Last updated on:
6/4/2009 |
Author: ProCon.org
Bill Baird Biography
- Title:
- Pro-Choice Activist
- Position:
- Pro to the question "Is the ACLU Good for America?"
- Reasoning:
-
“Far more important than law suits, the ACLU is a teaching instrument. The ACLU is part of the social fabric, it teaches America what civil rights are all about.”
ProCon.org phone interview with Bill Baird, Aug. 01, 2006
- Involvement and Affiliations:
-
- Founder, Pro Choice League and Co-Director with his wife Joni Baird
- Recipient, Brown University’s chapter of the ACLU, award for his work on behalf of abortion rights, 1998
- His Supreme Court case Baird v. Eisenstadt legalized birth control for single people and was cited 6 times in Roe V. Wade, 1972
- Arrested and threatened with jail time for “corrupting the mind of people under 18” after he showed a diaphragm in public at a lecture at which a 14 month old child was present. Was successfully defended by the ACLU, 1971
- Arrested in Massachussetts and convicted of a felony for showing a diaphragm and for giving one condom and a contraceptive foam to an unmarried minor female student at a lecture about the benefits of abortion and birth control to 2,500 students at Boston University, 1967
- Established Nation’s First Abortion Referral Center, 1964
- Clinical Director for EMKO vaginal foam, 1963
- Education:
-
- BS, Brooklyn College
- Other:
-
- Appeared on Oprah, The Today Show, Good Morning America, Face The Nation, Donahue, Geraldo, CBS Sunday Morning with Charles Kurault, and many other TV & radio shows
- Arrested and jailed eight times in five states (NY, NJ, WI, MA, VA), and had two attempts on his life due to his pro-choice activism
- His abortion clinic was firebombed with 50 people inside, 1979
- Quoted in: