Summary
Title: The Angel of Ashland: Practicing Compassion and Tempting Fate
Author: Vincent J. Genovese
Publisher: Prometheus Books
ISBN: 1573928313
Pro:
• Describes motivation and practice of abortion provider before abortions were legal
• Describes the conditions of women seeking illegal abortions
• Describes how local people treated his practice and Spencer himself
Con:
• None
Description:
• Biography of Robert Spencer, abortion provider
• Explains nature of abortions when it was illegal
• Demonstrates lengths to which women will go to get abortions
Book Review
Robert Spencer was born in 1889 and received his M.D. in 1915 and later did a term of service in the army. Except for a few years as chief pathologist in a U.S. Miners Hospital, he spent his entire career as a general practitioner in Ashland, Pennsylvania, located in the state’s coal mining district.
He opened his eleven-room clinic there in 1925 as the only doctor in the small coal-mining town, and was held in high regard because of his skill, integrity, and kindness. He became an expert on the incurable “Black Lung Disease” and worked hard to treat the people suffering from it. He made an effort to buy the latest equipment and medicines, and was one of the first doctors in the country to use sodium pentathol, radium pellets and a bronchoscope.
Spencer made a habit of debating people whenever he could and questioning his own beliefs. It was probably very early on that he gave up on his traditional religious beliefs. Although he continued to go to church when he still lived with his parents, it is unlikely that he believed even then. Once in college he read books by Darwin and Paine, further eroding any religious beliefs he made have held and leading to his opposition to organized religion.
He first performed an abortion in 1919 and by the mid-1960s, he had probably performed more than 100,000. Obviously they weren’t all from central Pennsylvania - in fact, patients came from throughout the U.S and from overseas. Women were recommended to him by doctors all over because he had developed such a fantastic reputation as a caring, compassionate and careful doctor.
He never got rich off of this business. Even early on in his career, before performing abortions, he often did not charge patients if they couldn’t pay the bill. This led to frequent conflicts with his wife, who thought that he should charge everyone and that he should be earning more money. When it came to abortions, he continued not charging women who were too poor to afford it.
For him, abortion was not a business - it was a public service. He was convinced both that overpopulation was a serious problem threatening the human race and that women should not be forced to endure an unwanted pregnancy. Because of this, he told anyone who would listen that abortion should be legalized. It is unfortunate that he never lived to see that dream realized.
The Angel of Ashland: Practicing Compassion and Tempting Fate, by Vincent J. Genovese
Despite the fact that abortion was strictly illegal throughout his career, he faced legal trouble only three times. In all three instances he escaped punishment: the first two times he was acquitted, and in the last case he died before coming to trial. At times, friends or other local residents would warn him that problems might be coming, so he would just close his clinic and take a vacation for a while.
Unfortunately, Spencer’s second wife burned all his patient records, thus preventing a complete biography (some patients appear to have been famous, but I can’t tell who they were by the vague descriptions offered as hints). Yet Genovese’s anecdotal book is still an engaging depiction of underground medicine. If you want to learn how and why a medical professional would have performed illegal abortions, at great personal risk for several decades, then this is an excellent place to start.
