Eleanor Easley
Jump to interview with Philip PearceJump to podcastTopic Log
00:00 Introduction 00:21 Dr. Pearce’s graduation from the Duke University School of Medicine; time spent in the United States Air Force; origin story for work in OB/GYN; return to Duke; meeting Dr. Easley during rotation in Watts Hospital 04:20 Dr. Easley’s family in Idaho; Easley’s husband, Dr. Howard Easley; their community involvement; Easley Elementary School; Pearce’s experience with abortions; opening of nearby abortion clinic 06:14 Dr. Easley’s experience as a Duke medical student; Easley’s experience being the first woman to receive a four-year medical degree from Duke 07:51 Dr. Easley’s motivation to pursue OB/GYN 08:07 Dr. Pearce’s first impressions of Dr. Easley from rotation through Watts Hospital 08:39 Dr. Easley’s work with Lincoln Hospital 09:23 Dr. Easley as a mentor to Dr. Pearce 09:54 Dr. Pearse and hypnotic labor techniques employed at the Durham Women’s Clinic 11:41 Dr. Easley’s primary responsibilities at the clinic; role as organizer and primary business negotiator 12:48 Role of WWII in providing Dr. Easley the opportunity to practice 13:51 Details on the business side of the Durham Women’s Clinic 14:32 Dr. Easley’s motivations for abortion advocacy; “back-alley” abortions 16:06 Dr. Easley’s interactions with the North Carolina General Assembly 17:26 Dr. Easley’s local activism in the Durham community 17:46 Reception of Dr. Easley’s abortion advocacy among patients and the Durham community 19:42 Political climate surrounding abortion during the time of Dr. Easley’s advocacy 21:27 Consultation procedure for abortions 22:04 Relationship between abortion and contraception/sex education, as seen by Dr. Easley; speeches at local high schools 24:31 Dr. Easley’s reputation among her patients; “no-nonsense” honesty 25:43 Dr. Easley’s relationships with Durham Women’s Clinic providers and staff 27:06 Dr. Easley’s office belongings 28:20 Dr. Pearce’s memories of Dr. Easley 29:11 Dr. Easley’s impact on women’s health and the communities of Duke and Durham; nurse midwifery program and collaboration with Yale University; Ms. Nancy Carreras 33:24 Educational classes for pregnant patients; their role in improving health outcomes 36:10 Dr. Pearce’s closing words on Dr. Easley
Full Transcript
Ava Meigs 0:00 My name is Ava Meigs. The date is March 21, 2024. We're recording on Zoom, and I'm interviewing Dr. Philip Pearce for the Agents of Change Oral History Project. So, to start, Dr. Pearce, could you just tell us a little bit about yourself and about your relationship with Dr. Eleanor Easley? Philip Pearce 0:21 I graduated from Duke Medical School. I was in the class of 1960, but finished my coursework in December of '59 and interned in surgery during the calendar year of 1960. I then had an obligation to the military, and I entered the Air Force, which had sponsored my senior year of medical school and internship. I wound up at a base in Stephenville, Newfoundland. The first month I got up there, I was a general medical officer. There was a two person OB/GYN department, and the junior person was rotating back to the States. The senior person could not do 30 deliveries a month and do the surgery and keep up the OB/GYN clinics. So, the hospital commander called in the three new general medical officers, of which I was one, and asked us who would like to do that. Well, going through Duke Medical School, the OB residents were so busy [that] they took very little time with students. So, I didn't have a very good impression of OB/GYN. So, I wasn't going to volunteer, and neither did the other two officers. So, the hospital commander says, "Okay, gentlemen. Come back tomorrow, but somebody will have to do this." So, we came back the next day, and all three of us were looking at the floor. He said, "Who's going to help Dr. Moore do OB/GYN?" Nobody said anything. So, he says, "Okay, Pearce, you're it." So, that's when I started really doing OB/GYN. And I thought since my childhood idol was an old family doctor in Virginia, when I was about six or seven, eight years old -- and I'd always loved interaction with people, and I did a surgical internship. So, it seemed like OB/GYN would embrace all of those things that would fit my peculiar personality. So, I got all the books I could study, and my senior officer there, who was a board-certified OB/GYN, was very kind in letting me do a lot of things. I volunteered a lot of extra call nights just so that I would get the experience. So, when I came back to Duke, I'd had a lot more experience than their chief residents had, as far as doing obstetrics, and had