Women’s Health Action and Mobilization (WHAM!) was a pro-abortion activist group founded in 1989 and based in New York City. WHAM! often partnered with the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) in high-visibility demonstrations and civil disobedience to support sexual libertinism, including protests at St. Patrick’s Cathedral and the Statue of Liberty. ¹ WHAM!’s promoted expansive abortion access while ACT UP supported sexual freedom and lobbied to end the AIDS epidemic. WHAM! disbanded in 1997. ²

Background

Women’s Health Action and Mobilization (WHAM!) was an activist organization based in New York City. It was founded in 1989 in response to Webster v. Reproductive Health Services, ³ which resulted in a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that upheld a Missouri abortion law prohibiting the use of public facilities or employees to perform abortions and the use of public funds for abortion counseling. It also required doctors to test a fetus for viability. The Missouri law began with a preamble stating that life begins at conception. ⁴

WHAM! began as a direct-action committee of the now defunct Reproductive Rights Coalition (RRC) formed by the left-of-center legal advocacy group Center for Constitutional Rights. It became an independent organization when RRC dissolved. ⁵ WHAM! and the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) formed a coalition to support “sexual freedom and access to health care.” ^{6 7}

WHAM! often partnered with ACT UP, targeting individuals and organizations that controlled policies and programs associated with abortion such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Catholic Church, the U.S. Supreme Court, and elected officials. WHAM!’s sought to promote expansive abortion access. Over time, WHAM! extended its focus to include reducing the impact of race and class on health care in response to criticisms that “the group attracted primarily white activists.” ⁸ ACT UP was founded in 1987 to demonstrate and lobby for government assistance to combat the AIDS epidemic. ⁹

WHAM! disbanded in 1997. ¹⁰

Activism

WHAM!’s approach included high-visibility activism, civil disobedience, and phone campaigns to raise awareness of the abortion issue and challenge policies. In December 1989 WHAM! and ACT UP organized a “Stop the Church” protest at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in response to Archbishop John O’Connor’s positions on abortion, AIDS, and homosexuality. It was a high visibility demonstration with over 4,500 protestors outside the church and protestors disrupting the mass inside the church. 111 protesters were arrested with many carried out on stretchers because they refused to stand up. ^{11 12}

WHAM! and ACT UP organized protests against the nomination of David Souter to the U.S. Supreme Court and disrupted U.S. Senate confirmation hearings. ¹³

WHAM! collaborated with other liberal activist organizations including the Bay Area Coalition Against Operation Rescue and the Washington Area Clinic Defense Task Force to protect abortion clinics that were targeted by anti-abortion groups. WHAM! eventually formed the New York Clinic Defense Task Force to focus on abortion clinic protection. ¹⁴ Elizabeth Meixell, a member of WHAM! and ACT UP, founded the affinity group Church Ladies for Choice which was a group of gay men dressed in church lady clothing that entertained and supported the abortion clinic defenders with pro-abortion songs. ¹⁵

One notable WHAM! demonstration took place at the Statue of Liberty to protest a federal rule that prevented federally funded health clinics from counseling women on abortion. Protestors draped the Statue of Liberty with banners reading “No Choice, No Liberty,” and “Abortion is Healthcare, Healthcare is a right.” ¹⁶

Founders

WHAM! was founded by a group of several women. Two of the founders were Diane Curtis and Andrea Miller. ¹⁷ Curtis is a director of pre-law advising and a senior lecturer at the University of Massachusetts. She started her legal career as a fellowship attorney for the abortion advocacy group Center For Reproductive Rights. ¹⁸ Miller became the president of pro-abortion advocacy group National Institute for Reproductive Health. ¹⁹

