Hi I’m Wendy Zukerman and you’re listening to Science Vs from Gimlet. Heads up – this episode has some pretty graphic descriptions in it. So take care if you’re listening with little ones around.
CBS: The Oklahoma legislature has a approved a bill that would lead to near total bans on abortions in the state
MSNBC Under the bill those who perform abortions could face up to 10 years in prison and a $100,000 fine[1]
Just this week Oklahoma passed a law - banning basically all abortions[2] except to save the life of the pregnant woman in a medical emergency – it's the latest in a long line of U.S. states pumping out new rules to restrict abortions.
Several years ago[3], Mississippi made most abortions illegal after 15 weeks[4] … Then Texas banned abortions essentially after 6 weeks[5] ... before some people even know they're pregnant[6] …[7]…
And now many more Republican-controlled states[8][9] have been tightening up their abortion laws.[10][11][12]
CBS: “South Carolina”
WVPB: “West Virginia”
FOX19: “Ohio”
11Alive: “Georgia”
ABC: “So the question is, could Florida be next?”
And this is all about to come to a head in the next few months. It's expected that the Supreme Court, which has a conservative majority, will make its decision on whether the Mississippi law[15][16] will stand. And whether Roe v. Wade, the rulling that makes abortion legal across the US,[17] will be overturned.
In the meantime,[18] in Texas, where their abortion law is already in effect, researchers are seeing more and more Texans traveling across state lines for abortions,[19][20] and they’re also seeing a large spike in people buying abortion pills online[21] from, say, overseas pharmacies.
So what could happen if these lawmakers get their way?? And abortions become basically illegal across large parts of the US? Well.. today we’re dropping an episode we made a few years ago. It’s about a woman caught in the world before Roe v Wade, where abortions in the US were much harder to get. She actually ended up doing abortions herself… even though she’s not a doctor. But then, almost accidentally… she created this movement… that was about so much more … And all of that is coming up just after the break.
PREROLL BREAK
Welcome back. Let’s jump in. I want you to meet a woman named Carol Downer…
<<Please knock loudly>>
Carol is in her 80s now… I’m at her house in Los Angeles. It’s very cute, there’s a big cactus out the front… …
WZ: Lovely to meet you
CD: It’s wonderful to have you here
It’s cosy inside… Carol has set out this lovely spread of baked brownies, and cubed cheese… with little toothpicks …
CD: this is just nibbles
It feels a bit like we’re back in the 60s, which is where I want to start our story [22]... Back then, Carol was pretty traditional .. she had 4 kids… and things were quite tough.[23]
CD Between them all, somebody was needing my attention 24/7, the baby was waking up in the night, waking up, going to school, between them all there wasn't a time to really sleep.
On top of that, things with her husband weren't great... the marriage wasn’t working out, and they decided to get a divorce. Carol was also going through this period of mild depression … and then she found out she was pregnant again. It was 1963. And even though it was illegal, she decided to get an abortion[24].
CD It was harrowing um, I had… first of all… finding someone to do it.
Carol asked around and a friend gave her the name of a man… who she figured was a doctor… she remembers going to this address on a large thoroughfare in Los Angeles.
CD Let’s just say his office was an empty room, um, on Central Avenue, with one exam table in the middle of it, and a tray of instruments. And that was it.
He didn’t tell Carol what he was doing. Just had her lay on the bed, take her clothes off below the waist… and spread her legs.
CD the procedure itself was just excruciating, and I could hear it and I could feel it.
Hundreds of thousands of women are estimated to have had an illegal abortion each year in the US during the 1960s[25]… and Carol was now one of them. When it was done… she went home.
CD I went to bed, I went immediately to sleep and didn't wake up until the next morning, and when I awakened I could hear the birds outside singing and I remember being really happy because I was still alive...And I didn’t even myself realise how afraid I was that I would die.
Carol had heard of women who had botched abortions[26] … They’d used coathangers… or knitting needles[27]... and bled to death[28].
But for Carol? Her ordeal wasn’t over yet. What happens next, is a little hard to hear. The guy who did her abortion told her to call him back in a week. So she did. He picked up the phone and said.
CD Look there between your legs, and you will see that there is a little strip of gauze that is hanging out of your vagina.
Carol had no idea… but this man had filled her vagina with gauze - those bandage strips. He didn’t tell her why - but it was possibly to stop her from bleeding.[29][30] And now, this guy was telling Carol ...
CD You need to take that out. I went in the bathroom, and I started to pull it…. well what I found was that it was all hardened, and y’know in order to pull it out, it was like pulling something as sharp as a razor out of my uterus. I went into cold sweats y’know with the pain, and I could only do it y’know a tiny bit at a time.
WZ: Oh my gosh… What are you thinking at that time?
Just how how to get that thing out. However long it takes, you’ll bear it and that’s just how it is.
Carol recovered[31] … she ended up getting remarried and actually went on to have two more kids … And as the years passed … more and more stories started coming out about horrendous back-alley abortions… and it fueled the fire of an already growing movement.. Where women were saying… we have had enough…
<<Protest tape>>
Free abortion on demand!
Women have a fundamental right to control their own bodies and control their own lives. Cheers.
We learned that we have the power to CHANGE, to change the conditions that oppress us…
Carol starts getting curious about all this. She’s hearing these reports on the radio… of women protesting. And then… one day she hears that a national feminist group is holding a meeting nearby.
CD And I said well, I’ve got to go to that. And that night when I went home, I told my husband, and he drove me to the meeting.
And it was around here that she has an epiphany… she had spent all her life trying to be this perfect woman…[32]
CD It got to me all of a sudden — y’know, that drip drip drip of accommodating y’know men was having this negative effect on me. And I realised then that you're not that sweet, y’know, in fact — you're pissed.
WZ: You’re pissed?
CD Right! And I realised that I just had to start fighting.
Carol sets her sights on abortion laws… first, fighting to change them[33].. But then she gets a different idea… a radical idea. You see.. Carol had always assumed that the people doing illegal abortions like hers were mostly doctors… but then she found out that a lot of them didn’t have any medical training. They were just randos out to make a quick buck[34] ... And so Carol starts thinking to herself, well, if these bozos can do it ...
CD Why don't we just do the abortions ourselves? You know… I, a non doctor, and my friends who are also not doctors, we can do it ourselves, just as in the same way that we can master how to cook and sew and garden and do other things in this life. These are skills are we can learn together.
Ok.. only problem? Carol doesn’t have any idea about how to do an abortion.
Even basic female anatomy was basically black box… Carol didn’t know her uterus from her urethra. And so to learn how to do an abortion, Carol goes underground… She gets in touch with an an illegal abortionist in LA[35][36]. And this guy lets her hang around this clinic he’d set up on Santa Monica Boulevard … [37]
CD So happened this clinic was located across the street from a coffee shop where the police loved to go in and have their coffee and donuts.
