Bill Baird: Pioneer says birth control battle had a cost

Newsday: Decades of activism for birth control and abortion rights cost him a marriage, and the trust of most of his children, Baird said. It also left him with barely enough income to get by. The lecturer who once netted $3,000 a speech said he poured the money into court cases, and running clinics that gave abortions to poor women.

. . . Baird also claims some feminists and pro-abortion rights forces have tried to discredit him or downplay his contributions. "There were very few men who came out and championed the women's movement," Joyce Berkman, a history professor at University of Massachusetts Amherst, said last week. "And to have him champion their sexuality was suspicious."

Related:

Bill Baird: A Genius at Getting Free Publicity (NRLC commentary)

Abortion-Rights' Scorned Prophet; Hated by Both Sides, Bill Baird Raises Hackles, Not Funds (1993 NYTimes article)