Manuscripts Collection
Jane E. Hodgson was born January 23, 1915 in Crookston, Minnesota. She attended Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota, where she studied chemistry and received her B.S. in 1934 at the age of 19. She then attended the University of Minnesota Medical School, where she received her M.D. in 1939. She spent the next two years completing her internship and residency at the Jersey City Medical Center where she met her future husband, Frank W. Quattlebaum, a cardiovascular surgeon. After their marriage in 1941, Hodgson completed a four-year fellowship in obstetrics and gynecology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester. In 1947, at the same time she was completing a post-graduate degree, Hodgson opened her private practice.
In 1970, Hodgson performed an abortion at St. Paul-Ramsey Hospital in direct defiance of Minnesota law. She was subsequently convicted by the Ramsey County District Court, given a suspended 30-day jail sentence, and lost her Minnesota medical license. While her appeal was pending before the Minnesota Supreme Court, she worked as the medical director for Preterm, inc. in Washington, D.C. Her conviction was overturned in 1973 when the opinion in Roe v Wade was released.
She moved back to Minnesota in 1974, and opened the Women's Health Center in Duluth shortly thereafter. In 1980, she and some colleagues challenged the Minnesota law requiring parental notification before a minor could obtain an abortion. They took their case to the Supreme Court of the United States, but were ultimately unsuccessful.
Beginning in the 1960s and continuing throughout the 1980s, both Hodgson and Quattlebaum gave their time and talent to Project Hope, an organization that works to make health care available around the world. Hodgson was inaugurated into the International Women in Medicine Hall of Fame, which is part of the American Medical Women's Association, in 2001. Hodgson died in Rochester, Minnesota on October 23, 2006, at the age of 91.
The collection consists of personal papers that document Hodgson's professional career, particularly her legal cases, overseas tours, and medical practice. Included are personal and general correspondence; trial transcripts, affidavits, briefs, depositions, and other court records; overseas tour information, reports of facility conditions, letters, teaching materials, and journal entries; and documents relating to the administration and operation of various medical clinics. Also included are newspaper and magazine clippings relating to various aspects of her work, including legal issues, violence towards abortion providers, international women's issues, and other topics she deemed applicable. Speeches and two videocassettes also are part of the collection.
The only U.S. physician to be convicted of illegally performing an abortion in a hospital, Hodgson's legal files include materials related to her 1970 Minnesota Supreme Court appeal, her test case against Minnesota's parental notification law, and her challenge of Medicaid provisions.
Accession number: 16,129; 16430
Processed by: Sarah Ethier and Rich Arpi, 2008.
Processing Action: File titles were supplied by processors. Case notes, correspondence, appointment books and other files that contained patient information were destroyed.
Catalog ID number: 6659701
Arranged chronologically.
Includes letters of dissent, unanswered letters, and unsorted letters.
Hodgson's legal case files are arranged chronologically by case date. Within each individual case, files are arranged alphabetically by title. The files include affidavits, briefings, correspondence, depositions, findings, other influential court decisions, temporary restraining orders, and transcripts and other court documents.
The first case Hodgson was directly involved in is titled State of Minnesota v Hodgson. In 1970, she performed an abortion on a woman who had contracted rubella, which can cause severe birth defects. Hodgson primarily agreed to perform the procedure because she wanted to directly challenge the Minnesota law. Because abortions were illegal at the time, she was charged and convicted of performing an abortion in a hospital. This series primarily consists of transcripts from court proceedings, but affidavits and other legal briefs can also be found.
Hodgson was also involved in an important case in the 1980s (Hodgson v State of Minnesota), when she and a group of colleagues challenged Minnesota state law requiring notification and consent of both parents 48 hours before a minor could have an abortion.
Hodgson was a consultant for many other legal cases involved in reproductive freedom. She also lent her name in the Preterm, Inc and JEH v Washington case. She testified or provided research assistance for such cases as Sabot v Fargo Women's Health Organization, Women of the State of Minnesota v Natalie Haas Steffen (Commissioner of Minnesota Department of Human Services), and Women's National Abortion Action Coalition (WONAAC) v Washington, District of Columbia City Council, as well as the other cases in this series.
Regards the parental notification court case.
Includes sound recordings and videocassettes of deposition, court exhibits.
Regarding an Oklahoma abortion bill.
Regarding legislation to protect abortion clinic facilities.
Regarding Utah's notification and 90 day waiting period.
Parental consent in Montana
Addressed the issue of the use of government funds to pay for abortions.
Unsorted. Includes correspondence, notes, background information, and texts for speeched Hodgson gave during conferences, commencements, and political events.
Materials pertaining to Hodgson's overseas work are arranged chronologically by date of trip. Within each trip, files are arranged alphabetically by title. This portion of Hodgson's papers contain materials from all of her various overseas trips, including tours to Africa, China, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Peru, Egypt, Israel, Lebanon, Iran, Grenada, Cuba, and Southeast Asia. Included are correspondence, both personal and general, Project Hope administrative documents and promotional materials, news clippings and background briefing books, training materials, notes and examples from her medical writing class, transcripts, medical statistics, case studies, calendars, and other notes and papers.
This series documents Hodgson's overseas travels and tours. In the late 1950s, she traveled to Africa and toured several medical facilities. This time abroad introduced her to the needs of developing countries and led to her participation in Project Hope. Project Hope is a non-profit organization affiliated with the People to People Foundation that works to improve health conditions in impoverished countries around the world. Established in 1960, Project Hope was initially based on a Navy ship, the USS Hope.
Hodgson began working with Project Hope in 1963, when she served in Peru, working as an obstetrician and gynecologist for poor women and children. She then expanded her service throughout the years, ultimately working in Central America, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. Along with actually practicing medicine in these countries, Hodgson helped medical professionals improve their facilities, equipment, and techniques. She associated herself with teaching hospitals, particularly the University of Trujillo in Peru, St. George University School of Medicine in the Caribbean, Zhejiang Medical University in China, and Al Galaa Hospital in Egypt.
Includes correspondence, tour information, background information on facility conditions in specific countries, teaching materials, and journal pages.
Unsorted.
Unsorted.
This portion documents her work in different clinical settings throughout the state of Minnesota and the nation. She opened her first private practice in 1947, and she continued working until late into her 70s. She opened several clinics for women, including the Women's Health Center in Duluth. She also served as medical director at Preterm Clinic in Washington, D.C and for Planned Parenthood of Minnesota. She was also at Midwest Health Center for Women in Minneapolis for many years. She was an active staff member of Miller Hospital and St Paul Ramsey Hospital. Finally, she did consulting work around the nation, helping to establish quality women's health centers. Files are arranged alphabetically by clinic name and then alphabetically by file title within each clinic.
Physical review of the Salvation Army Booth Hospital as a possible site for an abortion clinic.
Correspondence about resuming partnership.
Focuses on the administration of clinical operations. Includes training reports, information for nurse practioners, service reports on the number of abortions performed, reports on cancer screenings and vasectomies, and committee and staff meeting minutes.
Employment offer for the full time medical director position.
Produced and directed by Dorothy Fadiman in association with KTEH-TV.
Directed by Dorothy Fadiman and produced in association with KTEH-TV.
Produced by Beth Seltz and directed by Dorothy Fadiman in association with KTEH-TV.