This clandestine clinic was pretty sparse. As Carol remembers it, there was a single lamp, and it had an exam table with stirrups and … that’s where this guy would do abortions and other gynecological procedures[38].…
The first time Carol went there, he was inserting an IUD into a woman's uterus. And Carol remembers this moment so clearly: He put this instrument called a speculum into this woman’s vagina that kind of opens it up… enough for Carol to peek in… through the vagina[39]...and when she did that…
CD It was mind-blowing! I went weak in the knees… I was just that bowled over by the whole experience. And I realised how easy it was to see, how simple, simply constructed it was, how healthy and beautiful and accessible. There was that ah-ha moment.
Carol could see a pink almost donut-shaped thing… with a little opening… It was the cervix… And she realises that this opening is the key to the uterus… it’s the key to figuring out how to do abortions.
Carol keeps going back to the clinic… she watches this guy doing several abortions for women who were pretty early along. He would take a speculum, crank open the vagina, put a tube through that opening in the cervix, and then kinda suck out the embryo … It didn’t look that hard…
CD That's what we discovered, this is a pretty simple procedure. It is well within the abilities of the average person.
And so bit by bit Carol kind of becomes an abortion apprentice … she starts doing a few abortions herself. And then … she wanted to recruit other women to do them too. So in the spring of 1971. Carol put an ad in a Los Angeles women’s paper, inviting women to come to a discussion on “women’s issues” at a local bookstore[40][41]. She kept it vague.
About 30 women came. They sat in a circle. And Carol is really pumped and she starts telling them the nitty gritty of how an abortion works. She was saying that if you do this right, it seemed pretty safe.
CD And as I’m telling them this, these women are just very uh, upset, I mean, some were white as a sheet, and the room was just you could hear a pin drop,they were shocked, and um, disapproving. And I couldn't blame them because all we knew at that time was uh, women dying from y’know back alley abortions.
These women just couldn’t believe that abortions could be safe and easy… That it was possible for someone like Carol to do them. And standing up there… Carol didn’t know how to convince them …! But then, she gets this idea. Right there, in the bookstore…
CD And that’s when I told them well, I think you’ll understand this better if you let me show you something. So I went over to the next room where there was a desk, and I got up on the desk, lay back and I put the speculum in.
WZ And were you nervous?
CD I was petrified, petrified! I mean, I thought, they're going to think I'm y’know exhibitionist. But I’ve just got to do it. Otherwise they’re never going to understand. So I just steeled myself to do it.
Carol scootches up her long dress… spreads her legs… opens up that speculum … and … invites the other women in the room to have a look... tentatively, they walk over to the table… And pretty quickly the mood turns …
CD Far from thinking that I was, y’know, had some kind of weird motives, they were they thanked me, they were happy, they were laughing.
WZ: Do you remember what they were saying?
CD Well, things like… well, what is it, what is that hole? Where does that go? And um, oh oh is that the hymen? I mean, the demystification was instant.
And seeing the women… Carol realises something that she hadn’t really thought about before… Although she’d come to talk about doing abortions, which in of itself is a very extreme idea… in that room she realised that just learning about the female body felt almost as radical. Because these women had so little idea of what was going on down there.
CD The idea of looking at your vagina, um, was so beyond the pale of any ... and I'm speaking of feminists. That's how profound this ignorance was.[42]
Academic articles that are written about this time talk about how so few women looked at their bodies… and how many felt uncomfortable asking simple questions of their gynecologist [43][44] ….One researcher wrote that doctors could be condescending and patronizing[45]. In Carol’s experience …
CD I mean the doctor was god you know… It was really more a matter of not saying, not telling you anything.
WZ: What did you think might happen if you asked the doctor questions?
CD He would just say, don't worry about it dear, I'm the doctor I'll do what's best for you
But back at that bookstore, with a speculum still in Carol’s vagina…this was a totally different world.
CD And and it just… the doctor was not god anymore - at all!
The women saw that it was ok to be curious about your body… And in fact.. it was normal… And seeing how powerful this was… Carol now has a new plan, yes she still wants to teach women about abortions -- but she also just wants to teach women about their bodies…
And so just a few months later[46]… Carol and a friend pack boxes full of speculums and take this cervix show on the road… they travel to more than 20 cities… and at Colleges… Church Basements… and living rooms[47]… Carol whips off her undies… and pops the speculum in.
And time and time again… when women came to these speculum parties… they had the same experience… it was totally eye-opening. I talked to a bunch of women who went to these parties…
YRP Before you could even be uncomfortable somebody was just on the dining room table, and pulled their pants down and and put a speculum in, and handed people a mirror and a flashlight to come look.
BC: And it was like oooh!! You can actually see in there! Because it’s like this forbidden territory, and you don’t… only doctors and boyfriends or husbands had access to that territory…
And it was just like a bucket of cold water thrown on me…
This last woman is Francie Hornstein, and she became a big part of this story… and by the way, she has a throat condition.
FH It's a little funky but I can be understood.
Francie saw the speculum revolution at one of Carol’s presentations in Iowa.
FH We were just blown away, I mean it was just the most revolutionary thing
WZ: Why was it so important to you?
FH: I don't know how to describe it, but y’know for men, their genitals are just right out there, but for women, like well, nobody had ever shown women what their anatomy looked like. So that was amazing.
WZ: Do you remember kind of straight… on your trip back?
FH: I know that we were just levitating And we all bought our little speculum for a $1.50 or whatever it was, and then took it home and showed all of our friends.
Carol was starting to create a movement that quickly became known as the self helpers[48] … they got together to teach themselves about their bodies and they also wanted to push doctors… and the medical establishment more generally to treat women better - to listen to their female patients. And women like Francie totally upended their lives to be a part of this…
FH I have never had a time in my life, that I don’t think any of us have. That was so exciting and so uplifting, that we were prevailing.
But throughout all this… Carol had never forgotten her original mission… And as she went around the country showing women her cervix… she showed them something else too… how to do abortions.
And that’s coming up after the break…
BREAK
Welcome back… we’ve met Carol Downer, who stumbled into a role as a revolutionary, leading a movement... teaching women basic information about their genitals. They called themselves the self-helpers…
Late in 1971[49] -- just months after Carol showed off her cervix in the bookstore, Carol and some others started a women's health clinic in Los Angeles. They taught women everything they knew about vaginas, and then set out to learn even more. Here’s self helper.. Francie Hornstein.
