Celebrating Black History Month: Dr. Edgar Keemer

But in Michigan, where Keemer practiced, abortion was legal only for "medical reasons" — essentially, whatever a hospital's "therapeutic abortion committee" deemed medically necessary. These committees had the power to interpret the law liberally, but instead, they usually chose to closely question and scrutinize women who came to the hospital for abortions, often accusing them of "abusing" the law.

After Keemer was arrested in 1956, his patients were humiliated when their private medical records were put on display as evidence, and they were intimidated into testifying against him. Keemer used his trial as a forum to argue against the criminalization of abortion. He pleaded with physicians who had referred their patients to him to testify on his behalf. He had lined up three such witnesses by 1958, but in the end, only one appeared.

After his release from prison, Keemer made his living selling vacuum cleaners in New Jersey. His medical license was finally reinstated in the early 1960s, and he resumed his medical practice.

Undeterred by his first arrest, Keemer continued to provide safe abortions illegally and became a vocal advocate for reproductive rights. In 1971, at a press conference held by the National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws, he described an illegal abortion he had performed the previous day. He also promised to continue performing abortions outside of the law to save women's lives, regardless of the legal consequences. He and his assistant were arrested again a few days later.

Keemer and other physicians like him are the unsung heroes of the reproductive rights movement. In the dangerous days before Roe, he risked his career, his livelihood, and his personal freedom so that women could safely make their own decisions about when and whether to have children. Few people know the name Edgar Keemer today, but we are all benefiting from his courage and commitment to women's health and rights.