Mary Calderone
Mary Steichen Calderone (born Mary Rose Steichen; July 1, 1904 – October 24, 1998) was an American physician, author, public speaker, and public health advocate for reproductive rights and sex education.
Mary Calderone
October 24, 1998 (aged 94)
Edward Steichen
Clara Smith
Carl Sandburg (uncle)
Willard Dryden Paddock (uncle)
In 1953, Mary Calderone became the first female medical director of Planned Parenthood. During her tenure, the organization started advocating for reform in abortion laws. Under her leadership, Planned Parenthood organized a national conference of medical professionals on the subject in 1955, known as “Abortion in the United States." This conference marked the first instance of physicians and professionals advocating for the reform of abortion laws, contributing significantly to the creation of a movement for the reform of abortion laws in the U.S.[1]
In 1960, after the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the first oral contraceptive, Calderone lobbied the American Medical Association (AMA) to endorse contraception as standard medical practice. After a four-year effort, she successfully reversed the AMA's policy against providing birth control information to patients, helping to integrate birth control into mainstream American medicine. [2]
Shifting her focus toward sex education, Calderone left Planned Parenthood in 1964 to establish and serve as the Executive Director of SIECUS (Sex Information and Education Council of the United States). During her time at SIECUS, she delivered lectures across the United States, addressing various audiences, including high school and college students, parents, educators, religious leaders, and professional groups, on the topic of sex education. She retired from SIECUS in 1982 at the age of 78.
Career[edit]
Planned Parenthood[edit]
Calderone served as a physician in the Great Neck, New York public school system from 1949 to 1953.[11] Her work in this role gained her recognition in public health circles, as she attended the American Public Health Association's annual conferences during a time when female public health professionals and physicians were relatively rare. In 1953, William Vogt, the National Director of the controversial Planned Parenthood Federation of America, offered Calderone the position of Medical Director. Despite being advised by her public health colleagues that taking the job would be "professional suicide", Calderone accepted the position with the hope of legitimizing family planning in the fields of medicine and public health.[12]
Calderone's 11-year tenure at Planned Parenthood was marked by several significant contributions. In 1955, she organized "Abortion in the United States", a national conference of medical professionals that instigated the movement to legalize abortion. This was the first instance of physicians and other professionals advocating reform of the laws that criminalized abortion, and it played a key role in creating a movement for the reform of abortion laws in the U.S.[1] The conference, which had no advanced publicity at the time, resulted in a book, Abortion in the United States, which was published in 1958 to critical acclaim and remains a classic in its field. According to historian Ellen S. More, “[i]n many ways the book was a milestone. Not only did it reveal a deep commitment among respected medical practitioners and scholars to treat abortion and contraception as subjects of legitimate research, but... because the book included a summary of the laws in every state pertaining to abortion, it became a reference for legal scholars and policy activists, not only physicians.”[13]
Calderone's efforts also played a role in changing Planned Parenthood's approach to abortion. Before her involvement, the organization and its founder, Margaret Sanger, had avoided addressing the controversial subject of abortion, focusing instead on promoting birth control as a means to prevent unwanted pregnancies. Today, Planned Parenthood is the largest single provider of reproductive health services and the largest single provider of abortion in the United States.[17]
Furthermore, Calderone worked as a liaison between Planned Parenthood and the public health establishment to advocate for the mainstream integration of birth control into American medicine. She successfully lobbied professional medical groups such as the American Public Health Association (APHA) and the American Medical Association (AMA) to endorse contraception as a standard medical practice. In 1959, the APHA issued a public statement endorsing family planning as part of routine medical care, emphasizing the importance of individual choice. Her most significant success came in 1964 when she persuaded the more conservative AMA to overturn its long-standing policy against providing birth control information to patients and to endorse contraception as part of standard medical practice.[2][18]
During her tenure at Planned Parenthood, Calderone authored various articles for both popular and professional publications, as well as books such as Release from Sexual Tensions (1960) and Manual of Contraceptive Practice (1964), which was a pioneering medical text.[11]
SIECUS[edit]
Calderone's office at Planned Parenthood received a steady stream of letters from individuals seeking information not just about the physical aspects of sex but broader topics related to human sexuality. This influx of inquiries led Calderone to a realization that sexuality encompassed more than just genitality, and that sex education was inadequate in American society. She believed her work should extend beyond pregnancy prevention and that simply providing contraceptives was insufficient. Consequently, in 1964, Calderone left her position at Planned Parenthood and founded SIECUS (the Sex Information and Education Council of the United States), the nation's first and only single-issue advocacy group dedicated to promoting comprehensive sex education.[19]
Driven by Calderone's dynamic nationwide lectures and guided by its mission statement, which aimed to establish human sexuality as a health-related subject, SIECUS played a pivotal role as an umbrella organization for school administrators, sex educators, physicians, social activists, and parents seeking resources for sexuality education.[20] Calderone soon became a household name and "a magnet for publicity [as] articles in Seventeen, Look, McCall’s, Life Magazine, Parade, Playboy, and other popular magazines profiled her life and analyzed her arguments, [while] her appearances on TV shows such as the Dick Cavett Show and Sixty Minutes reached millions of viewers.”[21]
Death[edit]
Calderone was a resident of Kendal at Longwood, a Quaker continuing care retirement community in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania. She died in the skilled nursing facility there on October 24, 1998. She was 94.[2][32]