FH We learned to do pap smears from a physician who worked at the CDC, the Center for Disease Control[50], who said most doctors just stick this wooden spatula and in there and whatever they get they get, but this is the way you really do a pap smear - you circle around the whole cervix so you get cells from everywhere. So we really learned how to do things the right way.
The self helpers… also learned how to[51] do stuff like inserting diaphragms and doing pelvic exams … And the whole point was that as they were treating women - they’d explain exactly what they were doing, and encourage questions. And these clinics… spread like wildfire… With at least 50 self help groups popping up across the country[52] [53] [54]… But while teaching women about their bodies… some of the self helpers.. Were also doing abortions.[55] [56]
Early on they’d had taken the abortion technique that Carol had learned … and then tweaked it to make it safer and easier to use[57]. Francie still has one at her house, she took it out...
FH Well, we might as well do a demo…
It’s got a few parts to it .. there’s a mason jar … and then it has tubing attached to it … which they got from an aquarium store. It’s about as thick as a pencil…
FH There’s a piece of plastic tubing…
There’s a valve and a plastic syringe… and it’s all ben kind of Macgyvered together[58][59].
FH You pump up the syringe and it creates a vacuum in the jar
Another plastic tube, called a cannula, would get slipped in through the cervix to the uterus, when Francie showed me… she put one end of the tube into a glass of water, which stood in for the uterus.
FH If it was in a uterus, the gentle suction created in the jar would suck out what's in the uterus. You can hear the straw like suction.
And this type of abortion, … only works when the embryo is tiny[60] … like, smaller than a pumpkin seed [61]… in the first few weeks[62] [63] after you miss your period… and this method they’re using, it’s actually kind of similar to the techniques doctors can use today… [64] And as Carol and the self helpers traveled around the country, they would teach women how to do this.[65]
Francie told me about the first time she saw the self helpers use it. She knew someone who had just gotten pregnant, and wanted an abortion. So one of the self helpers flew to Iowa … and did the abortion.
FH It was just like they had done with the glass of water, except that it was in her uterus, and stuff started to slowly come out… the contents of the uterus…
Francie says that the woman was fine afterwards. And this kit was working in other cases too. So Carol and the self helpers kept using it ... But for some this abortion kit is extremely unsettling. This was something I brought up with Carol
WZ Some people listening to this I think might get quite uncomfortable with this idea, that you're team didn't have medical training. How were you kind of defending the fact that you were doing abortions?
CD it was very easy to defend, because for one thing the reality of back alley abortions was there. So, all these very serious things, horrible things were happening.
It’s hard to compare what the self helpers were doing to all other back alley abortions that were happening at the time, we don’t have good data here. Here’s what we do know though. If you were rich, according to many reports, you could often get a safe abortion from a real doctor… [66] And so that’s probably better than one of Carol’s abortion kits. If you weren’t rich though… your options for an abortion were dicier…
And serious things did happen - sometimes the people doing back alley abortions would tear holes in the uterus … which could lead to haemoragging. Sometimes women would try to give themselves abortions… by drinking bleach, or turpentine.…[67] [68]. And this could cause all kinds of damage. [69],[70] In fact, injuries from botched abortions happened so often that in some hospitals, special wards[71] [72] were set up, where stretchers would line the halls and women would wait to get treated.
From our research and conversations with experts… we couldn’t find any evidence that women who got abortions from Carol’s group … had any serious problems.[73] …That’s not to say that this procedure is risk free though[74] [75] [76] [77] [78] For one, rarely, women would get infections[79] [80]… Carol told me about the one time she saw this happen.
CD We did an abortion procedure. And it seemed to be fine, But a few weeks later she came and told one of the women, she said you know, it’s kind of weird, I'm getting this discharge, and we said let's take a look, we did, and she had an infection.
Carol said that this woman was treated, and was fine.… Another problem was that sometimes the abortion didn’t take out the entire embryo. And they’d had to go back, and do the procedure again[81] [82]. Still to us, it seems like Carol’s techniques were better than many of the alternatives that were out there at the time.
But doing these underground abortions was very illegal. And the self-helpers knew it. They were taking precautions to avoid getting caught -- like being careful with how they talked about their abortion kit ..
CD We didn’t say um, abortion or whatever, we used other words…
They would call what they were doing Menstrual Extraction … and that meant they could say that they were just extracting a woman’s period… rather than doing an abortion[83][84].
But it turns out … they could use all the code words they wanted, it didn’t matter … because by early 1972, the cops in LA were on to them. Police had gotten wind of what the clinic was up to and had started an undercover investigation … infiltrating the group … trying to catch them out doing an abortion.
We got a hold of the original police records …[85] from the time… and could see that for months, undercover cops documented everything they saw and heard … [86]…
FEMALE COP: April 28, 1972. I said I wanted information about a pregnancy test. She sent me into a room in the back of the building.
At Approximately 7:30PM I entered the Women’s Self Help Clinic…. She said for security reasons we will not do a period extraction on just anyone who walks in.
Colleen told me she had three girls in Riverside who wanted to start a self-help clinic, their names and addresses are ..
And there’s a weird detail in these reports .. that actually ended up mattering a lot. At one point a cop saw Carol putting yoghurt [87] into a woman’s vagina…. Carol thought it would help with a yeast infection [88] [89],[90]
Observed Carollyn Aurilla Downer give an unknown female a vaginal examination, diagnose a yeast infection and treat it with some yoghurt.
After several months, the police were ready to pounce…. On September 20th, 1972, ten cops[91] barged into the self helpers clinic and started grabbing up supplies[92]… and the women were stunned… Here’s Carol
CD Well It was devastating, we were um completely thrown off, we felt totally violated.
For three hours the police raided the clinic -- confiscating 6 trunk loads of equipment including bags filled with speculums, rubber gloves, and tools to make the menstrual extraction kit.[93] [94]
Amongst it all though, there was this kinda funny moment … that was when the police took a critical piece of evidence. A tub of yoghurt. Strawberry flavoured[95] [96]. One of the women in the office protested.
CD She said hey that's my lunch!! Hahahaha.
WZ So the police went to the fridge and took the yoghurt? CD Yes they took the yoghurt! WZ: ahahha CD: Anyway so we were instantly notorious in Los Angeles.
When the police left… the women called other self helpers around the country - telling them. We’ve been busted. Not knowing what to do. Carol says, some women stashed their speculums.
CD They were contraband! They felt, we didn't know how extensive this could be.
Things got worse for Carol, quickly. She found out there was a warrant out for her arrest .. She and another self-helper were charged with practicing medicine without a license.[97] . The other woman copped to it.. Got a fine and a suspended sentence[98][99]. But Carol decided to fight.[100].
