On August 28, 1956, Detroit police raided the office of Dr. Edgar Bass Keemer, Jr., arrested 16 of his patients, and stole his records.
Why? Because abortions were illegal, and Keemer had performed over 30,000 of them safely and affordably – all for Black and low-income patients.
In court, Keemer defended his patients. They needed those abortions. Three Black patients even testified in agreement.
But when the prosecution “relentlessly bullied” one of his white patients into lying that Keemer raped her, he knew it was over.
Keemer spent 14 months in prison, but he never stopped fighting for abortion rights. A 19-year-old girl had inspired him – she had died by suicide after he refused her an abortion in his early years.
“I had taken an oath to save human lives when I became a doctor,” he wrote, vowing never to turn anyone away again. “Not to destroy them.”
Today, pregnancy-related deaths are 3x more likely for Black people. In DC, 90% of birth-related deaths are of Black patients! This reality, as well as poverty and discrimination, leads many Black patients to seek abortion.
Like Keemer, we ALL have a role to play in our communities when human rights are being taken away. From donating to local funds like www.abortionfunds.org, to educating youth on reproductive health, we can only get through this together.