Clergy Consultation Service on Abortion

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The Clergy Consultation Service on Abortion (CCS) was a group of American clergy that counseled and referred people to licensed doctors for safe abortions before the Supreme Court's decision in Roe v. Wade made abortion legal nationwide. [1] Started in 1967 by a group of 21 Protestant ministers and Jewish rabbis in New York City, the group operated out of Judson Memorial Church [2] and grew to incorporate chapters in thirty-eight states with some 3,000 clergy as members. [1] By the time of the Roe v. Wade decision in 1973, it is estimated that the Clergy Consultation Service had nationally referred at least 450,000 people for safe abortions. [3] The Clergy Consultation Service also started Women's Services, an abortion clinic in New York City, in 1970 after statewide legislation made abortion legal in New York State. [1]

Contents

Origins

In the mid-1960s, a group of liberal New York Protestant ministers and Jewish rabbis met regularly at Washington Square Methodist Church to discuss questions of social justice. [4] [1] Starting in 1965, New York State Assemblyman Albert H. Blumenthal led an effort to reform state abortion laws. As reform efforts failed, journalist and abortion activist Lawrence Lader urged the clergy group to offer abortion referrals. [4]

The clergy group invited women who had had abortions, gynecologists, and lawyers from the New York Civil Liberties Union to speak to them and provide guidance for setting up the referral service. [3] The group set rules for their work: counselors must be clergy, to confer the right of confidentiality; they would counsel in person in their regular offices; they would refer only to licensed physicians; they would refer out of state, to confuse jurisdictions; and there would be no charge. [1]

The group appointed Rev. Howard Moody, minister of Judson Memorial Church, as spokesperson. They chose to use the word "abortion" in their name as a way to remove stigma. [1] They set up an answering machine at Judson with an outgoing message giving the names and contact information of two clergy available that week. Moody gave the group's first interview to the New York Times, and the article about their launch, naming the 21 clergy members, appeared on page 1 on May 27, 1967. [2]

The administrator of the New York City CCS, and, later, the national group, was Judson's church administrator, Arlene Carmen. She and other women visited many of the abortion providers themselves, posing as pregnant women, to check the clinical conditions and procedure used, as well as the demeanor of the doctors. Carmen maintained lists of approved physicians and those to be avoided. [1]

Expansion

The service received hundreds of calls during the first weeks of operation, including many from women outside of New York. [1] Since all counseling was done in person, the New York CCS soon identified a need for similar services elsewhere. [3] Moody asked clergy colleagues in Philadelphia and Chicago to start CCS chapters there. Clergy from New Jersey and Los Angeles read about the New York group and contacted them about forming local groups. [1] By 1972, there were chapters in 38 states, and by the time the Roe v. Wade decision made abortion legal nationwide in January 1973, some 3,000 CCS counselors had referred as many as 450,000 women for safe abortions. [1]

Successors

On July 1, 1970, abortion became legal in New York State. [5] On that day, the Clergy Consultation Service of New York opened the first freestanding outpatient abortion clinic in the U.S., the Center for Reproductive and Sexual Health (later known as Women's Services), under the medical direction of Dr. Hale Harvey III and the administration of graduate student Barbara Pyle. Harvey had performed abortions for CCS-referred patients in New Orleans and was invited by the CCS to set up the clinic in New York. [3] At Women's Services, abortions cost as little as $25 for patients in economic need, and women were referred there by CCS chapters throughout the east. [3]

At the same time, the New York CCS was concerned that demand for legal abortion in New York City would be much greater than hospitals were equipped to provide. Moody and Carmen established a watchdog group called Clergy and Lay Advocates for Hospital Abortion Performance, headed by Barbara Krasner. The group offered a referral to anyone who had difficulty getting an abortion at New York City hospitals and amassed statistics indicating that the hospital system did not provide timely treatment. [3]

In 1973, following Roman Catholic opposition to legalized abortion, a group of Protestant and Jewish clergy formed an education and advocacy organization, the Religious Coalition for Abortion Rights (RCAR), which in 1993 broadened to become the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice (RCRC). Former CCS members around the country formed or joined state chapters of the group. [1]

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Abortion in Hawaii is legal. 66% of adults in Hawaii said in a 2014 poll by the Pew Research Center that abortion should be legal in all or most cases. The 2023 American Values Atlas reported that, in their most recent survey, 79% of people from Hawaii said that abortion should be legal in all or most cases. Hawaii began allowing abortion care de jure in 1970, the first state to do so. State law enacted at that time stated said, "the State shall not deny or interfere with a female's right to choose or obtain an abortion of a nonviable fetus or an abortion that is necessary to protect the life or health of the female."