more experience than some of their junior members, as far as GYN, the more common type of surgery and course experience in the clinics. And that was where I was when I entered the OB program and when I returned to Duke in January of '64. Well, Dr. Parker was in charge of the residency program at Watts Hospital, and Dr. Easley was the Chairman of the OB/GYN Department, and later was the President of the Hospital Staff. So, I rotated over there as the first rotation for three months. And I enjoyed that very much. She was very good to me, and I was very impressed with her. So, when I came back to Duke and finished my residency, and looked at places where I wanted to practice, Durham with Dr. Easley and her partners was my first choice. And they greeted me like a long-lost brother. And so, I started practice with her in the summer of 1967. She retired about five years later when she was 65. AM 4:20 Can you tell me a little bit about the family or community that she came from? What was it like? PP 4:28 Well, I really know nothing about her remote family because she actually grew up in Idaho. So, her family was back there, and I never met any of them. I knew her husband, Howard. He was a Duke Professor, I believe, of Psychology. When he retired, he was on the County Commissioners here in Durham, and he served several terms there. They were very civic-minded. And as I understand, I think they gave land on which Easley Elementary School was erected. And they also left a good size fund to Duke in their will. I did not know so much about her work with the abortion issue because when I went into practice, abortions were not legal. But a couple of years later, they were allowed. So, many people came to us seeking abortions. Not being used to that, we reluctantly did them and were glad when an abortion clinic that was reputable opened, so that we could refer patients there. And we only did restricted abortions, usually in people who had a relationship with us in the practice. Either they or a daughter, with a very sad history of how they got to be pregnant and didn't want to be - we would still do occasional abortions. AM 6:14 Kind of taking it back to Dr. Easley, did she tell you anything about her experience as a medical student at Duke or her time in Duke medicine? PP 6:27 Not that I recall or remember. I think she was co-resident with a woman who was a very prominent person in the Duke community. I don't know that they ever practiced together, and the other lady really never practiced very much because she married into a family that was very wealthy, locally, that owned a lot of land and banks and stuff like that. I don't think they ever had a working professional relationship. But Dr. Easley, I believe, was in the first class of OB/GYN residents that had a female graduate. AM 7:21 How do you think being in that first class affected her experience? Do you think that it was hard being one of those first women? PP 7:29 Well, I'm sure. Being a distinct minority and realizing that she had to prove herself -- she was very determined to do so. She was a very hard worker, and she was very smart. So, she certainly accomplished that. No doubt about it. AM 7:51 So, do you know what drew her to OB/GYN care? PP 7:58 No, not specifically. I don't know what motivated her to go into OB/GYN. AM 8:07 You mentioned earlier that you met her during your rotation in Watts Hospital. What was your first impression of her? PP 8:16 Well, she was very welcoming and very easy to work with. I felt that I learned a lot from her and benefited by her guidance. She was very encouraging. So, we had a good relationship in that respect. AM 8:39 Was she also working with Lincoln Hospital at that time, or was she primarily focused at Watts Hospital? PP 8:48 When I was there, it was primarily at Watts. We had a rotation. The OB/GYN doctors in Durham would rotate through Lincoln Hospital, through the public clinic there. So, that went on for a short period of time. But eventually, we primarily practiced at Watts, very little at Lincoln. The part we did at Lincoln was a public service, which we provided free of charge. AM 9:23 Would you say that she played a role in inspiring you to further pursue medicine or inspiring you as a role model during that time at Watts? PP 9:39 Well, I'd already had the aspirations to be an obstetrician-gynecologist. So, she was just very encouraging in that goal. AM 9:54 Moving into the Durham Women's Clinic, in a previous interview that I reviewed, you mentioned that Dr. Pearse, I believe, used hypnotic techniques to help women through labor. I'm just wondering how Dr. Easley felt about