Bill Baird (born June 20, 1932) is a reproductive rights pioneer, called by some media the "father" of the birth control and abortion-rights movement.
[4] In 1967, hundreds of students at Boston University petitioned Baird to challenge a Massachusetts law that prohibited providing contraception to unmarried persons.
His appeal of his conviction culminated in the 1972 Supreme Court decision Eisenstadt v. Baird, which established the right of unmarried persons to possess contraception on the same basis as married couples.
[8] Bill Baird's advocacy for reproductive rights began in 1963 after witnessing the death of an unmarried mother of nine children who died of a self-inflicted coat hanger abortion.
[4] As the clinical director of EMKO, a birth control manufacturer, he had been coordinating research at Harlem Hospital when she stumbled into the corridor, covered with blood from the waist down.
[4] In 1963, he began giving away EMKO birth control foam samples including at malls where his activities often met with religious opposition.
"[16] In 1966, Baird challenged New Jersey's restrictive birth control statute after the commissioner of welfare threatened to jail unwed mothers under the law of fornication.
[17] When Baird arrived in Freehold, New Jersey in his "Plan Van" to challenge the law, he was arrested and jailed for publicly displaying contraceptive devices.
[19] In 1967 Boston University students petitioned Baird to challenge Massachusetts's stringent "Crimes Against Chastity, Decency, Morality and Good Order" law[20][21] (i.e. Chapter 272, section 21A).
[27] Reporter Georgie Anne Geyer called Baird "father of abortion rights",[28] a label that has oft been repeated for decades in the media.
Frank Pavone, co-founder and director of Priests for Life, issued a statement calling for an end to anti-abortion inflammatory rhetoric and violence.
Baird is a frequent public speaker, lecturing at universities, civic and professional organizations, as well as conferences on women, feminism, politics, free speech, and reproductive rights.