And the case went to trial. Women protested outside the courthouse[101] and sent testimonials from around the country… thanking Carol and the self helpers… for helping them understand their own bodies. Famous academics, a congresswoman[102] and doctors like the famous pediatrician - Dr Spock - praised their work -- saying that even doctors could learn from these women about how to talk to patients with more respect.[103][104]. On the first day of the trial… Carol remembers driving herself to the court, and the song, I am woman, came on the radio…
CD And just was so just so ha - I felt so great, because we were ready, by that time we had prepared. I was up for it. I was super up for it. And I sang I am woman at the top of my lungs um, all the way down!
I am woman hear me roar! Ya know, I am woman! [105]
And um, I I realised that I wasn't facing anything worse that I had been facing my whole life but it always in this nebulous ways, ways you couldn't really address so now my oppressor had shown his face, and I could actually engage him and fight, and that was a wonderful feeling.
As the days of the trial went on… it took a seriously bizarre twist… it turned out ... that even with all their investigating, the prosecutors couldn’t prove that Carol had ever done any abortions or other medical procedures[106].[107]
And so, the case against Carol ends up centering on, well, the yoghurt - a cop had actually seen Carol putting it into a woman’s vagina! The legal question was whether, by putting yoghurt into someone’s vagina Carol had been practicing medicine.[108] [109] [110]
This made headlines around America[111]: Time Magazine[112], the Philadelphia Inquirer[113], the New York Times[114] … they all reported on it… and it became known as The Great Yoghurt Conspiracy[115]. The trial lasted five days ... and soon, the jury was ready to make its decision.[116] The foreman stood up and announced the verdict… Not Guilty [117]
CD: Oh my gosh, of course everybody reacted, and the judge had to tell us all to be quiet.
WZ: What was the feeling in the room?
CD: Very wonderful!! We were on a roll and that really put us into this primo place y’know to get this message out! And women were doing menstrual extraction around the country, we really um, were poised to make it a real game changer.
Just weeks later,[118] the case of Roe v Wade was decided, effectively legalising abortions in the United States.[119]
And that meant that after the trial, menstrual extractions… aka that Macgyvered abortion kit stopped being a big part of the self helpers’ work…But the self helpers, they didn't let their knowledge go to waste. Several years after the court case … Francie…who you met before, wanted to have a baby …Francie and her then-girlfriend Yael Raff Peskin both told me about it
FH I had been talking about wanting kids for years.
YRP I said look either do something about it.. Or stop talking about it
Francie[120] figured hey if I can fit a diaphragm, do pap smears,and even do abortions… I can get myself pregnant too. So Francie and Yael got sperm from a friend of a friend. They grabbed some parts of the menstrual extraction kit … tweaked it… and made it kinda release sperm in near Francie’s cervix - instead of sucking out the contents of the uterus…
FH We put it on… drew up the semen, spritzed it in and that was it.
It worked! And in the fall of 1978… Francie had their son. Yael remembers this moment well
YRP She said is that my baby? We’re he’s yours, he’s ours.
FH I just thought how could I have made something so beautiful. That was my first thought. So, anyway It was a happy story.
And you can trace it all back … to a woman seeing a cervix… for the very first time .
FH So nobody has whipped off their pants and shown you their cervix?
WZ: NO
Y: I could do that! Do you have a speculum?
No… oh my gosh we have to do this!! I’m going to bring you up for feminist charges of no possession of a speculum.
FH Can you get it on Amazon? I’m sure you can.
WZ: I'll invest. I’ll invest. I’ll send you an email.
FH It shouldn’t be difficult.. You should be able to do it. Ok, you go home and get back to us…
WZ Alright, alright\t it’s a deal.
<scoring post>
WZ: Ok, so I just got my speculum in the post… Okay… wow, all right so I’m gonna… Let’s give it a go …in it goes…oh jeezsh. Oh wow…
That’s Science Vs.
Now as always.. if you want to know more about anything in this episode you can find that transcript in our show notes, and it’s got all of our citations in it…. And if you want to know facts about abortions today .. like, whether they’re safe .. as well as when a fetus has a heartbeat and can feel pain.. . then you should go back and listen to our episode Science Vs Abortion…
And another podcast to listen to? Next week, a podcast called Not Past It - our sister Gimlet show - is publishing an episode about a top secret abortion conference — it happened in the US way back in 1955, when it was extremely dangerous to even talk about this. That's coming out next Wednesday, April 13. On Not Past It.
This episode was produced by me, Wendy Zukerman, with help from Meryl Horn, Rose Rimler, Michelle Dang. We’re edited by Blythe Terrell. Editing help from Caitlin Kenney, Kaitlyn Sawrey, Sruthi Pinnamaneni, Jorge Just, Lulu Miller and Chris Neary. Fact checking by Diane Kelly. Mix and sound design by Peter Leonard and Bumi Hidaka. Music by Bumi HIdaka, Peter Leonard, Emma Munger and Bobby Lord. Recording assistance from Anny Celsi . Protest tape courtesy of Pacifica Radio Archives. A huge thanks to all the scientists we got in touch with for this episode, including Dr Sara Matthiesen, Professor Verta Taylor, Professor John DeLancey, Professor Carole Joffe, Professor Johanna Schoen, and Dr. Denise Copelton. And special thanks to Michele Welsing and the team at Southern California Library, Dr Becky Chalker, Jonathon Roberts, Jim Aspholm, Odelia Rubin, Alice Kors, the Zukerman family, and Joseph Lavelle Wilson.
I’m Wendy Zukerman, fact you next time.
[1] A person convicted of performing or attempting to perform an abortion shall be guilty of a felony punishable by a fine not to exceed One Hundred Thousand Dollars ($100,000.00),
[2] a person shall not purposely perform or attempt to perform an abortion except to save the life of a pregnant woman in a medical emergency.
[3] https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/19/us/mississippi-abortion-ban.html
[5] https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/2784582 Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed SB8 into law on May 19, 2021, with an effective date of September 1, 2021. SB8 states, “a physician may not knowingly perform or induce an abortion on a pregnant woman if the physician detected a fetal heartbeat for the unborn child,” absent a medical emergency, and requires physicians to search for cardiac activity before aborting the fetus. The law essentially prohibits abortion after 6 weeks of gestational age, before most women know that they are pregnant.
[6] https://capitol.texas.gov/tlodocs/87R/billtext/pdf/SB00008H.pdf CIVIL LIABILITY FOR VIOLATION OR AIDING OR ABETTING VIOLATION. (a) Any person, other than an officer or employee of a state or local governmental entity in this state, may bring a civil action against any person who: (1) performs or induces an abortion in violation of this chapter; (2) knowingly engages in conduct that aids or abets the performance or inducement of an abortion, including paying for or reimbursing the costs of an abortion through insurance or otherwise, if the abortion is performed or induced in violation of this chapter, regardless of whether the person knew or should have known that the abortion would be performed or induced in violation of this chapter; or (3) intends to engage in the conduct described by Subdivision (1) or (2).
