Walsh Deborah Marriage 1

Deborah Walsh, born on January 25, 1953 in Crossett, Arkansas, owns Volunteer Women’s Medical Clinic in Knoxville, Tenn., and Family Reproductive Health in Charlotte, N.C. She began her career as a nurse and counselor at Volunteer Women’s Medical Clinic in 1982 and has been a key leader in the southeast to keep abortion services available to women. In this interview Walsh describes growing up in a racially segregated community and her memories of school desegregation. She discusses becoming aware of the social movements of the late 1960s and 1970s, as well as her memories of the Roe v. Wade decision and how she joined the movement for Reproductive Rights. She also describes in detail the surge in anti-abortion protests in the 1990s and the actions she took to keep the clinic open and protect Women’s access to safe and legal abortions.