Betty Ford, champion of women’s rights, has died

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

First Lady Betty Ford, wife of President Gerald Ford, died at the age of 93 on Friday. She was a remarkable woman, much admired and a leader in her own right on issues of women's rights. TIME magazine called her the country's "Fighting First Lady" and named her a Woman of the Year, representing American women along with other feminist icons.

On the news of her death I was struck by the fact how much the Republican Party has changed over the last 35 years, for the worse. Today in the modern-era GOP, Betty Ford would be vilified and caricatured as evil and an enemy of America in the way that President Obama is by the far-right extremists of the Christian Taliban who are opposed to abortion and contraception, and are engaged in a war against women's rights.

Where have all the Republican women gone who supported the ERA, legalized abortion, and women's rights? (There used to be a Republican Women for Choice organization even here in Arizona at one time.)

"Few first ladies have been as popular as Betty Ford, and it was her frankness and lack of pretense that made her so. She spoke often in support of the Equal Rights Amendment, endorsed legalized abortion, discussed premarital sex and revealed that she intended to share a bed with her husband in the White House. . . The country’s affection for Betty Ford transcended party lines." Betty Ford, Forthright and Inspirational First Lady, Dies at 93 – NYTimes.com.

Eleanor Smeal, president of the Feminist Majority Foundation and publisher of Ms. Magazine, and a former president of the National Organization for Wome, wrote this essay in tribute to Betty Ford. Betty Ford, champion of women's rights – CNN.com:

I will never forget the day in 1981 that I asked Betty Ford to be an honorary co-chair with Alan Alda of the Equal Rights Amendment Countdown Campaign. I thought it would be a long, involved process. But she said almost immediately that she would be honored to do so.

At the time Betty Ford, the wife of former President Gerald Ford, was one of the most admired women in the United States. She also was completely unpretentious. If she could help women win full equal rights with men under the U.S. Constitution, Betty Ford wanted to give it her all.

* * *

There was never a secret where Ford stood on women's rights. She was outspoken in the push for full equality for women and girls. She was also for abortion rights. I first met her when she attended the International Women's Conference in 1978 with some 20,000 delegates in Houston. Lady Bird Johnson was there, too, and then-first lady Rosalynn Carter. That was happening in a time when many Republican and Democratic women stood shoulder to shoulder together for women's rights.

Betty had real courage.

When the 1980 National Republican Convention in Detroit was deciding whether or not to keep the ERA in its platform (up until then it had been in its platform for several decades), Betty left the convention and together with the Republican first lady of Michigan, Helen Milliken, joined the National Organization for Women's protest march. I was the president of NOW at the time, and Betty and Helen were on either side of me as we marched with some 12,000 people through the streets of Detroit and wound past the convention center shouting, "Keep the ERA in the platform."

Believe me, Betty and Helen were not troubled a bit that their husbands were inside the convention. They knew they belonged in the streets with the women and with NOW keeping the dream of equality alive.

* * *

[Betty Ford] inspired. She made a difference for millions of women. Those of us who were privileged to work with her appreciated and admired her. We will miss her.

Betty Ford applauded the Supreme Court decision on Roe v. Wade. Betty Ford: A gift to America – CBS News:

"I feel very strongly that it was the best thing in the world when the Supreme Court voted to legalize abortion," she told Safer, "and, in my words, bring it out of the back woods and put it in the hospitals where it belongs. I thought it was a great, great decision."

When asked how Betty Ford would be remembered, presidential historian Douglas Brinkley said it was her role as a pioneer in the women's movement. Betty Ford: Pioneer for women's movement – CBS News:

"When she became First Lady, our country was talking about the burning of bras and equal rights amendments and the need for sexual liberation, and here was a Republican First Lady who seemed quite fine with a lot of that feminist energy of being ginned up largely from the Democratic left," Brinkley said on "The Early Show on Saturday Morning." 

"Of course later in life with the Betty Ford Center, that's going to be her lasting legacy. That has done an incredible amount of good for this country," Brinkley said. "Because everybody knows somebody who has a pill addiction or alcohol addiction, and she de-stigmatized it. That's her chief legacy."

On Sept. 28, 1974, Betty Ford had a radical mastectomy after doctors discovered cancer in her right breast. Betty Ford's bout with breast cancer and her willingness to speak publicly about it brought this cancer into the public spotlight and, as a result, no doubt saved countless women's lives who have sought early detection and treatment of breast cancer.

In 1978, the year after leaving the White House, her husband, children, doctors and several friends confronted her about her drinking and her abuse of pills. She refused to acknowledge that a problem existed. Betty Ford, Forthright and Inspirational First Lady, Dies at 93 – NYTimes.com:

[S]he eventually entered the Long Beach Naval Hospital in California for treatment.

The Betty Ford Center, dedicated on Oct. 3, 1982, was a direct result of Mrs. Ford’s victory over her alcoholism and addiction. Set on 14 acres on the campus of the Eisenhower Medical Center 11 miles southeast of Palm Springs, the center was a nonprofit venture spearheaded by Mrs. Ford and Leonard K. Firestone, an industrialist and former ambassador to Belgium who raised a major part of the money.

The center’s philosophy, drawn from the 12-step program of Alcoholics Anonymous, is based on peer interaction and learning to identify and express feelings. Many celebrities, including Elizabeth Taylor, Liza Minnelli, Mary Tyler Moore, Mickey Mantle and Darryl Strawberry, spent time there.

“It’s hard to make anyone understand what it’s like to have your name on something, to be given credit for things you haven’t done,” Mrs. Ford wrote. “I’ve been at meetings where someone turned and thanked me, and I hugged the person and said, ‘Don’t thank me, thank yourself, you’re the one who did it, with God’s help.’ From the beginning, we have wanted every patient at the center to feel, ‘I’m important here, I have some dignity.’”

Betty Ford was a remarkable woman, and she will be fondly remembered.