Chicago Clergy Consultation Service records, 1965-1975

  • IdentificationMSCCCS80
  • TitleChicago Clergy Consultation Service records MSCCCS80
  • PublisherSpecial Collections
  • LanguageEnglish
  • RepositorySpecial Collections
  • Physical Description4.0 Linear feet
  • Date1965-1975
  • AbstractTwenty-six ministers and rabbis founded the Clergy Consultation Service or CCS in New York City in 1967 to help provide women with access to safe abortions. The CCS gathered information about abortion providers, counseled women seeking abortion, and referred patients to physicians who practiced in the United States and other countries. The dean of the Rockefeller Chapel at the University of Chicago organized the local CCS in Chicago. The Chicago Clergy Consultation Service Records include minutes, memoranda, reports, correspondence, resolutions, position statements, contact information for abortion providers, forms, pamphlets, brochures, maps, clippings, published articles, and legal information.
  • OriginationChicago Clergy Consultation Service.

Old Resource ID was CCS

Twenty-six ministers and rabbis founded the Clergy Consultation Service or CCS in New York City in 1967 to help provide women with access to safe abortions. The CCS gathered information about abortion providers, counseled women seeking abortion, and referred patients to physicians who practiced in the United States and other countries. The dean of the Rockefeller Chapel at the University of Chicago organized the local CCS in Chicago. The CCS operated underground and helped women avoid arrest by offering counseling services in one State and then referring them to abortion providers in another state, sometimes even a foreign country. By 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade made the work of the Clergy Consultation Service unnecessary.

The Chicago Clergy Consultation Service Records include minutes, memoranda, reports, correspondence, statistics, resolutions, position statements, contact information for abortion providers, forms, pamphlets, brochures, maps, clippings, published articles, and legal information. These records also include a research report about abortion in the United States in the late sixties, an IBM Fortran coding form and printout, a CCS counselor's kit and training materials, as well as some material from affiliated organizations such as the A.C.L.U. The Chicago Clergy Consultation Service Records have been divided into two series: Series I. General includes all of the above materials and Series II. Clippings and Articles consists of material removed from newspapers, magazines, and other sources about abortion.

The Chicago Clergy Consultation Service donated these materials to the University of Illinois at Chicago in 1980.

Chicago Clergy Consultation Service records, Special Collections and University Archives, University of Illinois at Chicago

Some folders, or portions of folders, are RESTRICTED. They are CLOSED until May 2035.

Some folders, or portions of folders, are RESTRICTED. They are CLOSED until May 2035.

  • Names
    • Chicago Clergy Consultation Service. -- Archives
    • Clergy Consultation Service. -- Archives
  • Subject
    • Abortion counseling.
    • Abortion services.
    • Chicago Community Organizations.
    • Midwest Women's History.
  • Geographic Coverage
    • Illinois--Chicago.
    • United States.