[7] https://capitol.texas.gov/tlodocs/87R/billtext/pdf/SB00008H.pdf (b) If a claimant prevails in an action brought under this section,the court shall award: (1) injunctive relief sufficient to prevent the defendant from violating this chapter or engaging in acts that aid or abet violations of this chapter; (2) statutory damages in an amount of not less than $10,000 for each abortion that the defendant performed or induced in violation of this chapter, and for each abortion performed or induced in violation of this chapter that the defendant aided or abetted; and (3) costs and attorney’s fees.
[8] https://ballotpedia.org/State_government_trifectas: South Carolina, Iowa, Idaho, WV, Ohio, Arizona, Georgia, and Florida, among others, have Republicans controlling the governorship, senate, and house
[10] https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/article-abstract/2776278 During the study period (2017-2020), 35 states enacted 227 laws restricting access to abortion services (median of 4 laws; range, 1-20) (Table 1). Seven states—Arkansas, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Ohio, and Utah—accounted for 119 (52.4%) of the laws.
[11] https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/2784582 Sept 23, 2021: Thirteen states have enacted so-called fetal heartbeat laws banning abortions once embryonic cardiac activity can be detected.
[12] https://www.economist.com/democracy-in-america/2019/03/27/why-red-states-are-passing-laws-banning-early-abortions
[13] https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/14/us/idaho-abortion-bill-texas.html March 14, 2022: Idaho on Monday became the first state to adopt a copycat of an unusual new Texas law that relies on ordinary citizens to enforce a ban on abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy as a way of getting around court challenges to its constitutionality.
[15] https://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/cert/19-1392 (Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization: oral argument Dec. 1 2021) This case asks the Supreme Court to determine whether Mississippi’s ban on all elective abortions after fifteen weeks of pregnancy is constitutional. Petitioner Thomas Dobbs argues that the Court should overturn the precedent establishing a constitutional right to pre-viability abortions—Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey—or alternatively, reject viability as a measuring tool. In response, Respondent Women’s Health Center contends that the Court should uphold the constitutional right to abortion because there is no compelling reason to overrule the previous abortion precedents finding such a right.
[16] https://www.uscourts.gov/about-federal-courts/educational-resources/about-educational-outreach/activity-resources/supreme-1 All opinions of the Court are, typically, handed down by the last day of the Court's term (the day in late June/early July when the Court recesses for the summer). With the exception of this deadline, there are no rules concerning when decisions must be released. Typically, decisions that are unanimous are released sooner than those that have concurring and dissenting opinions. While some unanimous decisions are handed down as early as December, some controversial opinions, even if heard in October, may not be handed down until the last day of the term.
[17] https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/410/113 ; https://www.oyez.org/cases/1971/70-18 Roe v Wade 1973: In the first trimester of pregnancy, the state may not regulate the abortion decision; only the pregnant woman and her attending physician can make that decision. In the second trimester, the state may impose regulations on abortion that are reasonably related to maternal health. In the third trimester, once the fetus reaches the point of “viability,” a state may regulate abortions or prohibit them entirely, so long as the laws contain exceptions for cases when abortion is necessary to save the life or health of the mother.
[18] https://www.texastribune.org/2022/03/01/texas-abortion-law-supreme-court/ …for six months, Texans have largely been unable to access abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy — with enormous ripple effects for the entire country….As these various legal challenges make their way through the court systems, the state’s abortion providers have stopped offering the procedure after fetal cardiac activity is detected.
[19] http://sites.utexas.edu/txpep/files/2021/11/TxPEP-brief-SB8-inital-impact.pdf There is early evidence, in the form of long wait times for appointments, that Texans seeking out-of-state abortion care are straining capacity at the small number of facilities in nearby states.
[20] http://sites.utexas.edu/txpep/files/2022/03/TxPEP-out-of-state-SB8.pdf Between September and December 2021, an average of 1,391 Texans per month obtained abortions at these out-of-state facilities, with monthly totals ranging from 1,330 to 1,485.
[21] Researchers found that "Since 2018, nonprofit service Aid Access has been providing self-managed medication abortion through online telemedicine in the US....the first week after SB 8 went into effect (September 1-8, 2021), mean (SD) daily requests increased by 1180% over baseline, from 10.8 (3.7) to 137.7 (85.7) requests per day" https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2789428
[22] In 1967, Colorado became the first state to reform its abortion law based on the ALI recommendation. The new Colorado statute permitted abortions if the pregnant woman's life or physical or mental health were endangered, if the fetus would be born with a severe physical or mental defect, or if the pregnancy had resulted from rape or incest. Other states began to follow suit, and by 1972, 13 states had so-called ALI statutes.; see also Regan 1998 When Abortion Was A Crime for similar assessment: https://books.google.com/books?id=v2vanNwgkt4C&dq
[23] My second husband and I had been married for about four years and I had two more children before I realized that in order to be effective in the changing the world, I needed to change myself and become more able to assert myself. [Email]
[24] This is true of elective abortion during this time period – all states regulated abortion but many allowed them when there was a threat to the life of the mother or a serious threat to her health
[25] Estimates of the number of illegal abortions in the 1950s and 1960s ranged from 200,000 to 1.2 million per year. One analysis, extrapolating from data from North Carolina, concluded that an estimated 829,000 illegal or self-induced abortions occurred in 1967; A 1958 source estimated numbers could be as high as 1 million yearly in the US.
[26] Abortions performed in non-sterile spaces, via unorthodox methods, and by incompetent providers sent women to emergency rooms with septic shock, peritonitis, uncontrolled hemorrhaging, or perforated uteri. The Clergy Consultation Service of NY created a “negative list” of doctors to avoid for women seeking abortions.
[27] Table of commonly used techniques (Panel 2): drinking: Bleach, acid; foreign bodies placed in uterus: knitting needles, coat hanger, ballpoint pen, chicken bone, bicycle spoke
[28] The main causes of death from unsafe abortion are hemorrhage, infection, sepsis, genital trauma, and necrotic bowel.
