Coat Hangers and Kitting Needles - Bill Baird

 

Bill Baird Fought for Unmarried Women 

If Baird hadn’t been in a Harlem Hospital in 1963 as a mother of nine stumbled into the corridor, covered with blood from a botched abortion, would he have become such a strong advocate for birth control and abortion? If he hadn’t seen the coat hanger protruding from her uterus would he have continued a quiet life? If she hadn’t died, would he have realized the meaning of abortion gone wrong?

 If he gets the milk for free, he won’t buy the cow. Growing up in middle class 1950s New England, that was the mantra: no sex before marriage. My mother wasn’t happy with my response, “But men test drive cars.” I was watched much more closely; my curfews were tighter.

Good girls waited for marriage. Writer Marilyn French said that a “factory-fresh hymen” could increase the value in the marriage market.

The movie Splendor in the Grass (1961) dealt with sexual tension of high school lovers with only sadness.

Of course, some girls did have sex and got caught. They had to leave school before getting a high school diploma. If they were lucky they married the father, although many of those teenage marriages floundered. The slang was “the shotgun wore white.”

Others disappeared for a short time to “help an aunt” or some other excuse, sacrificing a year of school. They returned and never discussed their year away.

A friend of mine, a Salvation Army Officer, headed a home for unwed mothers. She told of girls taking their babies to the parking lot to hand them over to the adopting parents, leaving a hole in the girls’ lives.

In some cases, the child had a better life, but I’ve heard enough stories of adoptions gone wrong to know that is not a magic answer. An adoptive mother may or may not turn out to be a good mother the same way a natural mother may or may not be a good mother.

As to abortion, most of us didn’t know what it was when we were in high school. It was only in college that we learned. More than one young woman went to the back rooms of Boston or used the Clergy Consultation Service (CCS) and traveled out of state or out of the country for a safe abortion.

What we didn’t know was that our grandmothers had practiced abortion as a method of birth control.

Birth control information was almost impossible to obtain. Even when I became engaged in 1962, I could not get any information from my family doctor. As a devout Catholic, he wouldn’t give it to me even after I was married. I tried asking a local Jewish doctor who told me to come back after I was married. I didn’t have the nerve to try another doctor before I eloped.

Without Bill Baird, Unmarried Women Wouldn’t Have Birth Control!

I knew of Bill Baird. I saw him on the news more than once as he was being arrested. He was at demonstrations. At one time, I was in the studio audience when he appeared on a panel of a local Boston program.

As I was starting research for this book, I hoped he was still living so I could speak with him. He was. Wikipedia provided a link. I emailed him. He emailed me back.

Despite his major sight problems, we worked together on an email interview where he talked about the bad old days.

If Baird hadn’t been in a Harlem Hospital in 1963 as a mother of nine stumbled into the corridor, covered with blood from a botched abortion, would he have become such a strong advocate for birth control and abortion? If he hadn’t seen the coat hanger protruding from her uterus would he have continued a quiet life? If she hadn’t died, would he have realized the meaning of abortion gone wrong?

He was at the hospital that day as a representative of Emko, a birth control foam. Baird did witness the event and became known as the “father” of the birth control and abortion-rights movement.

Born 30 June 1932, he grew up in Brooklyn, one of six children in a devout Lutheran

family.

His sister Louise’s death, at age nine, influenced him, shaking his Lutheran faith. Years

later, it caused him to tell an audience member who said they were praying for his seriously ill grandson that only doctors could help.

He was challenged when a man told him illness in his family was retribution for his work. It shook him, but intellectually he knew that cancer is caused by cell mutation, not the actions of a relative.

Baird earned his undergraduate degree in 1955 from Brooklyn College. Although he originally wanted to be a doctor, he had to decide between continuing at New York Medical College and supporting his family, which included three children. His family won over career. 

Breaking the Law for a Greater Good

Baird traveled in a dilapidated truck converted into a mobile counseling center that was named the Plan Van. From it he distributed birth control information in the poor neighborhoods of New York City.

He was arrested when he arrived with his Plan Van in 1965 in Hempstead, New York. The arrest ultimately led to a lightening of the birth control laws.

After Roe v. Wade, Baird founded the first abortion referral services in that city. He spoke about his clinic. “In 1964 I also established an above-ground clinic in Hempstead. Women from all over the United States came to the clinic.”

One newspaper said his clinics were filled, often staying open until after midnight to handle the requests of desperate women.

The Washington Post did a story about those women in 1969, stating, ‘It was 3 a.m. in the morning until the last patient saw Baird.” He counseled them and made sure they had referrals to qualified physicians so that they would not take a knitting needle or coat hanger to try to self-abort or go to a quack for a back-alley abortion.”

Many years later in November 1979, after Roe v. Wade, his clinic, one of three opened, was fire bombed. The culprit, Peter Burkin, was sentenced to two years in a mental hospital.

None of the 50 people inside the clinic was hurt, thanks to anti-terrorism training. Baird, knowing the potential of violence to which abortion clinics can be subjected, wrote and distributed the first self-defense manuals against terrorism for clinics.

The interference by government at all levels into women’s wombs can go beyond an invasion of privacy, which is serious enough. The New Jersey Commissioner of Welfare wanted to jail unwed mothers for fornication as late as 1966.