those techniques and other progressive techniques that the clinic used? PP 10:26 Well, she certainly supported it, but after I joined the practice, she reduced her night call, as far as doing obstetrics is concerned. By the time I left the practice, I believe she was taking call just to relieve the other three of us on Sundays during the daytime. So, her relationship with the patients was mathematically reduced, I guess, because her time was reduced in the delivery room responsibility. But she certainly supported that. But she realized that that was more demanding of the physician because you had to emotionally support the patient during the hypnosis, which would be much more time consuming than later practice, which involved Lamaze technique or epidurals or that sort of thing, which took away the need for physician involvement in pain relief, you might say. AM 11:41 What were some of her other primary responsibilities at the clinic, outside of providing that patient care? PP 11:49 Well, as I recall, she was the initiator of the practice. She was here during the war, and she had a solo practice. Dr. Pearse had had a brief solo practice before he went into the military. When he came back out of it, they joined together as partners. I think she was always the one who was the organizer. Dr. Pearse was not motivated to be an organizer, so Dr. Easley was the one that did most of the business negotiation through the years. When I got there, Dr. Stokes, who was a younger partner than they were, but maybe 10 years older than I was, had assumed the business aspect of it at that point, by the time I was there. AM 12:48 Do you think that the war played a part in opening that opportunity for Dr. Easley to practice? PP 12:59 I didn't understand the question. What opened the opportunity for her? AM 13:02 The Second World War. Do you think that that played a part in opening up that opportunity for Dr. Easley to practice? PP 13:10 Well, in a way it did, because during those years, the male dominance of medicine and medical care was pretty much, not 100%, but close to it. So, she wondered how she would be accepted as a female provider. Not only was she accepted, but was very much championed by her patients, and so her practice grew very rapidly. Not just because the men were off to war, but because of the person that she was. AM 13:51 Absolutely. You said that she played a part in those business transactions and negotiations. Was she trained for that in any way? Was she expecting to take that on as her role in the Durham Women's Clinic? PP 14:09 Well, back then, I don't think any physicians were trained in the business aspects of medicine, whether it was OB/GYN or medical care or surgical care or what. So, this was something you sort of learn as you go, and she was a good student of that. AM 14:32 So, I know you mentioned that abortion was not entirely legal when you first got to the practice. How did she [Dr. Easley] get to her advocacy for abortion rights? What motivated that? PP 14:56 Well, I think she certainly identified with women she saw that would need abortion for one reason or another, and those who came to the practice who had undergone back-alley abortions, so to speak, and they had infections. When I was a resident, I saw some of those people, and some of them had such severe infections that they actually died of infection. They came in moribund, almost, but most of them could be saved. Some of them required removal of the uterus in order to remove the part that was so severely infected. But after Roe v. Wade passed and this was liberalized, you didn't see those infected abortions anymore. So, she saw that, certainly, as a great advantage and an opportunity for women who felt that they needed abortions. AM 16:06 How would you say that she fared in that abortion advocacy? Did she have any major policy successes? PP 16:16 Well, I really don't know. I know that she was somewhat active. I believe she appeared before the North Carolina legislature to give them a medical education on her viewpoints about abortion and what was involved. And, of course, her husband was involved politically, locally. So, I think they were sort of a pair that felt that need and that drive and responsibility to do so. And they were certainly good at it. But I don't know, specifically, [the] details, or what meetings she attended, or other lectures she may have given, or that sort of thing. I don't know that. She did not really, you know, bring that up. As far as our office meetings were concerned, we normally met once a week to discuss office issues to make sure everybody understood where we were coming