Horace Hale Harvey III., Early legal lawyer, dies at 93

On July 1, 1970, one of the country's first independent abortion clinics was opened on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. The state of New York had just reformed its laws and allowed a woman to end her pregnancy in the first trimester – or at a certain time if her lives were endangered. Suddenly the state had the most liberal abortion laws in the country.

The women's services, as the clinic was known for the first time, was supervised by an unusual team: Horace Hale Harvey III, a doctor with a doctorate. in philosophy that had carried out illegal abortions in New Orleans; Barbara Pyle, a 23-year-old doctoral student in philosophy who had examined sex education and abortion practices in Europe; And an organization that is known as a Clergy Consultation Service for abortion, a group of rabbi and Protestant ministers who believed that women had earned access and affordable abortions and that created a transfer service to find and check the ones they provided.

What distinguished the services of women – a non -profit organization, which was first operated from a series of offices in East 73rd Street from and was calculated on a sliding segment from 200 US dollars. They were not doctors, but regular women, many of whom had abortions themselves. Your task was to prevent patients from using the abortion process, to use a model of a pelvis to explain the procedure in detail, to accompany the women in the procedural room and then sit with them. They also reported on the doctor's performance. It was a model that would take other clinics in the coming months and years.

The clinic's humane approach was strongly contrast to the attitude of many hospital staff at the time, Jane Brody from the New York Times wrote in 1970: “Not too easy for the patient,” said an administrator's philosophy. “If it is too simple, it will be here again for further abortion in three months.”

Women's services also had some other unique functions. The waiting areas were cheerfully set up with the music, and the operating tables had padded stirrups with colorful pot owners, a flowering Dr. Harvey, who died on February 14th, had brought his days with the training from hotel rooms in New Orleans.

In contrast to many illegal abortion providers, these days before the time that made the process in expectation of a police attack as soon as possible, Dr. Harvey not only uses the atmosphere of his procedural area in New Orleans to make it less frightening. He also offered the women biscuits and Coca-Cola to help himself recover.

“Harvey's conviction was that even a healthy patient felt sick in view of a cold, sterile hospital environment,” wrote Arlene Carmen and Rev. Howard Moody, the leaders of the spiritual advisory service from 1973 in their book on the group from 1973: “Since abortion was not an illness, the atmosphere associated with hospitals had to be avoided.”

Dr. Harvey was 93 years old when he died after a fall in a hospital in the city of Dorchester in England, said his daughter Kate Harvey. He had lived in England for many years.

Women's services were used with 15,000 US dollars of Dr. Harvey opened. Ms. Pyle, who was the administrator, described the chaotic early day as customers from all over the country in an interview. The clinic worked from 8 to midnight, whereby the staff worked two layers. Ms. Pyle slept on a couch in the building. On average, she said, the clinic carried out about 72 abortions a day.

Newspapers wrote glowing reports and showed Dr. Harvey as an innovator. But after less than a year, Ms. Carmen and Mr. Moody from The Clergy Consultation Service found that Dr. Harvey had operated on without a medical license. He had handed it over in 1969 after the authorities in Louisiana found out that he did illegal abortions. He had to go and quickly before he endangered the legal status of women's services.

Dr. Harvey had become an abortion provider to combat what he was for an epidemic uncertain abortions in a time when unmarried women refused to access contraceptives and was discouraged as comprehensive sex education. Women with low incomes suffered disproportionate.

As a teenager who grew up as a conservative Christian, Dr. Harvey went through a time of soul search and came to the conclusion that he was an atheist. During the Vietnam War, he registered as a conscientious refuse; Instead of fighting, he worked as a health consultant at a YMCA later in New Orleans an independent sex education program, gave lectures, answered questions by phone and distributed brochures on college campus.

For Dr. Harvey was the importance of abortion the idea of ​​preventing “the loss of women”, said Ms. Harvey, his daughter. “It was a question of the principle for him.”

Horace Hale Harvey III. Was born on December 7, 1931 in New Orleans in a once prominent family who developed a so -called Harvey Canal in 1924. His father Horace Hale Harvey Jr. was a player and the family was poor; They moved a lot when he tried different professions, including the establishment of a credit company. His mother Florence (Krueger) Harvey was a secretary.

Horace studied philosophy at Louisiana State University and in 1955 acquired a Bachelor's degree and a medical degree in 1966. In 1969 he received a master in public health and a Ph.D. In philosophy, both from Tulane University, in New Orleans.

Dr. Harvey moved to England after leaving the New York abortion clinic – a decision he made, said his daughter because he approved the National Health Service. He chose the Isle of Wight, another choice: after his research, she had the highest average temperature and received more hours of sunlight than somewhere else in England.

Dr. Harvey worked briefly in public health in his new country and advised the screening process for cervical cancer, but spent most of the time to age – to prepare for his own age – to read philosophy and satisfy his duties as a landlord.

He had bought Puckaster Close, a spacious Victorian house that converted it into apartments, which he renovated in a style as “quirky and characteristic”, as Dr. Harvey himself, his son Russell, said.

In addition to his daughter and son, Dr. Harvey survived by three grandchildren. His marriage to Helen Cox, a headmistress, ended with a divorce.