[29] From her description,It sounds like Carol had a D&C, And there is bleeding after a D&C, sometimes for a couple of weeks
[30] There are also reports describing abortions via “packing" which induced a miscarriage by packing the cervix with gauze strips, producing a 'foreign body' reaction and a miscarriage: The Clergy Consultation Service of NY deemed this technique “absolutely unacceptable, as were the gamut of non-medical methods." But that procedure involves putting gauze in before the abortion, not afterwards. - MH/DK
[31] I read books. I attended Los Angeles City College and then California State College part-time at night. So, I was aware of current events, including the rise of female liberation. My friend, who I had become acquainted with at school recommended Friedan's book. Over the couple years when I was having these "clicks", I read Germaine Greer's "The Female Eunuch". I joined a small group of people who put out a 2 page "newspaper", Common Ground, and wrote for it. So, I had lots of people to talk with about these matters [ Email with Carol]; Carol remarried in 1964, had two more children born in 1965 and 1968.; she started getting involved in the women's movement after 1968. [Call with Carol]
[32] I had already organized a successful abortion demonstration to support Karman (who had been arrested) at the park where the La Brea Tar Pits are. [Email with Carol]
[33] “Originally we worked for the repeal of abortion laws,” Mrs Downer explained. “But we found out that before we could demand better health care we had to know what better health care was”
[34] this source says women paid anywhere from $250 or $1000 (the equivalent of $6000 today on the high side)- and mentions that others would demand sexual favors - page 199
[35] At UCLA, Karman obtained a bachelor’s degree in theater and a master’s degree in psychology. While studying psychology at UCLA, Karman researched the emotional effects of therapeutic abortions, abortions which are performed when the pregnant woman’s life is endangered. In the 1950s, abortion was illegal in the United States and in many European countries.
[36] to gain credibility in the medical profession, started referring to himself as ‘Dr’ Harvey Karman. Karman, who had a Masters Degree in Theatre Arts from the University of California at Los Angeles, claimed that he was awarded a fellowship to attend the International University of Geneva, where he received a PhD in clinical psychology in 1969. However, critics and competitors, many of whom were members of the medical profession or the feminist self-help movement, were quick to note that Karman could not have earned a doctorate in 1969 because he spent most of the year in and out of legal trouble. (ALSO from this source: they also conveyed the fact that the so-called International University of Geneva only existed in a brochure printed by David Eggli, a 1960s Newsweek United Nations correspondent, and had never been included in the official list of colleges and universities published by the Swiss government)
[37] Downer was careful to say that Karman did not teach them how to do abortions; he merely allowed them to observe. “He didn’t give us a minute of his time, really, but he did allow us to hang out.”
[38] [Carol description of the place] Harvey Karman had a small store-front space next door to the Christian Science Reading Room on Santa Monica Boulevard in Los Angeles (it is now in West Los Angeles). Across the street was a large coffee shop where police officers regularly came for coffee.
It was named the Community Services Center, but I don't think it had a sign. ["Women's Community Services Center" according to Moira, Fran. Off Our Backs; Washington Vol. 4, Iss. 10, (Oct 31, 1974): 8]
The floor plan was "shotgun" style; it was 15 to 20 feet wide. The front area had a small chair at a tiny desk at which the receptionist (Peggy Grau) sat. Immediately behind was a narrow hall. The door led to an examination room which was just big enough to accommodate a gynecological table (stirrups) with an gooseneck lamp over it and a small stool for the person doing the procedure. The room was either closed by a door or more likely by a full-length curtain that could be pulled aside. There was barely room for a couple of people to stand beside the table. There was a metal tray on the other side of the table whose legs and wheels enabled it to be moved around a bit.
[39] The vagina is a fibromuscular tube that connects the uterus with the vestibule of the external genitalia.
[40] It was only when we saw the tremendous explosion of consciousness, of happiness and energy, that resulted from doing vaginal self-examination together that we coined the term "the self-help clinic" and changed our focus to spreading "self-help". [Email Carol Downer]
[42]Although they were all abortion activists… Few of them had ever before looked inside her own vagina
[43] Of the 318,699 physicians identified by specialty preference as of Dec. 31, 1971, 22,563, or 7.07 per cent were women, whereas among the 19,770 obstetrician-gynecologists 7.2 per cent were women. Also: More recent figures from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, as of April, 1974, indicate that among the 15,927 Fellows, 568, or 3.56 per cent, are women
[44] Women who failed to sustain the physicians’ definition of the encounter by crying or obstructing the examination were designated emotionally disturbed, overly anxious, or uncooperative
[45] “Women from all over the country complained that doctors often did not put the needs of their patients first, were condescending and patronizing, withheld medical information and at times, used their power to manipulate or physically abuse female patients” - p 66 More than Medicine
[46] (1971) That fall, Carol and Lorraine Rothman traveled across the United States with boxes of speculums bringing vaginal self-exam and menstrual extraction, to women of the United States.
[47] Zigzagging across the country, from local NOW chapters, to church basements, living rooms, and college campuses, they presented a slide show that culminated in a live demonstration of vaginal self-examination, thereby establishing a network of women exposed to the movement; 23 city tour starting in November 1971:
[48] In the late 1960s, feminists across the country started to criticize and resist the constraints of male dominated healthcare controlled by physicians. They began forming self-help groups where they demystified their bodies by conducting their own physical examinations and reading medical literature. Some groups disseminated information by holding self-help presentations and publishing their findings. Others opened feminist health clinics and formed ongoing groups in which women conducted their own gynecological examinations and abortions, monitored their fertility, and performed donor sperm inseminations. Some self-help activists worked to influence mainstream healthcare by training medical students and holding inspections of hospitals and clinics.
[49] After Carol and Lorraine returned, the group, which then included new members who traveled from various parts of the country to join them, incorporated as the Feminist Women’s Health Center. (This group included F.H.)
[50] Willard Cates, MD and Vicki Jones, MPH, both of the CDC, met with us and were very helpful in advising us. They both visited our clinic and we saw them at annual conferences of the American Public Health Association. -FH ; Willard Cates’ CDC report on 1971 abortion surveilance
[51] We read literature, attended conferences, established relationships with friendly medical professionals, had gyn residents working in our clinics.” Dr Beck Chalker (PhD)
[52] Springfield News-Leader - 16th November, 1972 “More than 50 self help health centres have sprung up around the country and housewives have been meeting in places like Wichita, St Louis, Oakland and Norwalk Conn. to discuss female health concerns and self examination.”
[53] Daily News (New York) - 22nd December 1972 “More than 50 self help centers now exist in the US, including some that provide services, such as period or menstrual extraction”
[54] P 71: Into Our Own Hands: says several sources say 50 clinics by 1976
[55] "Unlike the Janes, they did not want to provide services to other women. They insisted that menstrual extraction was only safe when performed in a self-help group that had been meeting for several months and had gotten very well acquainted with each others’ bodies."
[56] Seattle womens’ ‘self help’ clinics: the female paramedics would perform pelvic exams and other diagnostic tasks at the clinic although they could not legally provide abortions. As mentioned in the preceding chapter, there is evidence that in some cases they did provide illegal abortions as well, usually through menstrual extraction.
