Abortion collection
Scope and Contents
The Abortion Collection is comprised of mostly published materials organized in six series: General, Legal status, Organizations, Countries, States and Opposition. Articles, pamphlets, newsletters, books, newspaper clippings, legislative records, memorabilia, and audiovisual materials document the efforts of both the pro-life and pro-choice movements from the 1930s to the present, although the bulk of the collection dates from the 1970s. The Legal status series documents specific court cases, with an emphasis on the Roe v. Wade case (1973), and includes court transcripts and audiotapes from the Supreme Court hearing. Organizations represented include the National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL) and the Women's National Abortion Action Coalition (WONAAC). There are also clippings and newsletters on abortion-related issues in countries other than the United States. The Opposition series includes memorabilia, printed material, books and videotapes related to the anti-abortion rights movement.
Dates of Materials
- Creation: 1936-2005
Creator
- Sophia Smith Collection of Women's History (Organization)
Language of Materials
English
Conditions Governing Access
This collection is open for research use without restriction beyond the standard terms and conditions of Smith College Special Collections.
Conditions Governing Use
Copyright to materials in the Abortion Collection is owned by the individuals and organizations that created them. For reproductions of materials that are governed by fair use as defined under U. S. Copyright Law, no permission to cite or publish is required. Researchers are responsible for determining who may hold materials' copyrights and obtaining approval from them. Researchers do not need anything further from Smith College Special Collections to move forward with their use.
Extent
4.042 linear feet (8 containers)
Abstract
Primarily printed materials, plus legislative records, memorabilia, and audiovisual materials documenting the efforts of both the pro-life and pro-choice movements. The Legal status section documents specific court cases, with an emphasis on the Roe v. Wade case (1973). Organizations represented include the National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL) and the Women's National Abortion Action Coalition (WONAAC).
Arrangement
This collection is organized into five series:
- I. General
- II. Law and Legislation
- III. Organizations
- IV. Countries
- V. Opposition
- Oversize Materials
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Materials in this subject collection were either purchased or given to the Sophia Smith Collection by various donors.
Existence and Location of Copies
Original audiovisual recordings have been transferred to digital format for research use.
Processing Information
Finding aid revised in 2002 by Gayla Spaulding, intern. Revised in 2015.
Subject
- Shoro, Catherine (Person)
- Women's National Abortion Action Coalition (Organization)
- National Abortion Rights Action League (Organization)
- Roe, Jane, 1947- -- Trials, litigation, etc. (Person)
- Wade, Henry -- Trials, litigation, etc. (Person)
Genre / Form
Topical
- Abortion -- Law and legislation -- United States
- Abortion -- Moral and ethical aspects -- United States
- Abortion -- Political aspects -- United States
- Abortion -- United States
- Abortion rights movement
- Audiotapes
- Pro-choice movement -- United States
- Pro-life movement -- United States
- Reproductive and sexual health
- Women's liberation
- Title
- Abortion collection
- Subtitle
- Finding Aid
- Author
- Finding aid prepared by mnsss.
- Date
- 2015
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
- Sponsor
- Encoding funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Revision Statements
- 07/26/2017: This resource was modified by the ArchivesSpace Preprocessor developed by the Harvard Library (https://github.com/harvard-library/archivesspace-preprocessor)
- 2005-09-23: mnsss79 converted from EAD 1.0 to 2002 by v1to02-5c.xsl (sy2003-10-15).
- 2017-07-26T17:48:23-04:00: This record was migrated from InMagic DB Textworks to ArchivesSpace.
Repository Details
Part of the Sophia Smith Collection of Women's History Repository
