Physicians for Reproductive Choice and Health (PRCH) mourns the death of Seymour L. Romney, MD, our founder and chair of our first board of directors, whose vision, energy, intelligence, leadership, and compassion gave pro-choice physicians in this country a voice.
In a tribute on RH Reality Check, our CEO and President Jodi Magee remembers working alongside Dr. Romney, who believed that every pregnancy should be a wanted pregnancy. He worked tirelessly to promote access to contraception and abortion, even building an organization to help physicians become effective public advocates for reproductive health care.
Dr. Romney became an obstetrician/gynecologist in the late 1940s, and he was horrified by the illness and injury caused by botched illegal abortions. He advocated openly for the legalization of abortion in New York State. In the early 1990s, Dr. Romney and several colleagues recognized the need for physicians to band together to protect access to services and counter the anti-choice violence that had become commonplace.
Dr. Romney built PRCH for physicians “to advocate and educate on reproductive health issues as part of a professional, public health responsibility, regardless of their medical specialty.” He was the quintessential PRCH enthusiast—without the donations he gathered, the doctors he recruited, and the grants he secured, this organization would not exist. We will miss him dearly.
Dr. Romney’s family has suggested PRCH as one of the charities to receive donations in his name.
