct professor of International Health at Boston University's School of Public Health. From 1994 to 2007, Raymond was the Co-Executive Director of the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women (CATW), and continues to serve on their board of directors. This collection includes correspondence, writings, talks, reports, etc., documenting Raymond's work as an author and advocate. Some materials document Raymond's views on transsexuality and reproductive technologies, but the majority of materials represent her work as a member of the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women (CATW), often in close collaboration with Dorchen Leidholdt and H. Patricia Hynes, lobbying for legislation and mounting public awareness campaigns in an effort to end sexual exploitation and human trafficking.

The Reproductive Health Technologies Project (RHTP), co-founded in 1988 by Marie Bass and Joanne Howes, began as an informal group of scientists, clinicians, policy makers, and activists working together to advance public understanding of the French "abortion pill" RU 486, and other forms of the drug mifepristone. The Project became an independent non-profit 501 (c) (3) organization (1992) and in 1998 became focused on educating a wider audience on the methods of non-surgical medical abortions, such as the drugs mifepristone and methotrexate. The Project ceased in 2017. The records of the Reproductive Health Technologies Project document the organization's efforts to educate the American public about a variety of birth control methods and to influence the public perception of reproductive health and freedom. The records in this collection highlight the Reproductive Health Technologies Project's work on emergency contraception and RU 486; intrauterine devices; oral contraception; Policy, Advocacy, Legislation, & the Media (PALM) workshops; non-surgical medical abortions; reproductive genetic technologies, such as egg donations and in vitro fertilization; and microbicides and the prevention of sexually transmitted diseases.

Barbara Rochelle has studied and collected material by and about the pro-life movement in the United States. This collection includes an Army of God manual detailing various ways of curtailing the functioning of abortion clinics (ca. 1992), pamphlets handed out at Atlanta (Ga.) area clinics (1988-1990), and an advertising supplement by the Human Life Alliance of Minnesota Education Fund (1997).

Barbara Rosner Seaman (Oberlin, B.A. 1956) was a feminist and author, a columnist and contributing editor at Ladies' Home Journal (1965-1969), a child care and education editor at Family Circle (1970-1973), and the author of articles and reviews in numerous newspapers and magazines. The author of The Doctors' Case Against the Pill, Free and Female, and Women and the Crisis in Sex Hormones, she was cited for her part in seeing that appropriate written warnings to patients accompany each prescription. See also Additional Papers of Barbara Seaman.

An attorney and expert in women's health law, Sybil Shainwald graduated from the College of William and Mary (B.A. 1948), Columbia University (M.A. 1972) and New York Law School (J.D. 1976). She has litigated thousands of cases involving drugs and medical devices that have injured women and their offspring, including DES (Diethylstilbesterol); the Dalkon Shield Intrauterine Device; silicone breast implants; Parlodel, a drug to suppress lactation; and Norplant, a contraceptive device. She has also served as co-counsel in cases involving other product liability actions. Shainwald was chair of the board of directors of the National Women's Health Network and served on the boards of the Consumer Interest Research Institute and the Hysterectomy Educational Resources and Services Foundation. See also Additional Papers of Sybil Shainwald.

An advocate of family planning and legal abortion, Smith began her career in 1946 as a field worker for the Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts, where she later served as executive secretary. Moving to New York, she administered the family planning service at Mount Sinai Hospital (1953-55) and was executive director of the Human Betterment Association for Voluntary Sterilization (1955-64) and the Association for the Study of Abortion (1964-66). In 1967 she helped organize the National Association for Repeal of Abortion Laws (now the National Abortion Rights Action League), and in 1970, as a member of the Abortion Rights Association of New York, Smith worked to implement a new state law legalizing abortion.

The Society for Humane Abortion was founded by Patricia Maginnis in 1962 as the Citizens Committee for Humane Abortion Laws. The name was changed in 1964, and the society was incorporated in California as a non-profit educational organization in 1965. Endorsing "elective abortion," SHA supported the repeal of all abortion laws, sponsored symposia on abortion procedures for physicians, maintained a post-abortion care center, and was active in public education. It was disbanded in 1975. See also Additional Records of the Society for Humane Abortion.

Robert D. Spencer practiced general medicine in Ashland, Pa., and was willing to perform abortions before the procedure was legalized. This collection includes letters to Spencer from women or their husbands or boyfriends requesting his assistance in obtaining abortions, as well as some letters from women who had had abortions.

Standish was a physician and lecturer on family planning. She became medical director of the first birth control clinic in Connecticut, which opened in July 1935; birth control was then illegal in Connecticut and most other states.

Julie A. Grimstad is a licensed practical nurse and volunteer patient advocate and is also a pro-life writer whose areas of interest are euthanasia, assisted suicide and patient advocacy. The Julie A. Grimstad collection on Joseph R. Stanton contains materials relating to Grimstad's unpublished book on Stanton, "Profound Obligation; Highest Privilege": Dr. Joseph R. Stanton and the Prolife Movement. Materials include an incomplete draft of the book; letters from Stanton and his wife, Mary, to Grimstad; biographical information about Stanton; correspondence with Stanton's colleagues about Stanton and the proposed book; and research files containing reprints of articles by and clippings about Stanton, many annotated by Stanton.