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Abortion in Wisconsin has been legal since September 18, 2023, and is performed in Madison, Milwaukee and Sheboygan through 22 weeks gestation. However, elective abortions in Wisconsin are under dispute after the overturning of Roe v. Wade by the Supreme Court of the United States on June 24, 2022. Abortion opponents cite an 1849 law that they claim bans the procedure in all cases except when the life of the mother is in danger. However, lower level courts have argued that the law only applies to infanticide and not consensual abortions. The enforceability of the law is disputed and being considered by the state courts. Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin announced that they would resume abortion services in Madison and Milwaukee on September 18, 2023. Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin later announced that they would resume abortion services in Sheboygan on December 28, 2023.

Abortion in Maryland is legal at all stages of pregnancy. The first laws regulating abortion in the state were passed in 1867 and 1868, banning abortion except by a physician to "secure the safety of the mother." Abortion providers continued to operate both within and outside of the law. Legal enforcement became more strict from the 1940s through 60s, with numerous police raids on abortion providers. In 1968, Maryland passed a liberalized abortion law that clarified the wording of the previous law, allowing abortion in hospital settings in cases of rape, severe fetal deformity, or when life and health were endangered.

Abortion in Florida is generally illegal after six weeks from the woman's last menstrual period, This law came into effect in May 2024, being approved by Republican Governor Ron DeSantis following its passage in the Florida House of Representatives and the Florida Senate, with only Republican state legislators supporting and only Democratic state legislators opposing. Additionally, pregnant women are generally required to make two visits to a medical facility 24 hours apart to be able to obtain an abortion, in a law approved by Republican Governor Rick Scott in 2015.

Abortion in Puerto Rico is technically prohibited on request, although it is de facto allowed without a clear limit. On June 22, 2022, the Senate passed a bill limiting abortion to 22 weeks, with exceptions for danger to the mother's life, fetal defects, and if the fetus would not be viable. The bill will need to be considered by the House.

Arlene Carmen was an American activist and church administrator in New York City. Raised in the Bronx in a Jewish family, she graduated from City College and became administrator of Judson Memorial Church in Greenwich Village in 1967. There she became administrator of the National Clergy Consultation Service on Abortion, a network of Protestant and Jewish clergy who referred women for safe abortions before Roe v. Wade legalized abortion nationwide. She herself vetted some of the physicians used by the group by posing as a pregnant woman, and she maintained lists of physicians who were approved and those who were to be avoided. She and Judson's head minister, Howard Moody, started a project to support sex workers, offering referrals, clothing, lemonade, and cookies. In 1978, she was arrested along with sex workers in Times Square and released 22 hours later. She was also an organizer an early AIDS support group at Judson. Carmen was co-author of Abortion Counseling and Social Change: From Illegal Act to Medical Practice with Howard Moody and Working Women: The Subterranean World of Street Prostitution with Howard Moody.

Howard Russell Moody was an American clergyman who served as a pastor at Judson Memorial Church in New York City for 35 years. He was also a longtime champion of civil rights and free expression.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Dirks, Doris A. (Doris Andrea). To offer compassion : a history of the Clergy Consultation Service on Abortion. Relf, Patricia. Madison, Wisconsin. ISBN   9780299311308. OCLC   959080702.
  2. 1 2 Fiske, Edward B. (May 22, 1967). "CLERGYMEN OFFER ABORTION ADVICE: 21 Ministers and Rabbis Form New Group Will Propose Alternatives". New York Times. Retrieved March 27, 2019.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Arlene, Carmen. Abortion counseling and social change - from illegal act to medical practice: the story of the Clergy Consultation Service on Abortion. Moody, Howard, 1921-2012. Valley Forge, Pa. ISBN   081700579X. OCLC   539706.
  4. 1 2 Moody, Howard (2009). A Voice in the Village. Xlibris Corporation. ISBN   978-1-4363-9973-9.
  5. ↑ "Laws of the State of New York". Hathi Trust Digital Library. 1970. Retrieved February 15, 2022.
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