Downloadable Content
Download audio
Other
Downer, Carol (audio interview #3 of 3)
INTERVIEW DESCRIPTION - This final of three interviews with Carol Downer, conducted four years after the Women Rising interview, was part of a Senior Honors project at UCLA. The interview was conducted at Downer's office at the Feminist Women's Health Centers business office. 12/28/1988
- Date
- 2020-03-16
- Resource Type
- Creator
- Campus
- Keywords
- Handle
- Language
- Notes
- *** File: fhcdowner7.mp3 Audio Segments and Topics: (0:00-5:35)... Downer had been referring women to the abortion clinic and had become aware of how much money was involved. Downer wanted to relate to both NOW and the Crenshaw Women's Center, but felt more connected to the women's center than to NOW. The two groups did have their rifts and L.A. NOW had a totally different history than the other NOW groups. Downer became aware of what different groups of NOW were doing in places like the Midwest and discovered that they were doing very interesting things. (5:35-10:28)... The first Women's Health Center was in Los Angeles. Lorraine Rothman found Downer through Everywoman newspaper. She knew that she wanted to do what they were doing at the clinic. She went to the first or second meeting at the bookstore and the women talked about the availability of abortions and the improved method. Downer then did demonstrated vaginal self-examination. At the time, she was reading a lot about women's health and public speaking. (10:28-16:23)... Downer spoke at churches and started her work at the women's center on Crenshaw, taking over a back room. This was in 1971 and the center was close to closing down; it closed down a year later, at the end of 1972. At the time that Downer was at the center, it was grossly understaffed. There was a tremendous number of women calling and coming in. Downer would often take calls and she performed some of the duties of the staff. (16:23-19:51)... Downer notes that they started doing self-examinations at the Crenshaw Women's Center, commenting that all the women were White. They also started referring women to the hospital for abortions; and after Downer did some research, they found a doctor to perform them. The women at the center did the counseling and then they all got in a car and went to the hospital for the abortions. (19:51-21:15)... Downer and her colleagues took over the building that the Crenshaw Women's Center was in after it closed down. They they opened the FWHC clinic. (21:15-25:30)... Downer talks about a woman who infiltrated their group at the time. It was a very casual situation; women would come in and out never telling anyone where they were from and no one asked. This woman worked with Harvey Karman as his assistant; she was nineteen and very confident. This was when Downer was referring women to the clinic for abortions. At the time things were changing rapidly and the doctor who Downer was using for abortions was not really an M.D. although they did not know that at the time; the police were always outside the clinic watching; they never arrested him. End of tape *** File: fhcdowner8.mp3 (0:00-4:10)... Once Downer found out that the doctor they were using was not really an M.D. they stopped referring women to him for abortions. He was viewed as a crook locally but he was funded nationally. A lot of women thought he was really great and there was a definite split in opinion about him. (4:10-10:37)... Downer gave a speech at the AMA in Hawaii and was invited by a group of women; this was the case for many of her engagements. The topic was on third world women and what their needs and health concerns were. (10:37-19:47)... Downer was working at her clinic in 1972 in the back room at the Feminist Women's Health Center on Crenshaw when the police came in with a warrant and arrested her. She had a lawyer and bail ready when she was brought to the police station. It was a traumatic two hours. While she was in jail, there was a line of men and women outside picketing. Downer decided to fight the charges of inserting yogurt into a woman's vagina. She had two feminist lawyers to represent her and people rallied around her; she had a lot of support from her friends and family. [Editor's note: in a communication, Downer explains that Coleen Willson, who was arrested at the same time, was charged with eight counts and pled guilty to one count of fitting a diaphragm in a self-help clinic. Downer was charted with one count of inserting yogurt, noting that Z Budapest was the self-helper.] (19:47-22:18)... Downer describes the trial as being great. She took the stand and there were demonstrations outside the courthouse every day along with a lot of press coverage. A policewoman testified that she went into the clinic and Downer put in an IUD; Downer was not at the clinic at the time that this woman claimed she had inserted the IUD so it was a turning point in the trial. (22:18-28:12)... Downer was targeted because people were getting paranoid; they just did not know what she was doing at the clinic. End of tape *** File: fhcdowner9.mp3 (0:00-4:14)... Downer talks about the infiltration of the Crenshaw Women's Center by the SWP in late 1971-2. Before then, it was a very chaotic but friendly with cushions on the floor; it had a flowing quality to it. When SWP took over, it became an office and the cushions were gone. SWP left shortly after and NOW left as a result of them taking over. (4:14-6:30)... The strength and weakness of the women's movement was that it was so slippery and amorphous. But it did foster "middle class biases." Most of the women went home to very nice homes and Downer did not go home to a very nice home or take European summer vacations. She concludes that would take those days back today, which is very bland. End of tape
