RIP Lawrence Lader

[bronze_ribbons]

Lawrence Lader, Champion of Abortion Rights, Is Dead at 86 (obituary by Douglas Martin, New York Times):

Mr. Lader wrote one of the first carefully documented books on the subject, "Abortion" (1966). It began, "Abortion is the dread secret of our society."

The book promoted the argument that the Supreme Court's 1965 decision in Griswold v. Connecticut, which enlarged individual rights to privacy in matters of sexuality and family planning, could apply to abortion. When the court in 1973 made abortion legal in Roe v. Wade, it leaned heavily on the Connecticut case and cited Mr. Lader's book at least seven times.

"It is not only an authoritative study of the hypocrisy and absurdity of abortion practices," [Betty] Friedan said of the book, "it is a courageous blueprint of what women must do to abolish the state's power to force them to bear a child against their will."