Pat Maginnis

Pat Maginnis is considered the first abortion rights activist in American history.^[1] She is one part of the Army of Three, the grassroots collective that would eventually become NARAL Pro-Choice America and that founded the Society for Humane Abortion. She is also a political cartoonist and painter.

Early life

Patricia Theresa Maginnis was born in 1928 to a staunchly Catholic family. During her brief military service, Maginnis was deployed to Panama as punishment for fraternizing with a Black soldier. She has described her time in Panama and the horrible treatment of pregnant women in the army hospital as her inspiration to advocate for women's reproductive freedoms during her life. She began her activism when she returned to the States, settling in the Bay Area in 1959.^[2]

Abortion rights activism

Maginnis began her activism immediately upon her return to the United States. She canvassed in support of abortion reform bills before becoming dissatisfied with what she felt was the prioritization of medical professionals over women.^[3] By 1963, Maginnis had adopted a radical ideology which supported the repeal of all abortion laws which she felt diminished the rights of women and would hinder access to abortion for all women.

The Society for Humane Abortion (SHA)

In 1962, Maginnis founded the Citizens Committee for Humane Abortion Laws (CCHAL) while she attended San Jose State University. She moved the organization to San Francisco in 1963 where she met Rowena Gurner who was to become a pivotal figure in the organization. In 1964, Gurner and Maginnis changed the organization's name to The Society for Humane Abortion (SHA) and in 1965 was incorporated as a non-profit organization in California.^[4] SHA advocated for "elective abortion," and that all women had the right to safe and legal abortion free of harassment and that "[the] termination of pregnancy is a decision which the person or family involved should be free to make as their own religious beliefs, values, emotions, and circumstances may dictate."^[5] The organization's radical nature meant that it believed in the repeal of all abortion laws, including the 1963 Humane Abortion Act aka the "Bielenson Bill," which made abortion legal in cases of rape or incest.^[6]

SHA provided public education on abortion "by sponsoring symposia on abortion procedures for physicians; providing speakers and literature to libraries, medical schools, physicians, family planning agencies, and individuals; and publishing a quarterly newsletter."^[7] Sponsored by the American Humanist Association, in 1968 SHA operated a free Post-Abortion Care Center (PACC). The organization was disbanded in 1975, two years after the decision in Roe v. Wade legalized abortion nationwide and voided the Humane Abortion Act.

The Association to Repeal Abortion Laws (ARAL)

While still heading the Society for Humane Abortion, Maginnis set-up another organization in 1966 to carry on unlawful underground activities. The main mission of ARAL was to connect pregnant women with abortion providers in neighboring countries.^[8] Their list of abortion specialists was well-researched and depended on members' information and the feedback of the women they referred.

Army of Three

Rowena Gurner, Patricia Maginnis, and Lana Phelan formed the Army of Three, which worked on behalf of ARAL to connect women to abortion providers. Women wrote letters from across the country soliciting guidance and information.^[9] The three women provided kits to the women in need that went beyond a list of doctors, they provided these desperate women with "instructions for going through customs, an evaluation form to be returned to Association to Repeal Abortion Laws after completion of the abortion, summaries of laws, and directions for self-induced abortion."^[10]

In 2006, artist Andrea Bowers exhibited her video Letters to an Army of Three as part of her solo exhibition, Nothing is Neutral at REDCAT.^[11] The hour-long video features actors reading the original letters sent to the Army of Three in the years before abortion was legal.^[12] The walls of the gallery space were covered in Bowers' drawings of some of the letters.^[13] Bowers collected the letters after visiting Maginnis in her Oakland home and discovering the activist's personal archive.^[14] In 2012, Bowers work associated with the Army of Three letters was revisited in Wall of Letters: Necessary Reminders from the Past for a Future of Choice at the Walker Art Center.^[15]

Political cartoons

Maginnis has been drawing cartoons since the mid-1960s. Her subjects are informed by her political activism and often antagonize capitalist interests and conservative policymakers. The subject of her early work is mostly limited to issues related to reproductive rights and abortion, but her oeuvre is as diverse as her activism. Recent cartoons demonstrate Maginnis' support for the Occupy Movement and others take aim at the 2012 Republican Presidential Candidates.^[16]

References