Sharyn Ladner, Assistant University Librarian, introduces herself as a graduate of Gettysburg College, a small liberal arts college in Pennsylvania, in 1967, during which time she had not been aware of the differences in treatment between male and female students (men could stay out all night, but women had curfews). She says, "Rather than questioning why the rules were different for women than for men, we just broke the rules." She speaks about radical feminism and abortion rights. Living in Bloomington with her husband, Ladner joined a consciousness-raising group of feminists. Very few states had legalized abortion, and most of them had harsh restrictions; in Indiana, it was illegal even to discuss contraception and abortion with unmarried women. Ladner became an abortion counselor, because in the late 1960s, five thousand women died every year because of "back-alley, illegal abortions." Her group networked with Planned Parenthood and Concerned Clergy and arranged help for women, until at last the Supreme Court ruled on Roe Vs. Wade to legalize abortion.
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