Ruth P. Smith
| Ruth P. Smith | |
|---|---|
| Born |
August 14, 1907 Deal, New Jersey |
| Died | January 22, 2010 (aged 102) Manhattan, New York |
| Nationality | American |
| Known for | Pro-choice activist |
| Spouse(s) | Theodore Smith (m. 1932; div. 1946) |
| Parent(s) | Joseph M. Proskauer and Alice Naumberg |
Ruth Proskauer Smith (August 14, 1907 – January 22, 2010) was a pro-choice and reproductive rights advocate.
In the 1940s, Smith worked for the Massachusetts chapter of Planned Parenthood. As an executive secretary of the organization, she unsuccessfully attempted to overturn the state's banning of birth control. In 1953, she moved to New York to work at Mount Sinai Hospital, where she managed the family planning service. Two years later, she became the executive director of the Human Betterment Association (later renamed Emergence of the World Population Control Movement), where she worked until 1964.
In 1959, Smith's mother died an agonizing death. Smith became shocked at this occurrence and became one of the foremost leaders of voluntary euthanasia. Even though she was almost ninety years old at the time, Smith donated and strategized for a campaign that culminated in the passing of Oregon's right-to-die law. Historian Ian Dowbiggin said that Smith "played a pivotal role in the struggle for birth control, for euthanasia, and for abortion." Along with eleven other people, she helped establish the National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws (now called NARAL Pro-Choice America) in the 1960s.
In 1962, she moved into a two-bedroom apartment in The Dakota on 72nd Street and Central Park West on the Upper West Side of Manhattan and she continued to live in this fifth-floor home for the next 50 years.
Until 2009, she held seminars four times a week for Quest, a program at the City College of New York for retirees, where she taught them about the history of the Supreme Court.
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