1960s - Moving Ahead
The family planning movement made dramatic leaps forward, both nationally and locally in the 1960s. Politicians recognized a worldwide need for population control, the Supreme Court made a landmark decision that led to the acceptance of birth control, and modern medicine offered women new and exciting birth control options.
In 1960, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved oral contraceptives, and the Cleveland Maternal Health Association began to offer The Pill to its clients. By 1965, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Griswold v. Connecticut, ruled that Connecticut's law prohibiting the use of birth control by married couples violated the newly defined right of marital privacy. This decision led other states to liberalize their restrictions and signaled cultural acceptance of contraception. It also set a precedent for future rulings regarding the right to abortion. Cleveland's Maternal Health Association thrived in the new social climate, establishing two groundbreaking services: the Mobile Health Clinic and the hospital outpatient clinic.
In 1965, the Maternal Health Association established the country's first Mobile Health Clinic, dramatically expanding its service area. The new van was a self-contained clinic on wheels. In a daring act for the era, the Junior League of Cleveland funded the clinic, which was run almost entirely by volunteers, including Sally Burton, Claire Feldman Markey, and Muffy MacDonald. Staffed by a doctor, a nurse, and the volunteers, the mobile clinic scheduled stops at churches and community centers, reaching people who did not live near a MHA clinic. It was one of the few free or low-cost health services available in the inner city. According to the Cleveland Press, 900 women used the mobile birth control unit in its first year.
Also in 1965, Metropolitan General Hospital accepted the Maternal Health Association's offer to furnish a doctor, Janet Dingle Kent, M.D., a nurse, and volunteers for one year to start a family planning clinic in Metropolitan General Hospital's outpatient department. The acceptance came with two conditions: 1) Only married patients would be served. 2) No hospital funds would be used. Controversy over the new service never materialized.
Because more than half of the mothers who delivered babies at Metro General were unmarried, the hospital lifted restrictions after the first year and took over the clinic. Metro General became the first healthcare facility in Cleveland "other than the Maternal Health Association" to offer family planning. Other local teaching hospitals would soon follow suit, and the Cleveland Health Department would eventually offer family planning in its health centers.
In 1966, the Maternal Health Association changed its name to Planned Parenthood of Greater Cleveland (PPGC). That year, 135 people volunteered 6,600 hours in Planned Parenthood clinics and hospital maternity wards, at educational events and as fundraisers. By the next year, PPGC operated clinics at five sites in addition to the mobile unit: University Circle, East 35th Street, Garden Valley Neighborhood Center, West Side, and Fairview Community Hospital.
Continue to A New Right for Women - 1970s
|