from. AM 17:26 But her advocacy did extend to the Durham community? She gave talks in the Durham community, you said? PP 17:34 My understanding is that, but I cannot give you time and place. I cannot certify that that happened, but it's my impression that she did. AM 17:46 How would you say her more liberal stance on abortion was received by your patients or by the Durham community? PP 17:57 Well, I don't think she pushed her views on anybody, but she was receptive to people who felt that they wanted to have an abortion. My view is that I don't think we, as Americans, should be the religious Taliban and tell people what they should or should not do, as far as abortions are concerned. I think that she would agree, and I'm calling this back from her, that when a pregnancy has progressed, when the fetus or embryo or child in utero, however you wish to refer to it, gets to the point where that child is clearly viable, then it should deserve the opportunity to survive. Even though the pregnancy may be ended, that child should be supported and given the opportunity to survive. AM 19:04 So, she was more advocating for abortions in the earlier stages of pregnancy, would you say? PP 19:11 Right. I never heard her support any of the late abortions that she did. I never heard about it. In fact, when we were in training, abortions were usually referred to only as the ending of a pregnancy prior to the viability of the fetus. And after that, it was a live birth. So, that may influence how some people will refer to it or even think about it. AM 19:42 I found it particularly interesting, researching her talks and her stance on this because today America is really sharply divided on the issue of abortion. So, I'm just wondering, what kind of political climate she faced or that you faced you, too, in that fight for abortion rights? Was it as sharply divided as it is today? PP 20:11 Well, you know, before Roe v. Wade, it was not legal. So, it was really not much discussed because physicians would not disobey the law. And when it was legal, then people with various religious backgrounds would have their own feelings or relationships with it. For instance, I never felt comfortable doing abortions. Although I did some, they were almost always for patients that I'd already established a relationship with. They would come in, and we would have an exchange of feelings and thoughts. I could identify with the reason that the woman wished an abortion, and we would go through with it. But my father was a minister. So, I grew up in a religious household - not Catholic, it was Protestant - but still, I never felt comfortable, even under those circumstances, knowing that I felt that I was doing what was best for that woman and her family. AM 21:27 Would you say that Dr. Easley followed a similar procedure in terms of really connecting with the patients and discussing the process before carrying through with an abortion? PP 21:37 I think, undoubtedly, she did. She stopped doing surgery not too long after I was there. So, her practice after Roe v. Wade would have been very short-term. So, whether she did abortions, or how many, I do not know. AM 22:04 I've come across some papers where she advocated for contraception and sex education as a part of reproductive health care. How do you think she saw, for example, contraception and sex education in relation to abortion? What do you think she saw as the relationship between those things? PP 22:27 I think just like Bill Clinton said, "Abortion should be legal and rare." She felt that for women or couples to be educated in how to have sexual relations without having an unwanted pregnancy was very important. So, she, certainly, strongly supported that and it's my understanding that she would go to schools from time to time to discuss that in high schools. AM 23:00 Was that controversial, talking to high schoolers about that? Or was it perceived as controversial? PP 23:09 Well, I was asked to speak to school groups a time or two and to church groups a time or two. When I would support contraception -- I remember one young lady getting so upset. She was crying and left the room when I was talking to a group at a church one time. So, yeah, people have very strong feelings one way or the other. AM 23:42 Do you think that she [Dr. Easley] saw the public school system as the primary educator, in terms of sex education, or do you think that she saw that as a familial or parental responsibility? PP 23:59 I don't think she ever stated that opinion. AM 24:02 I'm wondering what motivated Dr. Easley to really advocate for that increased health education. Were there any