Ruth Barnett was an abortion provider operating in Portland, Oregon from 1918 to 1968.
She was born in Hood River, Oregon in 1895. In 1910, she moved with her family to Portland, Oregon, where she became pregnant at the age of sixteen. She sought an abortion from Dr. George Watts, which convinced her that all women should have the opportunity to receive an abortion if they wanted one. When she was 23, Barnett decided to become an abortion provider, turning to Dr. Alys Bixby Griff for training. Eventually she partnered with Dr. Watts, who taught her how to perform complex procedures and helped her get a medical license as a chiropractor.
She was first arrested in 1940 after a complication arose with a client at a clinic in Reno, Nevada. After this incident, Barnett was in prison intermittently, continuing to perform abortions. She performed an estimated 40,000 abortions and claimed no maternal deaths. In 1966, a Portland jury found her guilty of an unrelated manslaughter, while an Oregon City jury found her guilty of abortion in 1967. Her appeal of both verdicts was rejected by the Supreme Court in 1967, and she went to prison in February 1968. After this conviction she decided to retire.
Barnett co-authored an autobiography, They Weep on My Doorstep.
Early life
Ruth Hanna was born in 1895 in Hood River, Oregon. She was the youngest of three children born to Margaret Belle Hanna and James Ellsworth Hanna. In 1910, Barnett moved with her family to Portland, Oregon. There her father became the first grocer in the village, and Barnett got a job as a dental assistant. In 1911, at the age of 16, Barnett became pregnant. Unsure what to do, she was referred to Dr. George Watts by a patient in her dental clinic. Dr. Watts, a respected physician in the area, performed an abortion on Barnett, and the experience profoundly changed her life. Saved from the shame of bearing an illegitimate child, she came out of the procedure with a conviction that anyone who wanted an abortion ought to be able to receive one.
Two years later, when she was eighteen, Ruth Barnett married Henry Cohen. Their marriage was largely unhappy and lasted only five years, but resulted in the birth of Barnett's daughter, Maggie. Through this marriage, Barnett met and befriended Dr. Alys Bixby Griff. Griff was one of the first female physicians in the Pacific Northwest, and she was beginning to specialize in abortions when she met Barnett. Throughout the course of their friendship, Barnett would visit Griff, listening attentively to the stories she told about her practice. Following Barnett's divorce from Cohen, she decided to pursue a career as an abortion provider with the help of Dr. Griff.
Early career
At the age of 23, Ruth Barnett began working for Dr. Griff as an assistant. They worked closely for eleven years, with Griff allowing Barnett to stand in during operations to learn abortion techniques. Eventually Barnett was able to perform the operations herself, concluding that this was her life's work. Barnett parted uneasily with Griff eleven years later, partly due to growing disagreements about Barnett's role in the practice. Hoping to strike out on her own, she opened a small business that ultimately failed. That same year, she began to collaborate with Dr. George Watts, the same physician who gave her an abortion in 1911. Not only did Watts expand her knowledge of abortion techniques, he also helped her get a license to practice medicine. Barnett enrolled in a two-year chiropractor program, which placed an emphasis on naturopathy. After receiving her certification and apprenticing under Dr. Watts for another five years, Barnett began her independent career by buying the practices of several retiring physicians. Her practice operated on a sliding scale; wealthy women and girls paid the most for abortions, while poor women and girls paid little or nothing.