During the Civil War, the Clergy Consultation Service Could Send Women to New York for Legal Abortions

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In 19 70, new york repealed its criminal abortion law. The clergy consultation service could send women to new york for legal abortions. We had trained the dobbs ferry staff and doctors. And subsequently, we sent our nurse. American airlines alloued us to teach the flight attendants on that five o'clock flight back from laguardia to saint louis that they may have a woman there who had had an abortion and might be hemorrhaging.

In 1967, a very unlikely group of individuals gathered to quietly break the law and help facilitate abortions. They established a phone number. When you called it, a recording of a woman's voice would tell you what to do next.

Who was behind this number? The Clergy Consultation Service, an underground network of ministers and rabbis who wanted to help people access safe abortions in a time before it was legal. We first aired our conversations with some of them in 2017. And after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade earlier this year, we decided to call some of them back.

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