To Offer Compassion

In 1967, when abortion was either illegal or highly restricted in every U.S. state, a group of ministers and rabbis founded the Clergy Consultation Service on Abortion (CSS) to counsel women with unwanted pregnanciesincluding referral to licensed physicians willing to perform the procedure. By the time Roe v. Wade made abortion legal nationwide in 1973, CCS had grown into a surprisingly outspoken national medical consumer and womens rights advocacy group. To Offer Compassion offers a detailed history of this unique and largely forgotten movement, drawing on extensive interviews with original participants and on primary documents from the CCSs operations.