FAYE WATTLETON

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by Amanda Matthews0 views·Updated Jun 15, 2022
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  1. Hi I'm Amanda and I'm here to talk about Faye Wattleton.
  2. Um She um was a nurse midwife and before that a registered nurse.
  3. And she ended up becoming a very
  4. well known and respected reproductive rights leader.
  5. Most known as the president of planned parenthood for many years.
  6. Mhm.
  7. So Faye Wattleton.
  8. Um her early life really helped shape who she ended up becoming.
  9. She was born in 1943 in ST Louis Missouri. She was an only child,
  10. her mother was a fundamentalist minister, Her name was Ozzy,
  11. very outspoken, traveled around the south.
  12. Um And uh uh phase upbringing was very much
  13. centered on religion and um a fundamentalist christian upbringing.
  14. She was also very precocious and thoughtful
  15. Child.
  16. She ended up graduating from high school at a very early and
  17. entered Ohio State University as a college student at age 16.
  18. She finished her bachelor nursing from Ohio State in 1960 for um worked as a nurse,
  19. was actually a nursing instructor instructor for a couple of years
  20. and went on to
  21. complete her master's at Columbia University and maternal and infant care
  22. become a certified nurse midwife there as well.
  23. During her internship,
  24. getting her midwife midwifery certification. Um She experienced a lot of um
  25. events that I think really
  26. shaped her
  27. who she would become
  28. while she was at her internship in Harlem
  29. There were 6500 incomplete abortions
  30. during this time abortion was illegal that's important to know.
  31. Um
  32. She and went on to go back to Ohio.
  33. After she came, their wife
  34. graduated, she became deputy chief of a
  35. I'm a traveling nursing program for maternal and child health for the state of Ohio.
  36. While she was doing that,
  37. she actually tracked and was concerned by the
  38. fact that only 30% of patients that she saw
  39. had actually received any
  40. prenatal care.
  41. So she remembering her experience in Harlem
  42. um where there were um neighborhood clinics that kind of were,
  43. where the people were um she pushed for a
  44. neighborhood clinic and health clinic in Dayton Ohio.
  45. Um she succeeded in getting that established and
  46. ended up running it with one other nurse
  47. providing prenatal care.
  48. Two
  49. women
  50. during her time as a midwife and dealing with, you know, seeing seeing all of
  51. all of the things that can happen
  52. to women when they don't have full reproductive rights.
  53. She kind of formed
  54. her drive her mission in life. Um
  55. she
  56. transitioned from this fundamentally fundamentalist christian
  57. upbringing into a nurse where she said
  58. this is kind of a realization of where she was at after becoming a nurse,
  59. she said my patients needed my care.
  60. They did not need my judgment.
  61. It didn't matter to me. Eventually what their values were.
  62. What matter
  63. was that care and compassion was not conditioned on God's will,
  64. but on the effort to heal
  65. switched her thinking, um she became a nurse.
  66. Um she also saw a need, she saw that she could help prevent suffering as a nurse. Um,
  67. so she um
  68. became very
  69. interested in the reproductive rights movement. Um,
  70. and joined planned parenthood, joined their board. The local board in Ohio.
  71. Um,
  72. eventually becoming its president in 1970 and eventually becoming the President
  73. of Planned President of Planned Parenthood as a whole in 1978.
  74. And that went on until 1992,
  75. 1978 was soon after Roe vs Wade. And the national discussion was heated.
  76. Abortion rights was a big topic
  77. and she kind of brought planned parenthood to the forefront of that.
  78. When she left planned parenthood, she actually had her own talk show for a few years.
  79. Um, and then she founded
  80. and ran the Center for Gender Equality,
  81. which later became the center of it for the advancement of women.
  82. That organization disbanded in 2010.
  83. Um, and most recently she co founded an odd company that I don't understand,
  84. called zero Q.
  85. Quantum computing. I don't think it has to do
  86. with reproductive rights at all.
  87. But she, you know, in her years during and after planned parenthood, she did many,
  88. many talks, many speeches, still advocated for reproductive rights
  89. and
  90. is still alive today.
  91. So her leadership.
  92. Um,
  93. she was a visionary.
  94. She sought to
  95. make reproductive rights
  96. a
  97. total and complete
  98. right for women.
  99. She
  100. um,
  101. she did not believe in compromise
  102. in this matter.
  103. Um,
  104. and part of that had to do with all of the
  105. um kind of tragedies she saw in her nursing career.
  106. She saw botched abortions, incomplete abortions.
  107. She said almost every night in o begin a septic abortion patient came in,
  108. some died, Some were so scarred and damaged that they required sterilization.
  109. Um and her belief was that those people who want to be less devoted to this concern
  110. simply don't have the kind of visceral understanding of
  111. what it means not to have legal abortion.
  112. And she was able to speak eloquently eloquently on this matter. And and she was
  113. very strong in her convictions and that led her
  114. to make a lot of changes in planned parenthood.
  115. So I thought she was she's kind of
  116. a composite of power player and creative communicator.
  117. She also liked to say that she um
  118. enjoyed the leadership style of creative aggression.
  119. Um,
  120. and how women can have to be very careful when they're aggressive and
  121. they have to be creative about it so as not to intimidate or
  122. you know, seem
  123. untoward
  124. because kind of women are held to different standards than men as leaders.
  125. She's charismatic, emotionally stable conscientious.
  126. She appealed to a broad audience.
  127. Um, she really excelled at translating her message to people.
  128. Um, and she built partnerships.
  129. Um, so
  130. under phase leadership
  131. planned parenthood expanded
  132. their
  133. abortion, medical and educational services for women.
  134. Um this was at a time when abortions and
  135. abortion rights were expanded
  136. Um during her first year though 60% of management quit.
  137. Um,
  138. so she really upended planned parenthood and and
  139. and created a whole new very dynamic organization
  140. about her lack of compromise. You can't pick and choose on reproductive choices.
  141. You either have them or you don't. She believed in full reproductive choice.
  142. She led planned parenthood through court battles, marketing campaigns.
  143. And
  144. really it created what planned parenthood is today.
  145. I have a video, but it doesn't seem to work.
  146. It's where she talks about creative aggression.
  147. And if you ever want to look her up on youtube,
  148. you can see how eloquent a speaker she is,
  149. What a great communicator she is and an advocate for women's rights.
  150. She really is inspiring.
  151. Here are my references
  152. and
  153. I think we can all agree that she's
  154. a nurse. We can
  155. say she she identified a problem as a nurse and
  156. she sought to make a change because of that problem.
  157. And I think she was successful in doing so.
  158. So. I hope you enjoyed it. A Wattleton. Um, and
  159. thank you for listening.