Robert Elliott Hall was an American

obstetrician Obstetrics is the field of study concentrated on pregnancy, childbirth and the postpartum period. As a medical specialty, obstetrics is combined with gynecology under the discipline known as obstetrics and gynecology (OB/GYN), which is a surgi ...

, psychiatrist, professor, and early advocate for the liberalization of abortion law in the United States. He founded the Association for the Study of Abortion with Alan F. Guttmacher in 1965, the first national abortion-rights organization in the country, and served as its chair. He and Guttmacher were considered the two most prominent physicians advocating for liberalization of abortion law in the US. Hall published many medical papers, as well as materials aimed at the general public, particularly relating to abortion law.

Biography

Hall was born in

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...

. He studied medicine at Harvard University in Cambridge Mass and at Columbia University in NYC., graduating in 1947. Between 1948 and 1976, he worked as a physician at

Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center Columbia University Irving Medical Center (CUIMC) is the academic medical center of Columbia University and the largest campus of NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital. The center's academic wing consists of Columbia's colleges and schools of Physician ...

and taught at Columbia's College of Physicians and Surgeons. During this time he published more than 70 medical papers. He also wrote a popular 1963 book, ''Nine Months' Reading -- A Medical Guide for Pregnant Women''. After 1976, he spent most of the remainder of his life practicing psychiatry from his home in iverdale, New York City He died of cancer in 1995 at the age of 70.

Abortion activism

In 1963, Hall wrote an article for Columbia's alumni magazine arguing for the liberalization of abortion laws, citing the case of

Sherri Finkbine Sherri Chessen (born 1932), also known as Sherri Finkbine, is an American former children's television host. She is also known as Miss Sherri, her role on the Phoenix version of the franchised children's show ''Romper Room''. In 1962, Chessen beca ...

, who was unable to obtain a legal abortion in the US after taking the drug

Thalidomide Thalidomide, sold under the brand names Contergan and Thalomid among others, is an oral administered medication used to treat a number of cancers (e.g., multiple myeloma), graft-versus-host disease, and many skin disorders (e.g., complication ...

, which was subsequently discovered to cause birth defects. In 1965, Hall co-founded the Association for the Study of Abortion (ASA) with Alan F. Guttmacher, then president of

Planned Parenthood The Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Inc. (PPFA), or simply Planned Parenthood, is an American nonprofit organization

. Hall served as the chairman of ASA, which funded research into abortion practices and law, and published educational materials aimed at the public. In 1966, Hall wrote an article for ''

Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly news magazine based in New York City. Founded as a weekly print magazine in 1933, it was widely distributed during the 20th century and has had many notable editors-in-chief. It is currently co-owned by Dev P ...

'' magazine titled "The Abortion Epidemic". In it, he estimated that around half of abortions performed in the country were done for reasons which were not permitted by the laws of most states: to preserve the mental health of the mother or because the child was likely to suffer from birth defects. He also warned that current practice effectively discriminated against poor mothers, for example by requiring multiple psychiatric consultations to establish whether an abortion would be permitted. Initially Hall and ASA took the conservative position of advocating for "reform" of state abortion laws—for example by legalizing abortion in a wider range of cases of "medical necessity" beyond those which threatened the life of the mother—rather than "repeal" (i.e. legal abortion on demand). However, by early 1969, Hall had embraced the repeal position as viable, and ASA would provide legal support to the lawyers who argued the landmark 1973 Supreme Court case ''

Roe v. Wade ''Roe v. Wade'', 410 U.S. 113 (1973),. was a List of landmark court decisions in the United States, landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in which the Court ruled that the Constitution of the United States protected the right to have an ...

''. The organization was dissolved after the court issued its decision in the case, finding that the right to choose an abortion was protected by a constitutional right to privacy. Hall was criticized by some other abortion rights advocates for his view that abortions should be performed only in hospitals by specially-trained obstetricians.

References

{{reflist, refs= {{cite web , work=Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library - VPS Obituary Database , title=Robert E. Hall , year=1997 , url=https://www.library-archives.cumc.columbia.edu/obit/robert-e-hall {{cite book , last=Garrow, first=David J. , title=Liberty and Sexuality: The Right to Privacy and the Making of Roe v. Wade , year=2015, publisher=Open Road Media, isbn=9781504015554 {{cite news , work=New York Times , title=Robert E. Hall, 70, Campaigner For Liberalized Abortion Laws , date=13 October 1995 , last=Saxon, first=Wolfgang , url=https://www.nytimes.com/1995/10/13/obituaries/robert-e-hall-70-campaigner-for-liberalized-abortion-laws.html {{cite book, title=Before Roe V. Wade: Voices that Shaped the Abortion Debate Before the Supreme Court's Ruling, url=https://documents.law.yale.edu/sites/default/files/beforeroe2nded_1.pdf, last1=Greenhouse, first1=Linda, last2=Siegel, first2=Reva, publisher=Yale Law School, date=2012, edition=2, isbn=9780615648217 {{cite book , title=Birth or Abortion?: Private Struggles in a Political World , last1=Maloy, first1=Kate, last2=Patterson, first2=Margaret Jones , year=2013, publisher=Springer, isbn=9781489961426 {{cite news , date=20 June 1993 , newspaper=Washington Post , title=A Look at... Roe v. Wade v. Ginsburg: History Lesson for the Judge , last=Garrow, first=David J. , url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/1993/06/20/a-look-at-rove-v-wade-v-ginsburg-history-lesson-for-the-judge/6a8b1b10-0089-4b17-aec4-a17fc8d4bcf4/ American abortion-rights activists American obstetricians 1995 deaths