Letters

Before the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision in 1973 legalizing abortion in the United States, many physicians wrote to Guttmacher pleading for increased advocacy and education of birth control and abortions in the United States. Physicians and medical professionals were among Guttmacher’s most vocal supporters.

Women, and some men, from diverse backgrounds wrote to Guttmacher seeking medical advice and voicing their support for women’s reproductive health rights. Some offered advice on foreign physicians who provided abortions to Americans. Others pleaded with Guttmacher to help their daughters find physicians in the United States with “liberal” medical abortion policies. Guttmacher referred women needing abortions to physicians in Japan, Sweden, and Puerto Rico to have the procedure performed. As President of Planned Parenthood, he also received telephone calls from women of diverse backgrounds and family situations seeking abortion assistance before abortion was legalized in the United States.

Guttmacher received letters from individuals disagreeing with the Planned Parenthood’s mission and services.  Many wrote to Guttmacher with ideological and religious differences. But for every letter of dissenting views Guttmacher received, he read an equal amount of letters commending his work.