[58] Rothman’s husband, Al, a biology professor, helped her find a one-way valve to control the direction of the airflow. Rothman also added a collection tube that led into a jar so that someone using the device would not have to stop in the middle of the procedure if the syringe got full.
[59] The equipment consists of the following: a Mason jar, a 50 c.c. syringe, a one-way bypass valve (to create a vacuum and prevent air from entering the uterus), plastic tubing (aquarium tubing is frequently used), a rubber stopper, a speculum, and a small flexible cannula
[60] Definitions of a human embryo normally include those entities created by the fertilization of a human oocyte by a human sperm; The developing human is called an embryo for the first 8 weeks of development. It is a fetus from the ninth week of development until birth. Moore and Persaud 2008. The Developing Human
[61] After the eighth week and until the moment of birth, your developing baby is called a fetus.
At 7 weeks (The latest time they'd use their aspirator) the embryo is about 13 mm long.
According to "Physical Properties of Pumpkin Seeds" the average length was 16.91 mm.
[62] The procedure was performed between the 5th to 20th day after the missed cycle…. The uterus was required to be under seven weeks in size; a strict criteria for the menstrual extraction procedure.”
[63] Procedure performed 10-18 days of missing a period- 22 days is too late
[64] inject a numbing medication into or near your cervix, stretch the opening of your cervix with a series of dilating rods if you haven’t had them put in earlier, insert a thin tube through your cervix into your uterus, use a small, hand-held suction device or suction machine to gently take the pregnancy tissue out of your uterus
[65] P 33 Into Our Own Hands - in Chicago: members of the Jane Collective - an underground network in Chicago that helped women who wanted to have abortions– invited Downer and Rothman to demonstrate cervical self-examination and menstrual extraction
[66] pg 319 : And while rich women could generally find access to safe abortions, poorer women, and women of color, were more likely to be forced into life threatening situations to obtain their abortions.
[67] Table of commonly used techniques (Panel 2): drinking: Bleach, acid; foreign bodies placed in uterus: knitting needles, coat hanger, ballpoint pen, chicken bone, bicycle spoke
[68] Insertion of objects through the cervix and into the uterus were used in 19% of all attempts: eg, knitting needles, coat hangers
[69] P58-61 special wards were set up in some hospitals, where stretchers would line the halls and women would wait to get treated. First, the doctors would first check for things like knitting needles stuck in their uteruses, then check for gangrene… before scraping their uteruses to complete the abortion." One doctor from the time described having to remove a girl’s uterus, which he said was like a "bag of pus."
[70] In 1962 alone, nearly 1,600 women were admitted to Harlem Hospital Center in New York City for incomplete abortions, which was one abortion-related hospital admission for every 42 deliveries at that hospital that year. In 1968, the University of Southern California Los Angeles County Medical Center, another large public facility serving primarily indigent patients, admitted 701 women with septic abortions, one admission for every 14 deliveries.
[71] "Every large municipal or county hospital had a “septic abortion ward,” and infected induced abortion was the most common reason for admission to gynecology services nationwide during those years. " pg 8 of Every Third Woman
[72] Page 60, Doctors of Conscience “Saturday they would start being sick and they would drift in on Sunday or Sunday evening, either hemorrhaging or septic, and they would be lined up outside the operating room to be cleaned out Monday Morning. There was a lineup of women on stretchers outside the operating room…”
[73]Menstrual extraction (ME) offered an attractive alternative to back-alley abortions prior to the 1973 constitutional affirmation of a woman’s right to terminate an unwanted pregnancy. Provided the procedure could be done shortly after the first missed period.
[74] for after the procedure, they found "minor complications" in ~4% of women overall, including UTIs or "continuing pelvic pain." And for during the procedure, many women reported pain (significantly worse in women who didn't get the anesthetic) with 6% overall said it was "unacceptable". More risks during the ME, 10% of women (44 out of 424) felt nausea or vomiting, and 4.7% of women (20 out of 424) felt faint.
[75] Thus, six pregnancies in 307 were missed with the procedure or 2%.”
[76] Overall, 3.9 percent of the women experienced an immediate or a delayed complication that could be considered significant. [Data from 11,309 women in 21 countries 1972-1976, complications include failed procedures, fever, infection, bleeding]
[77] Study of 104 aspiration procedures; 2 women had retained products of conception, fits the 2-5% complication rate in other studies
[78] One report includes one instance of uterine perforation with a karman cannula: focus of paper is encouraging women to wait for conclusive diagnosis of pregnancy now that legal abortion is available (1974)
[79] “Postoperative febrile episodes developed in ten instances, all of which were readily controlled by oral antibiotics” – out of 400, so 10/400 or 2.5%
[80] 1 patient out of 104 receiving menstrual aspirations developed an infection (note: she had leukaemia…)
[81] P 146 A woman’s book of choices: “One group that has been going for nearly 10 years estimates that its respiration rate might be as high as 20%, other groups reported that they rarely have to reaspirate.”
[82] The uterus was completely evacuated in 401 patients (95%). Of the 260 patients with proved pregnancies the initial aspiration was successful in 248. The remaining 12 had a positive pregnancy test result at the follow-up visit and needed further evacuation. Of the 128 patients who were shown not to be histologically pregnant the procedure was successful in 126. Two patients had a positive pregnancy test result at follow-up and required further evacuation.
[83] Pg 63, More Than Medicine - There was a doctor at a woman’s health clinic at Harborview Hospital in Seattle who performed some menstrual extractions..
[84] In an effort to exert further control over menstrual extraction, Rothman applied for a patent on the Del-Em in 1971.96 In doing so, she avoided any use of the words “abortion” or “pregnancy termination” by titling the device the “Rothman Method for Withdrawing Menstrual Fluid.”