Being arrested became almost normal for Baird. One of the most outrageous arrests was in 1971 when he was giving a lecture to the National Organization for Women (NOW). Because there was a baby in the audience, he was accused of endangering the infant’s morals. The mother was arrested too. I could not determine from sources if the baby was also arrested. 

A Watershed Moment for Birth Control Availability

The year was 1967. The date 6 April. Encouraged by Boston University students to challenge the Massachusetts law forbidding providing contraception to unmarried people, Baird not only gave a lecture, he handed a condom and contraceptive foam to a 19-year old woman student. His arrest was immediate for “crimes against chastity.”

At that time, only doctors and pharmacists could provide this information (but only to married people).

The Massachusetts Supreme Court said that Baird had a right to lecture under the First Amendment but the prohibition of distribution of contraceptives stood. Baird appealed for a federal writ of habeas corpus, which was denied.

The next step was heard before the Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, which dismissed the action that the prohibition infringed on the human rights of unmarried couples under the Fourteenth Amendment. Baird won.

Sheriff Thomas Eisenstadt of Suffolk County, Massachusetts was not satisfied and appealed saying that Baird lacked “standing” because he was not a single person nor was he an authorized distributor.

The Supreme Court disagreed. On 22 March 1972 in the Eisenstadt v. Baird ruling, it became legal for unmarried people to have the same rights as married couples for contraception information.

The decision was used in Roe v. Wade and many other cases.

“If the right of privacy means anything, it is the right of the individual to be free from unwarranted governmental intrusion into matters so fundamentally affecting a person as to whether to bear or beget a child,” Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan, Jr. wrote.

There were two other Supreme Court victories, Baird v. Bellotti I (1976) and Baird v.

 Bellotti II (1979), giving minors the right to abortion without parental consent.

Baird was called the Father of Abortion Rights by Georgie Anne Geyer, a conservative journalist and author. The title stuck.

Had he been prosecuted and sentenced for each of the 10,000 women he was said to have helped get abortions, he would have spent eternity in jail.

Baird continued to fight as women’s reproductive rights were threatened. In 2006 he wrote Governor Mitt Romney: “Had I not challenged Massachusetts' archaic birth-control laws (something that the state legislature at that time would not do), it would still be a felony in this state. I was sentenced to prison for three months for giving a speech to 2,500 Boston University students in a deliberate challenge of that law.

No Religion Has the Right to Impose Its Beliefs on Others

Baird’s statements and his activities appeared in many publications.

“I was not hiding but was out in the open. I led the first march ever against the Catholic Church’s St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City. The New York Times reported on March 13, 1967 in ‘Marchers Favor Abortion Reform’ when I said to the crowd of marchers, within the shadows of St. Patrick’s, ‘I say no religion has the right to impose its brand of morality on those of other religions.’

“Mr. Baird,” the article stated, “standing behind the lectern, drew the loudest cheer when he said that the Parents Aid Society was arranging for an abortion referral service that would furnish women with the names, addresses, telephone numbers and fees of physicians who would perform the operation.” Baird told me Sepia magazine’s July 1967 issue carried a four-page feature article “on my helping women get illegal abortions with my phone number on the cover.”

“Coronet magazine did a cover story on my work in 1969 about my helping women to get illegal abortions. My clinic was located at 130 Main Street in Hempstead. In the window was an eight-foot sign that read, ‘Legalize Abortion.’”

Baird spoke on radio, television, college campuses and other venues.

He is proud of what he accomplished but realizes there are still problems that have nothing to do with attempts to outlaw abortion. “I have worked closely with women who came to me from almost every state in this country, many from Canada, South America and other areas, to obtain abortions. I continue to refer women every week to abortion clinics. Unfortunately, they are often turned away due to not having insurance or not qualifying for Medicaid.” 

Awards and Recognition

Some decry Baird’s work, such as the priest at the Immaculate Conception Church in Marlborough, Massachusetts who refused to baptize a baby because its mother would not denounce Baird. A more compassionate priest, Joseph O’Rourke, a board member for Catholics for a Free Choice, did the baptism.

On the other hand, many organizations have recognized Baird’s work:¨

•   1985, Freedom of Speech Award, American Atheists—“For his continuing efforts of disseminate birth control information”
• 1987, National Abortion Rights Action League, Ohio—“For his unwavering commitment to reproductive freedom
•   1989, Man of the Year, The Nebraska Coalition for Women—“A pioneer and an activist in the fight for reproductive rights”
•   1989, Certificate of Distinction, National Organization for Women—“For outstanding leadership for women’s rights”
•  1997, Distinguished Alumnus Award, Faculty of Brooklyn College of CUNY
•    1997, Reproductive Rights Pioneer, National Organization for Women New York
•  1998, Bill Baird Eternal Vigilance Award, Brown University, American Civil Liberties Union
• 1999, Certificate of Appreciation, Legal Association of Women at Brooklyn Law School—“For his many contributions and valiant efforts in the public interest”
•   2000, The NARAL Courage Award, Oklahoma Affiliate of the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action—“For his many contributions and valiant efforts in the public interest”