|
Who
was Judy Levy
Judy Levy was an ardent advocate
of abortion rights and was at the forefront of the feminist women’s health
movement, from the days of Carol Downer’s Self Help in the early 1970s, to
the early end of her life from cancer.
Judy Levy grew up in New York City where she attended Erasmus High
School and was a Zionist activist at age 15. She received a PhD from the
University of Florida in Clinical Psychology, with a specialty in child
psychology. For many years, Judy Levy was the Chief Child Psychologist for
the Children’s Mental Health Unit, an in- and outpatient children’s mental
health service of Shands Teaching Hospital. While there, Judy Levy broke new
ground with her humane and insightful treatment of children, defying the
patriarchal and academic orientation of the medical/ psychology profession. Despite having a full
family life with three children, Judy Levy continued her activism. Always
drawing on personal experience, she was uniquely capable of concise, often
brilliant analyses of sexism, racism and classism in our everyday lives. Sometimes these analyses were delivered
with searing, self-deprecating wit, but she would always articulate a problem
clearly. As a result, Judy Levy had a profound effect on those who were
exposed to her work, either through personal contact or her written
materials. Judy Levy was the glue in
the local women’s health movement. In 1975, she co-founded with Byllye Avery,
Margaret Parrish and Joan Edelson, the Gainesville Women’s Health Center,
which was only the twelfth free-standing abortion clinic in the United States
outside of New York State after the Roe v. Wade decision. The establishment
of the clinic was a highly risky venture in Florida's conservative climate.
As a result, Judy Levy was denied tenure in the UF's Department of Psychiatry
and spent the rest of her professional life as a consultant and in private
practice. Not to be deterred, in
1978, Judy co-founded with Avery and Parrish the Birthplace, Inc. (now the
Birthing Center of Gainesville) which was then only the seventh freestanding
birth center in the entire United States. Though her advocacy made
her a target of community and professional antipathy, Judy Levy defended
abortion as the cornerstone of women’s rights. Roe v. Wade was a
disappointment to Judy Levy and those of us who advocate a woman’s right to
complete control over her body and health, because the Supreme Court still
found a woman subject to intervening medical and judicial authority in the
third trimester of pregnancy. Considerable ground has been lost rather than gained
since Roe v. Wade. It is in the continuing
campaign to establish and defend women's rights that we proudly name our
Chapter for Judy Levy. |