CROSSING THE BORDER FOR ABORTIONS: CALIFORNIA ACTIVISTS, MEXICAN CLINICS, AND THE CREATION OF A FEMINIST HEALTH AGENCY IN THE 1960S LESLIE J. REAGAN
After five years of organizing for abortion rights, Patricia Maginnis decided to break the law. In June 1966, she passed Out a leaflet in San Francisco that named physicians in Mexico and Japan who performed abortions. With this daring act, Maginnis inaugurated the first open (and illegal) abortion referral service in the United States. 1 V%at began in protest of a new anti-abortion campaign instigated by California authorities resulted in the development Of an underground feminist health agency for women's rights and women's health. The list Of abortion providers took on a life Of its own.
As demand for the "List" soared, Maginnis and her comrades created mechanisms for regulating illegal abortion practices in order to ensure that they were sending women to safe practitioners. To carry out these illegal activities, they founded a new organization, the Association to Repeal Abortion Laws (ARAL). American women were indeed desperate for abortions, but, as ARAL's success demonstrates, that did not preclude them from wielding collective clout in the underground world Of illegal abortion—even across an international border. criminal status Of abortion, which left the practice Open to anyone, skilled or not, and patients unprotected and fearful, made the regulation Of practitioners essential. The vacuum created by the lack Of state and professional regulation combined with the availability of Mexican providers contributed to the power of ARAL as a feminist, nongovernmental organization in the United States. Although scholars acknowledge Patricia Maginnis's presence in the abortion rights movement, they tend to underestimate her contribution
American law forced hundreds of thousands of law-abiding This content downloaded from 206.253.207.235 on Fri, 30 Nov 2018 21:38:51 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Leslie J. Reagan 325 women to cross the line into the illegal world to find an abortion; ARAL's "List" pointed them to Mexico. Crossing the border for abortions underlines an important point about the historical relationship between Mexico and the United States: Mexico served as a resource for Americans. ARAL is an example of a nearly unexamined tradition of Americans seeking health services across the border. Mexico provided more than illegal medical services, how- ever; it also provided symbols for American political debates and contributed to changing abortion law in the United States. The scholarly literature on the Mexican-American border since the 1970s concentrates on the economic relationship between the two countries and the use of Mexican workers by American manufacturing industries, as do recent studies of Mexican women on the border.6 Yet Mexico also attracted masses of Americans who sought solutions to personal problems and access to medical and other services unavailable in the United States. Furthermore, the advantages of living next door to a poor, subordinate neighbor were available to all Americans, not just those who lived literally on the border. In this case, the "border" stretched to Iowa, Virginia, Oklahoma, and New York; women from all over the United States crossed into Mexico for abortions.
At a time when the topic of abortion was nearly completely sur- pressed in the public arena, Maginnis moved discussion of abortion law reform from professional meetings to the streets.8 In 1961, Assemblyman John T. Knox presented the first reform bill in California to permit therapeutic abortions for a broader range of reasons, including rape, incest, and congenital fetal defects.9 Maginnis initiated a petition supporting the bill and collected a thousand signatures. She and her partner, Robert Bick, also sur- surveyed a cross-section of the San Jose population and discovered the general public's underlying support for "good medical care for abortion."10 Despite her legwork on behalf of the Knox bill, Maginnis soon repudiated reform laws because of their restrictiveness. She appraised proposed legal reforms from the perspective of women who needed abortions, particularly women who were not wealthy; in this, she was unique in the early 1960s. She became the first to demand complete repeal of the nation's criminal abortion laws.1 In 1962 she founded the Citizens' Committee
Feminist Studies 26. no. 2 (summer 2000).0 2000 by Feminist Studies, Inc.
After five years of organizing for abortion rights, Patricia Maginnis decided to break the law. In June 1966, she passed Out a leaflet in San Francisco that named physicians in Mexico and Japan who performed abortions. With this daring act, Maginnis inaugurated the first open (and illegal) abortion referral service in the United States. 1 V%at began in protest of a new anti-abortion campaign instigated by California authorities resulted in the development Of an underground feminist health agency for women's rights and women's health. The list Of abortion providers took on a life Of its own.
As demand for the "List" soared, Maginnis and her comrades created mechanisms for regulating illegal abortion practices in order to ensure that they were sending women to safe practitioners. To carry out these illegal activities, they founded a new organization, the Association to Repeal Abortion Laws (ARAL). American women were indeed desperate for abortions, but, as ARAL's success demonstrates, that did not preclude them from wielding collective clout in the underground world Of illegal abortion—even across an international border. criminal status Of abortion, which left the practice Open to anyone, skilled or not, and patients unprotected and fearful, made the regulation Of practitioners essential. The vacuum created by the lack Of state and professional regulation combined with the availability of Mexican providers contributed to the power of ARAL as a feminist, nongovernmental organization in the United States. Although scholars acknowledge Patricia Maginnis's presence in the abortion rights movement, they tend to underestimate her contribution
American law forced hundreds of thousands of law-abiding This content downloaded from 206.253.207.235 on Fri, 30 Nov 2018 21:38:51 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Leslie J. Reagan 325 women to cross the line into the illegal world to find an abortion; ARAL's "List" pointed them to Mexico. Crossing the border for abortions underlines an important point about the historical relationship between Mexico and the United States: Mexico served as a resource for Americans. ARAL is an example of a nearly unexamined tradition of Americans seeking health services across the border. Mexico provided more than illegal medical services, how- ever; it also provided symbols for American political debates and contributed to changing abortion law in the United States. The scholarly literature on the Mexican-American border since the 1970s concentrates on the economic relationship between the two countries and the use of Mexican workers by American manufacturing industries, as do recent studies of Mexican women on the border.6 Yet Mexico also attracted masses of Americans who sought solutions to personal problems and access to medical and other services unavailable in the United States. Furthermore, the advantages of living next door to a poor, subordinate neighbor were available to all Americans, not just those who lived literally on the border. In this case, the "border" stretched to Iowa, Virginia, Oklahoma, and New York; women from all over the United States crossed into Mexico for abortions.
At a time when the topic of abortion was nearly completely sur- pressed in the public arena, Maginnis moved discussion of abortion law reform from professional meetings to the streets.8 In 1961, Assemblyman John T. Knox presented the first reform bill in California to permit therapeutic abortions for a broader range of reasons, including rape, incest, and congenital fetal defects.9 Maginnis initiated a petition supporting the bill and collected a thousand signatures. She and her partner, Robert Bick, also sur- surveyed a cross-section of the San Jose population and discovered the general public's underlying support for "good medical care for abortion."10 Despite her legwork on behalf of the Knox bill, Maginnis soon repudiated reform laws because of their restrictiveness. She appraised proposed legal reforms from the perspective of women who needed abortions, particularly women who were not wealthy; in this, she was unique in the early 1960s. She became the first to demand complete repeal of the nation's criminal abortion laws.1 In 1962 she founded the Citizens' Committee
Feminist Studies 26. no. 2 (summer 2000).0 2000 by Feminist Studies, Inc.
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