Bill Baird (activist) - Birth Control Rights Pioneer

Birth Control Rights Pioneer

Bill Baird's advocavy for reproductive rights began in 1963 after witnessing the death of an unmarried mother of nine children who died of a self-inflicted coat hanger abortion. As the clinical director of EMKO, a birth control manufacturer, he had been coordinating research at Harlem Hospital when she stumbled into the corridor, covered with blood from the waist down.

In 1963, he began giving away EMKO birth control foam samples including at malls where his activities often met with religious opposition. He was threatened with arrest for distributing free birth control foam in Hempstead, New York. Baird founded the Parents Aid Society and later distributed contraceptives in a converted delivery truck that he called the “Plan Van.” In 1966 Baird established the first birth control club on a college campus at Hofstra University.

He was sent to jail for teaching birth control and distributing abortion literature in New York, New Jersey, and Wisconsin. Baird's punishment galvanized feminists like Anne Koedt to speak out in his defense. On May 13, 1965, he challenged New York's anti-birth control statute, law 1142. He was arrested in Hempstead, NY and jailed for teaching birth control out of his mobile "Plan Van." Baird's challenges led to the legalization of birth control in New York. Planned Parenthood President Alan Guttmacher criticized Baird and stated that Baird was "overenthusiastic and every couple seeking birth control information should seek a physician.”

In 1966, Baird challenged New Jersey's restrictive birth control statute after the commissioner of welfare threatened to jail unwed mothers under the law of fornication. When Baird arrived in Freehold, New Jersey in his "Plan Van" to challenge the law, he was arrested and jailed for publicly displaying contraceptive devices.

Baird challenged restrictive birth control laws in the state of Wisconsin in 1969 and was again arrested and jailed for showing "birth control and indecent articles" to a Northland College audience in Ashland.