specific clinical experiences involved in that? PP 24:24 I have no personal knowledge of that. AM 24:31 Can you tell me a little bit more about her involvement at the clinic? Maybe her reputation among her patients? PP 24:39 She was always looked at as a no-nonsense person. So, if a woman came in and was bending her ear in a way that she thought the woman was more at fault than her husband was, you might say in the relationship -- she did not shy away from telling the patients her opinion. And sometimes, that was not always very popular, but she was well known for -- If you ask her advice or her opinion about something, she would tell you. She would not hold back. She would certainly tell you her opinion. AM 25:31 Do you think the patients appreciated that kind of honesty? PP 25:36 Well, I think, in the large part, they really respected her for it. AM 25:43 What was her relationship like with the other partners in the clinic or staff members at the clinic? PP 25:50 Well, we all had a very pleasant relationship. There was never any rancor that I can recall in any of our meetings. So, that was not a problem, as far as I'm concerned. AM 26:10 Did she have any mentor-mentee relationships with any medical professionals or staff members at the clinic? PP 26:27 Not per se because our professional staff were all board-certified. So, I don't think she felt that she needed to educate us because we were more recently educated in many things than she was. So, actually, she listened to us if we had new ideas from education that we had had. AM 26:54 So, she was a pretty receptive, open-minded kind of clinic leader, clinic partner? PP 27:01 Oh, yes. Oh, yes. AM 27:06 This might sound like a bit of a strange question, but was there anything that she kept in her office that showed what kind of person she was? PP 27:21 I realize that was one of your questions, but I tried to rack my brains and I don't remember anything. I remember when we got a new partner about the time that she was leaving. She asked us to make an office for her down in our basement area, and to put a restroom down there for her and her patients to use. I think she wanted to get whatever she had in her office that might have been personal -- I don't know if it was pictures or something on the shelf or whatever. She didn't want a new partner to have to put up with any of her things, but knowing specifically what she might have had there that a new partner might not have wanted in the office with them? I don't know. I don't remember anything that would have been, in any respect, objectionable or remarkable. AM 28:20 Do you have any memories of Dr. Easley that you'd like to share? Or that you think really show her character and her personality? PP 28:31 Well, she had my wife and me out to her home. I'm trying to remember. I think she did when we were residents. When I was in practice, we visited in her home a time or two, which was on the Eno River. They were very kind hosts, but beyond that, outside of the practice, we did not have any extensive ongoing personal relationship. AM 29:11 What do you see as Dr. Easley's impact on women's health? PP 29:22 I'm having to guess because I would think that with her training, she would have done very much like I did when I was getting ready to stop doing OB, which I did when I was 60. I continued to do major surgery until I was 65 and minor surgery until I was retired at almost 69. And, of course, did my clinical work. She was sort of doing the same thing during those years when I entered the practice with her because we were practicing together from 1967, when I entered the practice, to when she retired in 1972. I feel that her giving up some of those responsibilities over that period of time was just the natural passing things on to the next generation that she felt it was wise to do, and which she did. AM 30:29 What do you see as her impact on Duke or the Durham community? PP 30:38 Well, just like I was, she was a clinical professor at Duke. We had medical students and nursing students and residents rotating through our practice and our office. Actually, I don't know if we started that before she retired, but we had nurse midwives from the Yale nurse midwifery system come and spend months with us. And they would work with us in the office and in the delivery room, and, actually, several of them from that program stayed with us. And we had, as I recall, the first nurse midwifery program in the state of North Carolina, and I believe in the southeast, because of that relationship we established with Yale. I believe that she was very instrumental in getting that set up. We also had a