As Pat Maginnis enters her ninth decade in an era that threatens our hard-won bodily autonomy, it’s a good time to think about the past and the future. With a lifetime of historic work on behalf of women’s reproductive freedom, Pat’s still active in the Bay Area progressive community, appreciates being chosen as a 2018 National Women’s History Project Honoree, and is optimistic about the feminist resistance.
Happy birthday, Pat, and thanks for everything. Keep fighting, sisters and brothers! Our future is in our hands.
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Dear Pat Maginnis,
My name is Stephen Bradley. In the early 1970s I was living in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and was elected President of the local chapter of the American Humanists Society. We sponsored you to speak in Milwaukee on the issue of abortion rights and filled the city auditorium. I remember it well because you delayed beginning your lecture on “self-induced abortion” until there were police in the audience. That lecture on that evening put me in a position which changed my life for years after. I have been telling the world about you and your lecture for the past fifty years and you have remained one of my heroes all that time. I have also believed that you had a profound influence because Wisconsin was one of the very first states to abandon those existing laws against safe, medical abortion.
I’ve wondered all these years whatever happened to you and the internet has finally allowed me an answer.
The women I have known during my life and many I’ve never met thank you for keeping them safe.
Regards,
Stephen Bradley