To Offer Compassion: A History of the Clergy Consultation Service on Abortion (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780299311308)

In 1967, when abortion was either illegal or highly restricted in every U.S. state, a group of ministers and rabbis formed to counsel women with unwanted pregnancies-including referral to licensed physicians willing to perform the procedure. By 1973, when the Roe v. Wade court decision made abortion legal nationwide, the Clergy Consultation Service on Abortion (CCS) had spread from coast to coast, referred hundreds of thousands of women for safe abortions without a single fatality, become a medical consumer advocacy group, and opened its own clinic in New York City.

As religious leaders spoke out on issues of civil rights, peace, or poverty, CCS members were also called to action by the suffering of women who had approached them for help. Overwhelmingly male, white, affluent, and middle-aged, these mainline Protestant and Jewish clergy were nonetheless outspoken advocates for the rights of women, particularly poor women. To Offer Compassion is a detailed history of this unique and largely forgotten movement, drawing on extensive interviews with original participants and on primary documents from the CCS's operations.

Author: Doris Andrea Dirks
ISBN-10: 0299311309
ISBN-13: 9780299311308
Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press
Language: English
Published: 05/16/2017
Pages: 256
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.00lbs
Size: 9.10h x 6.20w x 0.70d

Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 05/01/2017