nurse midwife, who was trained in Scotland, who was also helpful. Nancy Carreras was her name. [She] was very instrumental in getting that set up and she worked with the American nurse midwives. AM 31:55 Can you tell me a little bit more about that program or about Ms. Carreras? PP 32:00 Well, Dr. Easley met her at a medical meeting, as I recall, in Chicago. That was maybe one or two years before I joined the practice. So, it was in the mid-1960s. And Nancy's husband was a psychiatrist, and actually worked at the Butner Mental Hospital nearby. So, Dr. Easley had her become a member of our practice, and she taught a lot of the OB classes. I don't remember if she did hypnosis at all because Dr. Pearse did that, and the physicians followed through with that. But she helped with the nurse midwifery patients because some of them would choose to have nurse midwifery care. We would be with the nurse midwife in the hospital, but unless she needed us for some reason of intervention, we could sleep through the night very peacefully with the nurse midwife looking after the OB patient who had chosen nurse midwifery care. We might be with our own OB patients, but we didn't have to monitor the nurse midwifery patients. AM 33:24 You said she taught OB classes. What kinds of topics did those classes cover? PP 33:30 Well, I think Dr. Easley had largely taught them before Nancy came. And it was just about all the phases of pregnancy. What were the best things to do to keep yourself healthy during pregnancy? [They were about] how to get support from your partner, your husband, or, occasionally, your other non-husband partner. [They were meant] to alert them about possible complications of pregnancy and how to avoid those. [They were also meant] to motivate them to avoid doing things that might make them more of a candidate for preeclampsia or eclampsia, which were the big bugaboos, and which killed women at times. AM 34:27 Were those classes successful? Did you see health improvements in your patients as a result of them? PP 34:33 I think, unquestionably, it helped them, and it lent them to being much more cooperative with the things we would tell them when we would see them for their prenatal visits. We'd make recommendations, and it helped that they really understood what we were telling them to do and why we were telling them to do that. For that reason, I think we got just extremely good cooperation from the patients. Of course, it was for the patient's own welfare, but you still needed to get their cooperation because, sometimes, human beings don't always want to do what they should do. AM 35:17 Did Dr. Easley co-teach any of those classes with Nancy Carreras or did Ms. Carreras really take that over when she got to the clinic? PP 35:25 I think Nancy took over when she got there because Dr. Easley was at the age that she was ready to give up those sorts of responsibilities. AM 35:39 Were those classes taught at the clinic or at a separate location? PP 35:43 At the clinic. It was just for our patients. AM 35:47 Do you think that that played a role in making it more accessible for your patients? PP 35:55 Well, they were very used to coming there. So, they were very comfortable with that. I think that probably helped attract patients because they liked that part of the care. AM 36:10 Just as we're winding down the interview, is there anything else about Dr. Easley that you'd like to share? PP 36:24 Well, she was about the age of my mom, I guess, and she never had children of her own. I guess I wondered if she felt some sort of a parent-child emotional tie. I sort of tear up as I talk about it, but I wondered about that. But she was always very kind to me. AM 36:56 Well, thank you so much for your time, Dr. Pearce. I just have a couple of housekeeping things to do before we end our Zoom call. If you could just give us a production-style introduction. So, for example, mine would be, "My name is Ava Meigs, and I'm an undergraduate student at Duke." So, if you could just give us a similar style of introduction? PP 37:25 My name is Philip Pearce. I am a physician and an obstetrician-gynecologist by training and by board certification. I'm a fellow of the American College of OB/GYN. I've had experience and other responsibilities in medicine both on the local and the national level. So, that is a brief summary without going into more specifics. AM 37:59 And then we'll just get about 15 seconds of the room tone. So, just silence so that when we're editing, we can have the room tone as backup. PP 38:11 Okay, you want me to be silent for 15 seconds? I can do that. AM 38:35 Okay, I think that's good.
