Carol Downer (born 1933) is an American feminist lawyer and non-fiction author who has focused her career on abortion rights.
She and Lorraine Rothman were leaders of a group that founded the Feminist Women's Health Center in Los Angeles, California, in 1971. Downer and Rothman promoted group meetings where the women did self-administered cervical exams and promoted a procedure called menstrual extraction in which the group suctioned out a member...
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Carol Downer (born 1933) is an American feminist lawyer and non-fiction author who has focused her career on abortion rights.
She and Lorraine Rothman were leaders of a group that founded the Feminist Women's Health Center in Los Angeles, California, in 1971. Downer and Rothman promoted group meetings where the women did self-administered cervical exams and promoted a procedure called menstrual extraction in which the group suctioned out a member's menstrual material out on or about the time of the menstrual period; if she were pregnant, this would constitute a non-professional abortion. In 1973, after the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision, their group established women-controlled clinics in Los Angeles and Orange County. Over the next two years, other Feminist Women's Health Centers were established which became part of the Federation of Feminist Women's Health Center in 1975.
Downer began her reproductive rights career on the Abortion Task Force of NOW with Lana Clarke Phelan,...
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