E. Stewart Taylor
You might wonder why Colorado was one of the first group of
states with a modern abortion law in spite its conservative Rocky Mountain
states location. Our take on this
question is that E. Stewart Taylor was the difference between Colorado
and the surrounding states. He had
attained the position of professor of obstetrics at a rather young age shortly
before we (Mary and
The psychiatry department there had a long tradition of
supporting a quasi-therapeutic psychodrama written and produced by the fourth
year medical students in which they satirized the professors’ and institution’s
foibles. A few years before our arrival,
the entire play had taken Dr. Taylor apart.
All other faculty were spared that year.
Until this psychodrama, E. Stewart had been, we were told,
authoritarian, distant, and generally unpopular for his attitude toward the
students. The entire efforts of all the
writers and actors in these dramas through the years were justified by the
ensuing transformation in E. Stewart Taylor.
He started keeping hours for students who wanted to talk to him for
whatever reason. He became their
advocate on the faculty. He told his
students that after they were practicing, if they had a problem with a woman in
labor, to call him and that he would do his best to help, even in the middle of
the night. A few years later, Mary had
occasion to make such a call with very satisfactory results. The foregoing is just the preamble to John’s
experience with Dr. Taylor. Remember,
John was in training in internal medicine.
All this occurred in the early 1950s, not long after it was
discovered that rubella (German Measles or three day measles) occurring during
early pregnancy usually caused major defects in the fetus. There was no vaccine for any of the viral
childhood diseases except small pox.
Rubella turned out to have been a major cause among all causes of
congenital anomalies. At that time, only
maternal indications, such as serious heart or kidney disease, were legally
recognized as justification for induced abortions. Dr. Taylor told his house staff and students
that it was medically unethical not to offer abortion for fetal indications
such as rubella in early pregnancy. He
backed up this assertion with the offer to travel anywhere in the country at
his expense to testify in defense of any of his students who were being prosecuted
for what was required by his interpretation of medical ethics. He came across as a principled, effective
advocate.
During John’s residency, he cared for a Hispanic woman with
leukemia. She was being treated with
radioactive phosphorus with some success when she inadvertently became
pregnant. She wanted an abortion
especially because radioactive phosphorus, which she had received early in the
pregnancy, is very damaging to rapidly growing cells, whether leukemic or
fetal.
Her dilemma was expeditiously, but quietly resolved right in
his department in a state institution in a state where fetal indications did
not legally justify doing the abortion.
She was burdened only with her decisions, but not those of the doctors
or the state.
Dr. Taylor was remarkable for his forthrightness,
consistency and courage even if you did not always agree. It is entirely possible that his students
going in to all areas of Colorado, talking to the patients, other citizens and
politicians is the reason that Colorado had one of the first modern abortion
laws long before Roe vs. Wade.
John A. Frantz, MD, Chairman, Board of Health, Monroe City
Council
Mary N. Frantz, MD, University of Colorado, 1951