Vermont wasn’t always a safe haven for reproductive rights

Next week, Vermont voters could write abortion protections into the state constitution. But 50 years ago, Vermont was a state where most people went elsewhere to end a pregnancy. 

The Vermont Supreme Court had legalized abortion in 1972, with its decision in Beecham v. Leahy. But while elective abortion was allowed, it remained elusive: The University of Vermont’s hospital, which came from a Catholic tradition, said it wouldn’t offer the procedure. Vermont hospitals did fewer than 20 abortions per year, and more than 1,000 patients traveled out-of-state annually to terminate a pregnancy. 

So in just three months, in the short window between the Beecham judgment and the Roe decision, hundreds of people in the Burlington area — activists, faith leaders, hippies, bankers, lawyers — organized and created the Vermont Women’s Health Center. It was the first women-run health center of its kind in the United States. 

The Health Center also created a unique apprenticeship program that enabled women to become physician assistants and to provide abortions. It trained UVM medical students and OB-GYN residents at a time when it was rare for medical schools to train students in abortion. It was written about in major medical journals. It survived a ballot referendum, a fire and an onslaught of out-of-state protesters. 

The Women’s Health Center operated as a worker’s collective for years, and this episode includes just some of the women who worked and trained there over its nearly-thirty-year run. Rachel Atkins, Sue Burton, Berta Geller, Cate Nicholas and Janet, all physician assistants, discuss their work at the Health Center, and reflect on this post-Roe era. Allie Stickney, former CEO of Planned Parenthood of Northern New England, describes the first call she answered on a pre-Roe abortion hotline.