Activist and historian of the pro-life movement, Dr. Joseph R. Stanton, attended Boston College and Yale School of Medicine and became an associate clinical professor of medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine. After the legalization of abortion in New York in 1970, Dr. Stanton became actively involved in the fledgling pro-life movement and helped to found the Value of Life Committee (VOLCOM), a non-denominational, grass-roots organization; and the Massachusetts Citizens for Life which was incorporated in 1973, four days after the Roe v. Wade decision. Stanton collected volumes of press clippings, books, printed materials from pro-life organizations, and other materials about life issues and the people and organizations working for and against legalized abortion and euthanasia. In the 1990s, Stanton entrusted his library and archival materials to the religious institute of the Sisters of Life, an order of nuns which actively support the Roman Catholic Church's doctrine on life. The Dr. Joseph R. Stanton Human Life Issues Library and Resource Center was dedicated on October 12, 1996.

Stewart was an obstetrician, gynecologist, and advocate for women's access to emergency contraception and abortion services. The co-author of multiple books about gynecology and family planning, Stewart practiced medicine in Sacramento and San Francisco. From 1994 to 1996 she served as deputy assistant secretary for population affairs in the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, where she helped formulate and implement domestic and international policies on family planning. She later served as director of the Reproductive Health Programs at the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation (1996-1999) and as co-director of the Center for Reproductive Health Research and Policy at the University of California, San Francisco (1999-2004). Perhaps best known for her research which established the efficacy and safety of the emergency contraceptive known as "Plan B," she also led the successful legal effort that allows qualified nurses and midwives to perform abortions in California.

Pro-life activist Therese Hester Vaughn attended the University of Minnesota Duluth for two years and worked as a licensed practical nurse at St. Mary's Hospital in the pediatrics department from 1958 to 1970. Beginning in the 1970s, Vaughn dedicated her time to being a wife and mother and became involved in the pro-life movement. She was Telechain Chairwoman of Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life, Chairwoman of the Daughters of Isabella Pro-Life Committee, director of Duluth BirthRight, and a Pro-Life Information Network Information Specialist. She also served as the 8th Congressional District Chairwoman for the Republican Party of Minnesota. The papers of Therese Hester Vaughn contain pro-life pamphlets, fliers, newsletters, catalogs, and clippings collected by Vaughn. Also included is a small amount of correspondence with other pro-life activists and letters from Vaughn written to government officials and companies advancing the pro-life agenda. Materials also document Vaughn's Catholic faith and her stance against euthanasia.

Attorney and professor Linda J. Wharton was born in Camden, New Jersey, in 1955. She received a BA from Bryn Mawr College and a JD from Rutgers Law School. From 1989 to 1997, she served as the managing attorney at the Women's Law Project in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She was co-lead counsel in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, a lawsuit that went to the Supreme Court in 1992 and reaffirmed the constitutionality of abortion.

Journalist and feminist Ellen Willis was a founder of Redstockings, a radical feminist group begun in 1969, and, in the 1980s, of No More Nice Girls, a street theater and protest group that focused on abortion rights. A professor of journalism at New York University, Willis was known for her political essays which appeared in The Nation, Dissent, and elsewhere, as well as for her writings on rock music which were published in Rolling Stone, the New Yorker, and the Village Voice. Her books included Beginning to See the Light: Pieces of a Decade (1981), No More Nice Girls: Countercultural Essays (1992), and Don't Think, Smile! Notes on a Decade of Denial (1999).

Beginning in 1963, Winship wrote an advice column for teenagers, "Ask Beth," after it was suggested to her by an editor at the Boston Globe. In 1970 the Los Angeles Times Syndicate, which at its peak had seventy subscribing newspapers, picked up "Ask Beth." In addition to her column, Winship tackled various health and sexuality issues in numerous publications, including Ask Beth: You Can't Ask Your Mother (1972) and Human Sexuality (1988). She regularly spoke with high school students, parents, and community groups on the topic of teenage sexual behavior and was also a consultant for a variety of family life educational programs.

Winter was a pro-life activist who founded People Concerned for the Unborn Child in southwestern Pennsylvania. She also served on the Advisory Board of Feminists for Life. This collection includes speeches, testimony, and clippings concerning abortion and pro-life issues.

The Women's Community Health Center in Cambridge, Mass., was incorporated in February 1974 as a women-owned and women-controlled health center. Initially staff offered self-help programs and gynecological services, and by May 1975 they were performing first trimester abortions. Other educational programs centered upon sexuality, menopause, and natural birth control, and WCHC literature was translated into Spanish and Portuguese. The WCHC operated on a suggested fee system of payment, and funding was often dependent upon contributions from supporters.