THE VFA PIONEER HISTORIES PROJECT

Joanne Gates Fiore

“Each time we had to revise Our Bodies, Ourselves…we met in some farmhouse in Massachusetts … we all talked about what the significance was in our life having been part of this.”

Psychotherapist, Poet, Writer, Activist. Physician’s Assistant at the first feminist abortion clinic, Center for Reproductive and Sexual Health (CRASH), NY, 1970. The day abortion became legal —July 1, 1970 — CRASH opened its doors on East 73rd Street in New York City.

Interviewed by Judy Waxman, Oral Historian, January 2026