Guide to the Papers of the Clergy Consultation Service, 1967-1979

  • IdentificationMS 128
  • Title
    • Guide to the Papers of the Clergy Consultation Service
    • Clergy Consultation Service, 1967-1979
  • LanguageEnglish
  • Date1967-1979
  • OriginationParsons, E. Spencer
  • Physical Description1.00
  • RepositoryCharles Deering McCormick Library of Special Collections Deering Library, Level 3 1970 Campus Drive Evanston, IL, URL: http://www.library.northwestern.edu/spec Email: special.collections@northwestern.edu Phone: 847-491-3635
  • AbstractE. Spencer Parsons served as chairman of both the Chicago Clergy Consultation Service on Problem Pregnancies and the Illinois Clergy Consultation Service. This collection contains articles and newspaper ephemera on abortion, his files related to the National Clergy Consultation Service on Abortion (1969-1973), the Chicago Clergy Consultation Service on Problem Pregnancies (1967-1973), and the Illinois Religious Coalition for Abortion Rights (1974-1979), including membership rosters, correspondence, minutes, and articles.

The Clergy Consultation Service was founded in 1967 by twenty-one ministers and rabbis who established the counseling service to advise women about problem pregnancies and make referrals on medical issues including abortion. This group was initially centered at Judson Memorial Church in New York City where Howard Moody served as senior pastor. The New York CCS raised money to fund a Reproduction Crisis Facility in 1969 which operated until repeal of that legislation in 1972. The U.S. Supreme Court ruling on 23 January 1973 guaranteed women the right to choose when and whether to bear children.

  • Names
    • Clergy Consultation Service
    • Illinois Religious Coalition for Abortion Rights
    • Jane (Abortion service)
    • Brown, Ralph E., 1929-2008
    • Campbell, William J. (William Joseph), 1905-1988
    • Carmen, Arlene
    • Ketchum, Jesse
    • Miller, Vern, 1928-
    • Moody, Howard, 1921-2012
    • Parsons, E. Spencer
    • Ruether, Rosemary Radford
    • Ticktin, Max D.
    • Woods, Denis
  • Subject
    • Abortion services--Illinois--Chicago
    • Abortion services--United States--History
    • Abortion--United States
    • Pastoral counseling

E. Spencer Parsons, dean of Rockefeller Chapel of the University of Chicago, donated this collection on the Clergy Consultation Service and its activities to the McCormick Library in October 1999.

Collection processed by Sigrid Pohl Perry in July 2000 and encoded by her into XMetaL in September 2004.

Copyright for materials resides with the creators of the items in question unless otherwise designated.

Papers of the Clergy Consultation Service, 1967-1979, Manuscript Series CXXVIII, Charles Deering McCormick Library of Special Collections, Northwestern University Library.

Women's Ephemera Files (WEF) on abortion and JANE. Inquire at the McCormick Library reference desk for these materials. Paula Kamen collection on JANE (Series CXXV) Jenny Knauss collection on women's health (Series XCIII).

These materials collected by E. Spencer Parsons consist of articles, newspaper ephemera, correspondence, minutes of meetings, membership rosters, and sermons and addresses related to the activities of the Clergy Consultation Service between 1968 and 1976. A book on the history of the organization is also included: Arlene Carmen and Howard Moody, Abortion Counseling and Social Change: from Illegal Act to Medical Practice; The Story of the Clergy Consultation Service on Abortion, 1973.