Topic Log
00:00 Dr. Easley’s childhood in Idaho and early education 00:38 Experience as a student at the Duke University School of Medicine; gender-based barriers 01:51 Work after medical school; motivations for pursuing obstetrics and gynecology 02:35 Role of WWII in providing opportunities for women physicians; founding of the Durham Women’s Clinic; patient dedication to the clinic 03:49 Nancy Carerras; nurse midwifery internship program and relationship with the Yale School of Nurse Midwifery 04:41 Educational classes for pregnant patients 05:31 Progressive labor and delivery techniques; hypnosis 05:58 Motivations for Dr. Easley’s involvement in medical politics and abortion advocacy 06:52 Appearances in Raleigh at the North Carolina General Assembly 07:41 General thoughts on abortion (e.g., “typical” abortion case; consideration of future children) 08:43 Advocacy for comprehensive sex education and increased access to contraception
Full Transcript
Dr. Eleanor Easley was born in Bellevue, a small town in southeastern Idaho, in 1907. Easley’s father worked for a farm equipment company and her mother worked as a telegrapher for the Union Pacific Railroad. Coming from a long line of, as she described them, indomitable women, Easley developed discipline, tenacity, and drive at an early age. Upon receiving an AB degree from the University of Idaho and an MA from the University of Iowa, Easley decided to pursue medicine. She applied and was accepted to the Duke University School of Medicine, which had only just opened in 1930. Here, just three of fifty students were women. Easley spoke fondly of her time in medical school: “Duke was then, you see, a brand new medical school, and it was going to do right by everybody, including women. They were just wonderful to us. [We] never had any trouble whatsoever” (Easley, SOHP). Still, she remembered one clinical staff member, Dr. Fred Hanes, who refused to take female students on as interns: “Dr. Hanes was a professor of medicine. His work was over on the clinical side, and he didn’t want his service cluttered up with women” (Easley, SOHP). Some of this misogyny was based in the fear that women physicians would leave medical school to start families. Many believed female medical students were less devoted to their studies and to the practice of medicine than male students. Still others believed the simple idea of a woman physician was outrageous. Women couldn’t be doctors. That was a man’s job. Easley persisted through these gendered barriers and graduated in 1934, becoming the first woman to receive a four-year medical degree from the Duke University School of Medicine. Upon graduation, Easley worked in obstetrics and gynecology at Lincoln Hospital, Watts Hospital, Durham County General Hospital, and Duke Hospital, serving Black and white patients. She chose obstetrics and gynecology to improve the state of health care for women, stating, “I thought they were not cared for as well as they should be and that they deserved better care than they got often. I just decided that I would do this myself” (Easley, SOHP). On the brink of WWII, many male physicians began to be drafted for the war effort. Accordingly, opportunities arose for female physicians such as Dr. Easley. Patients who would have previously preferred a male physician soon turned to women like Easley. Like Rosie the Riveter in the industrial space, WWII provided opportunities for women physicians to expand their patient base and establish themselves as skilled medical professionals. In 1941, Easley joined forces with Dr. Richard Pearse to co-found the Durham Women’s Clinic. Through the clinic, Easley hoped to improve the state of women’s health care and address the misinformation surrounding sexual and maternal health. Here, Easley proved herself a skilled obstetrician and gynecologist, caring for patients from Durham and neighboring cities Raleigh and Chapel Hill. Some patients drove from as far as Virginia to see Easley and other clinic staff. Patients were devoted to the Durham Women’s Clinic because the practice held such a high standard of care for their providers. Patients also noted that the clinic was quite progressive in its provision of care. In fact, the Durham Women’s Clinic became the first practice in the state to have a trained certified nurse midwife on staff when Dr. Easley hired Nancy Carreras, a Scottish-trained nurse midwife. From there, Carreras, with the support of clinic partner Dr. Philip Pearce, established a working relationship with Yale University’s School of Nurse Midwifery to create an internship program. Through the program, nurse midwives from Yale could intern and train with Durham Women’s Clinic providers. The program was uniquely beneficial because it lent staff support to the clinic and gave nurse midwife interns the chance to learn and practice in new clinical settings. Nurse midwives provided patients with prenatal and postpartum care, supporting women through every stage of their pregnancy and delivery. The Durham Women’s Clinic also offered educational classes, often co-taught by clinic partners and nurse midwives, for pregnant patients. The topics of these classes ranged from childbirth to