On July 1, 1970, one of the nation's first independent abortion clinics was opened on Manhattan's Upper East Side. New York has just reformed its law, allowing women to end their pregnancy during their first pregnancy period. Suddenly, the state had the most liberal abortion laws in the country.
As the clinic was first known, women's services were supervised by an unusual team. Horace Hale Harvey III, PhD physician. With the philosophy of illegal abortions in New Orleans. Barbara Pyle, a 23-year-old doctoral student in philosophy, studied sex education and abortion practices in Europe. They then created an organization known as the Clergy Consultation Services on Abortion, a group of rabbis and Protestant pastors who believed women deserved access to safe and affordable abortions, and a referral service to help them find and examine those who provide them.
Prominent Women's Services – The nonprofit that first ran from a series of offices on East 73rd Street and charged on a slide scale from $200 was a counselor. They were not medical professionals, they were ordinary women, many of whom had abortions themselves. Their role was to shepherd the patients through the abortion process using a pelvic model to explain the procedure in detail, accompanied the woman to the procedure room and then using a pelvic model that sat together. They also reported on the physician's performance. This was a model that other clinics would adopt in the coming months and years.
Jane Brody of the New York Times said that the humanitarian approach of the clinic was in stark contrast to the attitudes of many hospital staff at the time. “Don't make it too easy for patients,” one administrator summed up the hospital's philosophy. “If it's too easy, she'll be back here in three months for another abortion.”
The women's service also had several other unique features. The waiting room was decorated vigorously with pipe-in music, and the operating table brought the days of the prosperous Dr. Harvey, who passed away on February 14th, working in a hotel room in New Orleans.
In front of the entrance, he created as many naked bones and a quick process as possible in anticipation of the police attack. Unlike many Wade Days' illegal abortion providers, Dr. Harvey didn't just soften the atmosphere in his New Orleans procedure room to make it less afraid. He also later provided women's cookies and Coca-Cola to help them recover.
“Harvey's conviction is that even healthy patients will feel sick in the face of a cold, barren hospital environment,” the Rev. Howard Moody, leader of the Clergy Consultation, wrote about the 1973 book on “Abortion Counseling and Social Changes from Illegal to Medical Care.” “Abortion wasn't a disease, so we had to avoid the atmosphere associated with the hospital.”
Dr. Harvey, 93, died at a hospital in the town of Dorchester, England, after her fall, said her daughter, Kate Harvey. He lived in England for many years.
Women's Services opened with $15,000 funding from Dr. Harvey. Pyle, the administrator, explained in an interview about his early days of chaoticism. The clinic was run from 8am to midnight, with staff working in two shifts. Pyle was sleeping on the sofa in the building. On average, she said the clinic had about 72 abortions per day.
The newspaper picked up Dr. Harvey as an innovator and wrote a sparkling report. Less than a year later, however, Carmen and Moody of the Clergy Consultation Service discovered in horror that Dr. Harvey was operating without a medical license. He surrendered it in 1969 after Louisiana authorities learned he was conducting illegal abortions. He had to go before and immediately before endangering the legal status of women's services.
Dr. Harvey became an abortion provider he felt was a dangerous abortion epidemic when unmarried women were denied access to birth control pills and comprehensive sex education was hampered. Low-income women suffered disproportionately.
As a teenager who grew up as a conservative Christian, Dr. Harvey went through an age of soul quest and concluded that he was an atheist. During the Vietnam War, he registered as a conscientious opponent. Instead of fighting, he worked as a health counselor at the YMCA in New Orleans, founded an independent sex education program, gave lectures, answered questions over the phone, and handed out pamphlets on university campuses.
For Dr. Harvey, the importance of abortion was the idea of preventing “loss of women's potential.” “It was a matter of principle for him.”
Horace Hale Harvey III was born in New Orleans on December 7, 1931 to a once-known family that developed part of the Harvey Canal, which became part of the Core Formation Waterway in 1924. He tried a variety of professions, including establishing loan companies, so they moved around a lot. His mother, Florence (Kruger) Harvey, was his secretary.
Horace studied philosophy from Louisiana State University, earning his bachelor's degree in 1955 and a medical degree in 1966. In 1969 he received his Masters and PhD in Public Health. With philosophy from Tulane University in New Orleans.
Dr. Harvey moved to the UK after leaving the New York abortion clinic. This is because he approved the UK National Health Service, an option he made. He settled on the Isle of Wight. Another option was considered. His research shows that it had the highest average temperature and received more sunlight than anywhere else in the UK.
Dr. Harvey worked temporarily in public health in his new country, advised on cervical cancer screening procedures, but spent most of his time reading philosophy and attending the duties of landlord in preparation for his old age.
He purchased Packaster Close, a rambling Victorian home, and converted it into an apartment, where he was renovated in a “quirky and distinctive” style by Dr. Harvey himself, his son, Russell.
In addition to his daughter and son, Dr. Harvey was survived by three grandchildren. Her marriage to school principal Helen Cox ended with a divorce.
