Editorial: When Reproductive Rights Meant Criminal Prosecution

Just before the end of 2013, Dr. Kenneth C. Edelin died. Although his name draws little attention today, he became the subject of a criminal prosecution for performing an abortion in a municipal hospital in Boston more than 40 years ago. Occurring not long after the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Roe v. Wade, this is a sordid tale of a young physician and an even younger female patient caught in the cross hairs of a politically motivated prosecution. It is a reminder of the passion then and now over the issue of abortion.

In September 1973, a pregnant 17-year-old black woman went with her mother to the outpatient clinic at the Boston City Hospital and requested an abortion. Edelin, the first African-American to become chief resident for obstetrics and gynecology at the hospital, was scheduled to perform it. At the time, Boston City Hospital was the medical facility of last resort for the people of Boston or, put another way, the only hospital of choice for the poor. Indeed, many of the women who sought health-care services at Boston City Hospital were poor, black women.