- SUBJECT BIO - Carol Downer, one of the founders of the Feminist Women's Health Center in Los Angeles, has been a leading force in the feminist health movement and its most visible advocate of self-examination. She was also on the Board of Directors of the National Abortion Federation. The oldest of four children, Downer was born in Shawnee, Oklahoma, but came to Los Angeles with her family when she was two. She attended Glendale High School, where she actively participated in student activities, and then went on to UCLA, dropping out when she became pregnant. She moved with her husband to northern California, where he was stationed in the Navy and where her daughter was born. After she moved back to Los Angeles, when she was pregnant with her third child, she reentered Los Angeles City College. By the time she was divorced from her first husband, Downer had four children, and after marrying her present husband, Frank Downer, in 1964, she had two more children. During this period, she attended CSU Los Angeles, where she studied sociology. Downer's feminist consciousness was awakened when she worked on the recall campaign of Councilman Art Snyder and saw how liberal men discriminated against women in leadership positions. Later, in 1969, she joined Los Angeles NOW, although she was acutely aware of her class difference from the other women in NOW. She worked in the Abortion Task Force of NOW with Lana Phelan, author of The Abortion Handbook, who became her mentor, and became a speaker on abortion rights for the LA NOW chapter. With an eye to learning how to perform abortions in order to challenge the restrictive laws, Downer and other women observed abortion procedures at an illegal abortion clinic. They then called a meeting on April 7, 1971 to educate women about abortion and their bodies. This was the first Self-Help Clinic. Committed to spreading the idea of self-help to women across the country, the women demonstrated a gynecological self-examination at a national NOW conference. Over the years, they traveled throughout the US and to Europe, Mexico, Central American and Iran. The outgrowth of the initial meeting of the Self-Help Clinic was the development of the concept of menstrual extraction and the invention of the Del-Em kit by Lorraine Rothman. Subsequently, in 1972, they formed the Feminist Women's Health Center (FWHC), which initially functioned in the back room of the Crenshaw Women's Center. Later that year, Downer and Colleen Willson were arrested and charged with "practicing medicine without a license" - Downer for inserting yogurt to treat a woman's vaginal yeast infection. She was acquitted after a trial that was dubbed "The Great Yogurt Conspiracy Trial" by anarcha-feminists at the Westside Women's Center. In 1973, eight of the women in the FWHC group started the first women-controlled clinic, which continued to operate successfully until 1984, when it experienced financial problems and was taken over by the Oakland FWHC.* After the Oakland clinic was burned down, the operation was resumed in Los Angeles. Downer ran the Federation of Women's Health Centers (originally founded in 1975 at a Mexico City conference on Women and Health) out of the clinic location on Wilshire Boulevard for the next two years, until 1986 when the clinic was forced to close completely. From 1987 to 1991, while she attended law school, Downer continued to work for the Federation of FWHCs. Since then, she has practiced law, mostly in the area of disabilities rights. Although a case of severe shingles (Herpes Zoster) required her to stop working in 2003 for a year, she has returned to law and continues to make appearances on immigration matters. She is currently working on a memoir of her early experiences in the women's movement. * Margo Miller, Francie Hornstein, Jennifer Burgess, Shelly Farber, and Debi Law were particularly instrumental in establishing the clinic. TOPICS - Lorraine Rothman association; starting clinic; Crenshaw Women's Center; self-examinations and abortion referrals; police infiltration; controversy with doctor used by Downer for abortions; abortion referral problems; AMA speech in Hawaii; arrest at clinic; charges; reaction from friends and family; trial; NOW leaving Crenshaw Women's Center; SWP politics; reflections on women's movement;
- Rights Note
- This repository item may be used for classroom presentations, unpublished papers, and other educational, research, or scholarly use. Other uses, especially publication in any form, such as in dissertations, theses, articles, or web pages are not permitted without the express written permission of the individual collection's copyright holder(s). Please contact the CSULB Library Administration should you require permission to publish or distribute any content from this collection or if you need additional information or assistance in using these materials. http://www.csulb.edu/library/Common/SubmittedForms/digital_rep_request.html
| Thumbnail | Title | Date Uploaded | Visibility | Actions |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
8707335028492780-fhcdowner7.mp3 | 2023-10-18 | Public | Download |
|
|
7498252302545740-fhcdowner8.mp3 | 2023-10-18 | Public | Download |
|
|
0634739650829809-fhcdowner9.mp3 | 2023-10-18 | Public | Download |
|
|
8651169329606759-fhcdowner1.jpg | 2023-10-18 | Public | Download |