1. “WHAM! (Women’s Health Action and Mobilization) Records. NYU Libraries. Accessed March 15, 2024. https://findingaids.library.nyu.edu/tamwag/tam_162/
2. Jennifer A. Montalbano. Women’s Health Action and Mobilization (WHAM!): Gauging the pulse of a movement. Sarah Lawrence College ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 2005. Document Preview. Accessed March 16, 2024. https://www.proquest.com/openview/6923c6c0793655c7ff01dc014e846934/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=18750&diss=y
3. “WHAM! (Women’s Health Action and Mobilization) Records. NYU Libraries. Accessed March 15, 2024. https://findingaids.library.nyu.edu/tamwag/tam_162/
4. David L. Hudson Jr. “Webster v. Reproductive Health Services (1989).” Free Speech Center. Middle Tennessee State University. Accessed March 15, 2024. https://firstamendment.mtsu.edu/article/webster-v-reproductive-health-services/
5. “WHAM! (Women’s Health Action and Mobilization) Records. NYU Libraries. Accessed March 15, 2024. https://findingaids.library.nyu.edu/tamwag/tam_162/
6. ACT UP Oral History Project. Interviewer Sarah Schulman. July 13, 2008. Accessed March 16, 2024. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/6075fe20d281ea3f320a7be9/t/60e7b22625441e1b3783dfe5/1625797158157/094+-+Karen+Ramspacher.pdf
7. Tamar W. Carroll. “Intersectionality and Identity Politics: Cross-Identity Coalitions for Progressive Social Change.” The University of Chicago Press Journals. – Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society. Volume 42, Number 3. Accessed March 16, 2024. https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1086/689625#d6331073e1
8. “WHAM! (Women’s Health Action and Mobilization) Records. NYU Libraries. Accessed March 15, 2024. https://findingaids.library.nyu.edu/tamwag/tam_162/
9. “ACT UP.” The ACT Up Historical Archive. Accessed March 16, 2024. https://actupny.org/
10. Jennifer A. Montalbano. Women’s Health Action and Mobilization (WHAM!): Gauging the pulse of a movement. Sarah Lawrence College ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 2005. Document Preview. Accessed March 16, 2024. https://www.proquest.com/openview/6923c6c0793655c7ff01dc014e846934/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=18750&diss=y
11. Jason Deparie. “111 Held in St. Patrick’s AIDS Protest.” The New York Times. December 11, 1989. Accessed March 16, 2024. https://www.nytimes.com/1989/12/11/nyregion/111-held-in-st-patrick-s-aids-protest.html
12. “John Joseph Cardinal O’Connor.” Britannica. Accessed March 17, 2024. https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-Joseph-Cardinal-OConnor
13. “WHAM! (Women’s Health Action and Mobilization) Records. NYU Libraries. Accessed March 15, 2024. https://findingaids.library.nyu.edu/tamwag/tam_162/
14. “WHAM! (Women’s Health Action and Mobilization) Records. NYU Libraries. Accessed March 15, 2024. https://findingaids.library.nyu.edu/tamwag/tam_162/
15. Tamar Carroll. “Church Ladies for Choice: Queer Responses to Anti-Abortion Politics in the 1990s.” Notches. January 17, 2017. Accessed March 16, 2024. https://notchesblog.com/2017/01/17/church-ladies-for-choice-queer-responses-to-anti-abortion-politics-in-the-1990s/
16. “WHAM! (Women’s Health Action and Mobilization) Records. NYU Libraries. Accessed March 15, 2024. https://findingaids.library.nyu.edu/tamwag/tam_162/
17. LinkedIn – Diane Curtis. Posted December 2023. Accessed March 16, 2024. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/diane-curtis_the-reproductive-freedom-movement-mourns-activity-7124886799654543360-ozlU/
18. LinkedIn – Diane Curtis. Accessed March 16, 2024. https://www.linkedin.com/in/diane-curtis/details/experience/
19. “The Reproductive Freedom Movement Mourns Sudden Passing of National Institute for Reproductive Health and its Action Fund President Andrea Miller.” NIRH National Institute for Reproductive Health. October 30, 2023. Accessed March 16, 2024. https://nirhealth.org/media/the-reproductive-freedom-movement-mourns-sudden-passing-of-national-institute-for-reproductive-health-and-its-action-fund-president-andrea-miller/?fbclid=IwAR3yBl4MB3J9DwFlJ3moVkAupRGiUswRoxpsbhqMzmlcXWN5rppfhAKNNNw