Karen didn’t look too closely at the literature, only noticing that it mentioned political efforts to make abortion legal. They saw piles of literature and some women quietly stuffing envelopes with papers. Up a steep flight of stairs, the landing gave way to polished wood floors and a living room and dining room that contained little else but tables and some bookshelves. Karen and her friend soon found themselves at a Victorian house divided into apartments in San Francisco’s Inner Richmond neighborhood. Mention “Patricia Maginnis.” Then proceed to the second floor. and a set of instructions: Ring the bell four times. The woman simply gave her an address - 30 Clement St. On the phone at her friend’s apartment, Karen was afraid to give her name, and the voice on the other end did not ask for it. Among the documents donated by Maginnis to the Schlesinger Library in Cambridge, Mass., are letters pertaining to the List, including correspondence from Karen and from Winston’s mother. (left), who had abortions when they were 15 and 24, respectively. They included Wendy Winston (right) and Karen L. Wade made abortion legal throughout the United States, the List, created by Patricia Maginnis (top photo, left), helped guide patients to safer abortions from 1966 to 1973. About the collage at the top of this storyīefore Roe v. Typically, according to the legal system, a person seeking an abortion, a person like Karen, was a person plotting a crime. The procedure was banned or heavily restricted in most states, including California. Wade held that the Constitution protects the right to choose abortion. She had grown up in a liberal Jewish family that believed abortion was an individual’s choice, in line with Jewish law and tradition.īut this was five years before Roe v. She wasn’t ready, mentally or financially. Though he’d offered to marry her when they found out she was pregnant, Karen did not believe in “shotgun marriages,” as she told him, and she did not want a child right then. A fifth-grade teacher with red hair and an allergy to birth-control pills, she had been practicing the rhythm method of contraception with her boyfriend, Erwin, who had studied to be a dentist. Karen was determined to end her pregnancy.
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