Judith Widdicome, a champion of abortion rights in the St. Louis area, died earlier this week at age 73. From the
St. Louis Beacon :
Within days of the 1973 [Rove v.Wade] court ruling, Ms. Widdicombe declared her intent to open Reproductive Health Services [which has since merged with Panned Parenthood], a clinic that would provide abortion services to all women without regard to their ability to pay. “Judy provided a safe, medically sound facility to provide abortions that saved women’s lives,” said Jean Berg, who offered counseling at the clinic through her work with the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice. “Without Judy Widdicombe, thousands of women would have died.”
Reproductive Health Services opened its doors in the Doctor’s Office Building at 100 North Euclid in the Central West End on the rainy Wednesday morning of May 23, 1973. It had been scheduled to open a day later, but Ms. Widdicombe was becoming impatient.
The clinic had been ready for a month, just waiting for the Supreme Court’s formal announcement. But when it did open, Ms. Widdicombe, and her small medical and counseling staff were nervous. The court said it was now legal, but it didn’t feel legal yet. An attorney was on standby and a stack of bail money was on-hand just in case she or the surgeon was arrested.
There were no complications during the first procedure, nor during any of the others that were performed that first day. No one went to jail.
But each day, they ran the gauntlet.
Hundreds of anti-abortion protesters showed up on May 24, the day after the clinic opened, and a contingent kept vigil every day thereafter.
Full disclosure: I initially found this story on another local website. The contempt I have for my fellow citizen's anti-choice rhetoric won out over the "good blogger" in me, and I can't, in good faith, link to that site. Further evidence that women like Widdicombe are much-needed and their work appreciated.