breastfeeding to healthy eating habits to the emotional changes of pregnancy and the postpartum period. Easley, herself, often hosted exercise classes to encourage patients to be physically active throughout their pregnancy and to take care of their physical health. Dr. Easley saw the educational classes as an opportunity to address the fact that most women were, in her words, “woefully under-informed on their health care.” The classes provided an opportunity for Black and white patients alike to learn more about the processes of pregnancy and childbirth and best care practices. The Durham Women’s Clinic also offered a diverse range of techniques, so to speak, for labor and delivery. For example, Dr. Richard Pearse, co-founder of the clinic, was highly skilled in hypnosis, eventually becoming so skilled that he could get women through labor without one aspirin pill. Dr. Pearse then taught his methods to other clinic staff and providers, including Dr. Easley, who began to utilize them in labor and delivery. Outside of these progressive care techniques, Dr. Eleanor Easley was heavily involved in abortion advocacy throughout her medical career. Dr. Easley had witnessed firsthand the consequences of restrictive abortion policies: women rushed into the emergency room, dying of hemorrhage and infection. “She had seen many women sick and some women die as a result of having abortions by nontrained people - women who felt that their situation was desperate” (Pearce, Duke Medical Center Archives). In other words, Dr. Easley recognized that when abortion is not made available legally, women will resort to illegal, often unsafe, abortions. This increase in illegal abortions would result in high maternal mortality rates and disastrous health outcomes for women, disproportionately impacting low-income women. To this end, Dr. Easley was active in medical politics, frequently writing to state legislators and fellow medical professionals in pursuit of more liberal abortion policy in North Carolina. She quipped about her legislative advocacy, “I can remember going to Raleigh to talk to legislators in favor of abortion. I think I did more harm than good. I was too radical. I scared them. They thought I would abort everybody that came on the horizon, I think.” (Easley, SOHP). Indeed, Easily often attended committee hearings at the North Carolina General Assembly regarding abortion policy. At one such hearing, she almost got thrown out for stating that proposed policy changes did not go far enough to protect women and their health. Easley believed women deserved the right to choose whether to terminate their pregnancy. In fact, she “felt rather bitter that the rights of unborn fetuses had been, in the past, given absolute priority over the needs of women with unwanted pregnancies.” She often sought to correct the misconception that the majority of women seeking abortions were young, unmarried women. In fact, in her clinical experience, the “typical” abortion case was an older, married woman who simply had all the children she could financially and physically manage. Indeed, most abortions were needed for socioeconomic reasons, not medical reasons. Dr. Easley also promoted consideration of the future child in conversations on abortion policy. She noted that children resulting from forced, unwanted pregnancies were often at a higher risk of abuse, neglect, and abandonment. Not only was forced pregnancy unfair to the mother, but it was also unfair to the future child. Despite her firm belief in safe, legal abortions, Easley recognized that the procedure was not a pleasant one to perform, nor was it a pleasant experience for the patient. For this reason, Dr. Easley strongly advocated for comprehensive sex education as an opportunity in preventive medicine. She wanted sex education to go beyond diagrams of anatomy and physiology and, instead, improve health literacy among students through honest dialogue. Easley believed that special effort should be made to educate parents and young women. She said it was “still too frequently true that girls [came] to marriage full of misinformation, misconceptions, mysteries, and handicapping inhibitions.” Women did not understand their own anatomy well enough to protect themselves against sexually-transmitted diseases and infections or against unintended pregnancies. To this end, Easley gave talks around the Research Triangle Park, many at local high schools and women’s groups, in an effort to destigmatize sex education and make it more accessible to the general population. Easley also advocated for increased access to contraception, including both condoms and contraception methods that could be more directly controlled by women, like the pill. Easley saw contraception as the “first line of defense” and firmly believed that abortion was not a satisfactory substitute for contraception. Persevering through gendered bias and barriers, Dr. Eleanor Easley left a lasting impact on Duke University, the city of Durham, and the practice of obstetrics and gynecology. As we look toward our own uncertain future in a post-Dobbs world, we would do well to channel Dr. Easley’s fierce spirit of activism and unwavering dedication to health equity.