[85] At Approximately 7:30PM I entered the Women’s Self Help Clinic…. She said “for security reasons we will not do a period extraction on just anyone who walks in. Please don’t bring your friends for a period extraction, we can’t help it if it’s an abortion…. If the police ever got a jar of the menses it would be all over”. [She is Colleen] [pg 9]
[86] August 9, 1972, approximately 7:30, I entered the Woman’s Self Help Clinic… Colleen and Carol were talking about a newspaper article and both seemed quite upset. Later I obtained a copy of this paper. The article they were discussing was about Harvey Karman… Colleen said that “now would be a good time to discuss security. In the past where we were doing illegal abortions every (sic) was scared to death that someone in the group was from the vice squad. Even when we traveled we took the kit (the bottle, syringe, cannula and hoses) all apart and hide them all over the car. .. “one woman before we started charging everyone told everyone under the sun, I guess we were lucky because the cops didn’t bust us” [Page 14]
[87] Someone came in, no name, but she was known, she spoke with an accent. She took off her clothes waist down got on the table and put the spec[ulum] into her self, asked for the mirror, and said she thought she had a yeast infection. … Patient asked [Joyce] to put Yogurt into her, it was done. [p 5, police report]
On May 11 1972, I was informed by Mrs Dorothy Jenkins that she observed Carollyn Aurilla Downer give an unknown female a vaginal examination diagnose a yeast infection and treat same with yoghurt. A medical instrument known as a speculum was applied to the female by Downer [p 2, Affidavit for search warrant]
[88] Study of putting probiotics into the vagina: Continuous application of certain Lactobacillus strains vaginally and orally has been shown to alter the microbiota from a microbiota indicative of bacterial vaginosis to a microbiota that is dominated by lactobacilli and regarded as normal
[89] When lactobacilli are introduced vaginally… there will be an impact on the subject’s microflora.If this is dominated by yeast, Gram negative coliforms and anaerobes, or Gram positive cocci, then the outcome might significantly benefit the patient. … Some physicians suggest patients douche with yoghurt, but lactobacilli found in yogurt fail to colonise the vagina and are ineffective in treating or preventing bacterial vaginosis, although one small study contradicts this conclusion.
[90] Hilton et al. found that eating L. acidophilus can reduce the vaginal colonization and infection by Candida in a clinical trial in 33 women with recurrent candidal vaginitis (≥5/year), 13 of whom completed the study. But they note “On the other hand, there are a few studies that do not support a role for probiotics in the prevention of recurrent VVC”.
[91] Sequence of events - page 42 of Carol Downer Trial Docs (courtesy Southern CA Library)
[92] On 20 September 1972, seven Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) officers and three state medical examiners raided the Women’s Self-Help Clinic on Crenshaw Boulevard. They had warrants for the arrest of two staff members, Carol Downer and Colleen Wilson. The charge: practicing medicine without a license.
[93] List - page 70 of Carol Downer Trial Docs (courtesy Southern CA Library)
[94] Media Release from Centre - pg 41 of Carol Downer Trial Docs (courtesy Southern CA Library)
[95]Media Release from Centre - pg 41 of Carol Downer Trial Docs (courtesy Southern CA Library)
[96] In the fifth week of the group’s meetings, police burst into the Health Center, arrested Downer and Wilson, an seized cartons of yogurt - in this instance, someone’s lunch - from LAFWHC’s refrigerator.
[97] In 1972, The Board of Medical Examiners and the police department raided the health center and arrested Carol and Colleen Wilson for practicing medicine without a license.
[98] Colleen Wilson, who had been charged originally with eleven different offenses, subsequently pleaded guilty on one count: fitting a woman with a diaphragm. For this, Ms. Wilson was fined $250, given a 25-day suspended sentence, and put on two years probation. Carol Downer, who had been charged with showing a woman how to examine her cervix, and with recommending the application of yogurt to combat a vaginal yeast infection, decided to fight the charges. In Caruana, Stephanie.Off Our Backs; Washington Vol. 3, Iss. 5, (Feb 28, 1973): 7.
[99] Mrs. Wilson pleaded guilty to the charge of fitting a diaphragm, a birth control device, for another woman. She was fined $250, given a 25‐day suspended sentence and put on two years' probation.
[100] Mrs. Downer pleaded not guilty to the misdemeanor charge and has made the trial a political issue…. Mrs. Downer, if found guilty, could receive a six‐month jail sentence.
[101] pg 54 of Carol Downer Trial Docs (courtesy Southern CA Library)
[102] New York Congresswoman Bella Abzug -- issued a statement of support: Said that the work they were doing “is particularly significant because it is a dynamic example of how women working together can help themselves and other women” [p 100 support letters collection]
[104] Spock: pg 45 of Carol Downer Trial Docs (courtesy Southern CA Library)
[105] Helen Reddy… co-wrote and performed the 1972 hit that endures even today as a feminist anthem.
[106] "The police were hoping to catch the women performing a menstrual extraction, and when they failed they fell back on the ludicrous yogurt charge. Wilson plea-bargained on her more complicated charge;
[107] When we came up with our plan to start an illegal clinic (illegal because we were not doctors and we weren't doing it in an accredited hospital and we weren't getting psychiatrists to approve) abortion was not available in Los Angeles (except for the County hospital where they performed abortions for about 30 indigent women a week, and it was not publicized). *But, by the time we had trained ourselves and called for a meeting to recruit other women to join in with us, abortion became available at Ed Allred's facility, therefore we didn't feel that the public would support us, because abortion was available.* [Carol Downer email; call]
[108] Carol Downer, who had been charged with showing a woman how to examine her cervix, and with recommending the application of yogurt to combat a vaginal yeast infection: in Caruana, Stephanie.Off Our Backs; Washington Vol. 3, Iss. 5, (Feb 28, 1973): 7.
[109] The LA Deputy City Attorney at the time said: “Who are they to diagnose a yeast infection and prescribe yogurt for it?”Media Release from Centre - pg 41 of Carol Downer Trial Docs (courtesy Southern CA Library)
[110] Carol’s lawyer argued, no! It wasn’t medicine! … they were just friends helping each other. they asked: why was it okay to put a spoonful of chicken soup in a friend’s mouth if she had a cold, but not okay to put a spoonful of yoghurt in a friends vagina for a yeast infection? Press Release of Acquittal - “I wouldn’t be able to discuss a cold with my friend or offer her a Kleenex” - pg 49 of Carol Downer Trial Docs (courtesy Southern CA Library)
[111] News article from Iowa. Associated Press article ran in: Virginia, Tennessee, Wisconsin, Texas, &more.
[112] P24 Into our own hands: Moreover, the trial attracted national attention, being covered in magazines such as Time, Newsweek…
[113] News article from the Philadelphia Inquirer
[114] LOS ANGELES, Dec. 6 (AP) —A feminist has been acquitted by a Municipal Court jury on misdemeanor charges of practicing medicine without a license.
[116] News Report - pg 2 - Carol Downer Trial Docs (courtesy Southern CA Library)
[117] Carol went to trial and was acquitted by a jury of all charges.
[118] Carol's acquittal on Dec. 6, 1972; Roe v Wade decided January 22, 1973.
[119] Jan 22, 1973: With respect to the State's important and legitimate interest in the health of the mother, the "compelling" point, in the light of present medical knowledge, is at approximately the end of the first trimester. This is so because of the now-established medical fact, referred to above at 149, that until the end of the first trimester mortality in abortion may be less than mortality in normal childbirth. It follows that, from and after this point, a State may regulate the abortion procedure to the extent that the regulation reasonably relates to the preservation and protection of maternal health.