Group Health Cooperative Board of Trustees votes to endorse abortion reform in January 1969.

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In January 1969, Group Health Cooperative Board of Trustees votes unanimously to endorse abortion reform. The Community Affairs Committee has asked the board to support legislation sponsored by Planned Parenthood and others to liberalize the abortion law, which currently permits abortion only when a pregnancy jeopardizes the mother's life.

A Careful Discussion

The 11-member board, which included two women, Eleanor Brand and Hilde Birnbaum, conducted a cautious and careful discussion. Trustees noted that medical opinion was growing more liberal on the subject. Fear was expressed that a liberalized abortion law might make Washington a "Mecca for women seeking an abortion." To this Group Health Chief of Staff Dr. Arthur L. Schultz replied that the only way that would happen was if the state had "a lot of crooked doctors," which he doubted (Crowley, 127).

Trustee Ralph Bremer suggested that people would oppose the measure on the basis of religious belief, but that "nothing in this change prevents them from acting in accordance with their own convictions." Trustee Aubrey Davis added that in fact the law would "end the imposition of private religious convictions on the general public and would leave the decision in each case to the patient and the doctor" (Crowley, 128).

Reproductive Rights

The board voted unanimously to support the legislation. In March Group Health Cooperative hired its first full-time lobbyist, Kenneth Flemming, and he lobbied for the legislation as a priority.

The state passed the reform bill in January 1970. Voters endorsed the new law in a referendum on November 3, and three weeks later Group Health's Board of Trustees voted to add abortion to its basic coverage. Throughout this time, there was very little opposition to the reform from within Group Health. But social and religious conservatives among Group Health members would later organize and attempt to repeal these reforms.

Sources:
Walt Crowley, To Serve the Greatest Number: A History of Group Health Cooperative of Seattle (Seattle: GHC/University of Washington Press, 1995), 127-128; HistoryLink Online Encyclopedia of Washington State History "Washington voters re-elect Senator Henry Jackson by a record margin, retain six of seven U.S. Representatives, and legalize abortion on November 3, 1970" (by Kit Oldham and Cassandra Tate) http://www.historylink.org/ (accessed August 28, 2005).

By HistoryLink Staff, August 28, 2005

This file made possible by:
Group Health Cooperative