Hilda C. Standish
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![A yearbook photograph of a young white woman, wearing a dark garment with a white lace collar](//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/03/HildaCrosby1924.png/220px-HildaCrosby1924.png) Hilda C. Crosby, from the 1924 Wellesley College yearbook
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Born
| 1902
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Died
| June 1, 2005 (aged 102–103)
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Alma mater
| Wellesley College
;
Cornell Medical College
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Occupation
| Maternal Health Center medical director
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Known for
| Birth control advocate
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Spouse
| Erland Myles Standish
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Hilda Crosby Standish
(1902 ? June 1, 2005) was a pioneer in the
birth control movement
in the state of
Connecticut
. In 1935, she became medical director of the Maternal Health Center in Hartford, the state's first birth control clinic. Dr. Standish was inducted into the
Connecticut Women's Hall of Fame
in 1994.
[1]
Early life and education
[
edit
]
Hilda Crosby was born to Julia and Albert Hutchings Crosby of
Hartford, Connecticut
in 1902. After graduating from
Hartford Public High School
, she attended
Wellesley College
, where she received a bachelor's degree in
zoology
in 1924. Crosby earned her medical degree at
Cornell Medical College
in 1928, graduating third in her class. Dr. Standish interned at
Philadelphia General Hospital
and served a one-year residency at the St. Louis Maternity Hospital in
Missouri
.
[2]
Medical career
[
edit
]
Upon completion of her
residency
, she accepted a five-year appointment in 1932 to teach
obstetrics
in the Women's Christian Medical College, and the Margaret Williamson Hospital of
Shanghai
, China. After two years, she had to return to the United States because of an illness in the family. The family member's health improved, but Crosby was unable to return to China because the Japanese military had
invaded the country
.
[2]
In 1935,
Katharine Martha Houghton Hepburn
(mother of actress
Katharine Hepburn
) recruited Standish to be medical director of the Maternal Health Center in Hartford, the state's first birth control clinic.
[3]
Due to an 1879 statute, it was illegal to operate a birth control clinic or to disseminate information about
birth control
in Connecticut.
[2]
On June 25, 1936, Hilda Crosby married
dermatologist
Erland Myles Standish of
Wethersfield
. The couple had five children, which made it difficult for Standish to maintain a full-time medical practice.
[1]
Instead, Standish worked part-time and led
sex education
classes for adolescents, couples entering into marriage, and parents she met through her work at the Maternal Health Center. The Hartford clinic was forced to close in 1940, after police raided a similar clinic in
Waterbury
.
[2]
She was trustee at the
Hartford College for Women
and
Wellesley College
.
[3]
Standish continued to support
Planned Parenthood
's efforts to legalize birth control in the state. She testified before the state legislature in an effort to change the law that made the use of contraceptives illegal. She worked closely with Planned Parenthood of Connecticut Executive Director
Estelle Griswold
, one of the plaintiffs in the landmark Supreme Court case
Griswold v. Connecticut
.
[2]
In recognition of her dedication to advancing
reproductive rights
in the state, Planned Parenthood of Connecticut renamed its
West Hartford
site the Hilda Crosby Standish, MD Clinic in 1983.
[1]
References
[
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