On September 15, Dr. Helen Winthrop Edey, a longtime member of AVSC's Board of Directors and a pioneer in the family planning movement, died in Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts. Edey's involvement with AVSC spanned 40 years, and our staff and friends are greatly saddened by her death.

Early Inspiration

Long before Edey joined AVSC, she worked with impoverished women at a neighborhood settlement house in New York City. This experience exposed her to the desperate struggle of many women to escape the cycle of poverty and pregnancy.

"I was so struck by the plight of [these] women, I became furious at the lack of fairness to [them]. That was one of the reasons I wanted to be a doctor--I wanted to make things better," Edey recounted in an interview last April.

Already a wife and mother of four children, Edey realized her dream of becoming a doctor in 1951 and pursued a career in psychiatry. She joined AVSC in 1958 as a member of the medical committee and later served on the Board.

Meeting a Need

Through her volunteer work and medical training, Edey saw the urgent need for voluntary family planning services. She dedicated the early years of her involvement with AVSC to creating such services and increasing public awareness about them.

Fighting Restrictions

Throughout the 1960s, Edey successfully battled against institutional restrictions on access to sterilization. She lobbied hospitals to allow men the choice of vasectomy and convinced unions to demand that insurance companies cover the procedure to make it more affordable.

"There were committees in every hospital who would pass on whether people should be sterilized. We made it our goal to change that so [the procedure] would be available," she explained.

Edey showed as much passion for the fight as she did for the cause. "I love these little fights where you felt [that] by walking into somebody's office and arguing for a couple of hours, you could really change everything, which we did--and we got these committees abolished."

A Milestone in the Journey

Her tireless activism did not stop there. Edey started the first outpatient vasectomy clinic at The Margaret Sanger Clinic in 1968. After the vasectomy clinic opened, Edey convinced the editor of Life magazine to publish an article on the importance of and need for voluntary sterilization services.

Her perseverance paid off. The article not only helped change public attitudes about voluntary sterilization, but it received a staggering response, ultimately resulting in the opening of several more vasectomy clinics by Planned Parenthood. Edey heralded this achievement as her proudest.

An Expanded Vision

After successfully working in the U.S. to create and promote vasectomy services, Edey came to an important realization.

"Look, there is the rest of the world. We have to start all over again," she proclaimed during her 1970-1974 tenure as chair of AVSC's executive committee. Under Edey's leadership, AVSC accepted the broader challenge of serving the international community and began a shift in focus, supporting first voluntary sterilization services, and now both family planning and reproductive health services in the developing world.

A Pillar of Support

Edey served as chair of AVSC's Board from 1985 to 1987. During this time and throughout her years of association with AVSC, she continued to work tirelessly to promote AVSC and its accomplishments and to give support to our programs.

Edey remained an active crusader on behalf of family planning until her death. Her contribution to the growth and achievement of AVSC will never be forgotten.

Lindsay Beller, public affairs assistant, researched and drafted this article.