Planned Parenthood of Minnesota

In 1928, a group of women from Minneapolis formed the Motherhood Protection League to provide married women with information and birth control devices to allow them to space their pregnancies. The women of the league rallied support among ministers, physicians, and welfare executives. On June 10, 1931 they incorporated the Minnesota Birth Control League with headquarters at 223 Walker Building on Hennepin Avenue in Minneapolis. On October 24, 1931 the league opened a birth control clinic, later known as the Minneapolis Maternal Health Center, at the same address.

Similar work began in St. Paul in 1932, when the Council of Jewish Women provided financial support that allowed the Jewish Welfare Association of St. Paul to send women under its care to a private physician to receive birth control information. In 1935, the Minnesota Birth Control League opened the St. Paul Maternal Health Center at 633 Hamm Building and the Council of Jewish Women terminated its project. The Ramsey County League for Planned Parenthood was incorporated in November 1940 and assumed responsibility for the operation of the St. Paul Maternal Health Center. In later years, the Ramsey County group would trace its origins to 1935, the date the maternal health clinic opened in St. Paul.

During the 1930s, the Minnesota Birth Control League encouraged the development of county leagues and clinics throughout the state. In addition to the clinics in Minneapolis and St. Paul, birth control or maternal health clinics opened in Duluth, Rochester, and Hibbing.

The Hennepin County League for Planned Parenthood was incorporated in January 1941 and took over all Minneapolis activities, including the Minneapolis Maternal Health Center, from the state league. The distinction between the Minnesota and Hennepin County leagues was not always clear to observers because the two groups operated at the same address and the state league's leadership and membership had always been heavily Minneapolis-based.

The Minnesota Birth Control League changed its name to the Minnesota League for Planned Parenthood circa 1940-1941. The name change paralleled that of the Birth Control Federation of America, which, in 1942, became the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. Both reflected a desire to dissociate the movement from fears of declining wartime birthrates by emphasizing family planning rather than limitation of family size. Now separated from direct responsibility for the Twin Cities projects it initiated, the Minnesota League for Planned Parenthood assumed a supervisory and service relationship to the leagues in Hennepin, Ramsey, Olmsted, and St. Louis counties. Statewide activity declined and, after several cycles of dormancy and attempted revival, the Minnesota League for Planned Parenthood disbanded in 1951.

Local activity continued to grow. In 1945, for example, the Hennepin County League for Planned Parenthood began to offer marriage counseling to supplement their clinical and public education services. In 1956, Hennepin County League for Planned Parenthood became Planned Parenthood of Minneapolis under a revised constitution and by-laws. Ramsey County League for Planned Parenthood made a similar change to become Planned Parenthood of St. Paul in 1957. It opened new clinics in the Selby-Dale and Westside neighborhoods in 1963 and 1965, respectively.

Medical advances, along with legal and social changes, during the 1960s brought about increased demand for Planned Parenthood services. The development of oral and intrauterine contraception revolutionized birth control practices and the 1965 U.S. Supreme Court decision, Griswold v. Connecticut, overruled state laws that had restricted dissemination of birth control information and devices. In 1968, the St. Paul and Minneapolis clinics opened their doors to women who were not married for the first time. By 1971, three quarters of their patients were single women.

Statewide activity resumed in 1964 when Planned Parenthood of Minneapolis received a $10,000 gift from the Minneapolis Foundation to employ a field worker to circulate in out-state areas. The following year, Planned Parenthood of St. Paul joined in the sponsorship of the Planned Parenthood Minnesota project, which aimed to provide family planning information and services to all women who wanted them throughout the state. Out of the project grew Planned Parenthood of Minnesota, incorporated in 1969, which took responsibility for activities outside the Twin Cities.

In 1971, in an effort to achieve greater efficiency and economy, Planned Parenthood of Minneapolis and Planned Parenthood of St. Paul gave up their separate identities and merged with Planned Parenthood of Minnesota. Pamela Getz Veerhusen, executive director of Planned Parenthood of Minneapolis since 1956, and Lewis Moody, executive director of Planned Parenthood of St. Paul since 1968, both resigned to accept positions with Planned Parenthood - World Population (formerly Planned Parenthood Federation of America). Thomas P. Webber became executive director of the single state-wide organization, Planned Parenthood of Minnesota.

From the guide to the Planned Parenthood of Minnesota records, 1932-1971, (bulk 1940-1960), (University of Minnesota Libraries. Social Welfare History Archives [swha])