Constance E. Cook (August 17, 1919 – January 20, 2009) was an American Republican Party politician who served in the New York State Assembly, where she co-authored a bill signed into law that legalized abortion in New York three years before the ''

Roe v. Wade ''Roe v. Wade'', 410 U.S. 113 (1973),. was a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in which the Court ruled that the Constitution of the United States conferred the right to have an abortion. The decision struck down many federal and s ...

'' decision by the Supreme Court of the United States in 1973 legalized the practice nationwide.

Biography

Early life

Cook was born on August 17, 1919 as Constance Eberhardt in

Shaker Heights, Ohio Shaker Heights is a city in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, United States. As of the 2020 Census, the city population was 29,439. Shaker Heights is an inner-ring streetcar suburb of Cleveland, abutting the eastern edge of the city's limits. In July 1911, a ...

to Walter and Catherine Sellmann Eberhardt. She grew up in New York City, where she graduated from Hunter College High School. She attended

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to tea ...

, receiving her undergraduate degree in 1941, before being awarded a law degree from Cornell Law School in 1943. She was appointed to serve as Cornell's vice president for land grant affairs, making her the first female vice president in Cornell history.Hevesi, Dennis
"Constance E. Cook, 89, Who Wrote Abortion Law, Is Dead "
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'', January 24, 2009. Accessed January 24, 2009. She worked with a Wall Street law firm for five years after graduating from law school, before returning to Ithaca, where she met and married her husband.

New York State Assembly

She was hired as a legal assistant to Assemblyman Ray S. Ashbery and ran for his Assembly seat when he retired. She was a member of the New York State Assembly from 1963 to 1974, sitting in the 174th, 175th, 176th, 177th, 178th, 179th and

180th New York State Legislature The 180th New York State Legislature, consisting of the New York State Senate and the New York State Assembly, met from January 3, 1973, to May 30, 1974, during the fifteenth and final year of Nelson Rockefeller's governorship, and during M ...

s. In the Assembly, she was an advocate for the expansion of the State University of New York. Cook drafted a bill expanding abortion rights together with Democratic Assemblyman Franz Leichter of

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

. They proposed legislation that included no restrictions on the practice of abortion. The bill passed in the Senate on March 18, 1970 after five hours of debate by a vote of 31 to 26. In the Assembly, the bill was amended to allow women to have abortions until their 24th week of pregnancy or at any time to protect the life of the mother. As the roll call progressed in the Assembly on April 9, 1970, the legislature deadlocked at 74 in favor and 74 opposed, with one member absent and the Assembly speaker not voting. Assemblyman George M. Michaels, who had voted against the proposal, then asked to change his vote in favor of the new law. With the switch by Michaels, and Speaker

Perry Duryea Perry Belmont Duryea Jr. (October 18, 1921 – January 11, 2004) was an American politician. A Republican, Duryea was a longtime member of the New York State Assembly. He served as speaker of the Assembly from 1969 to 1973 and ran unsuccessful ...

's yes-vote, the bill passed by a vote of 76 to 73 in the Assembly. Governor Nelson Rockefeller signed the law the next day and the U.S. Supreme Court patterned its ruling in its landmark January 1973 decision ''

'' on the New York law.

Ordination of women

In 1976, she extended her support to the Rev.

Betty Bone Schiess Betty Bone Schiess (April 2, 1923 – October 20, 2017) was an American Episcopal priest. She was one of the first female Episcopal priests in the United States, and a member of the Philadelphia Eleven: leaders of the movement to allow the ordinati ...

, one of the Philadelphia Eleven, who had been ordained as a priest in the Episcopal Church but had not been granted a license to perform her priestly duties by the

Episcopal Diocese of Central New York The Episcopal Diocese of Central New York is a diocese of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America encompassing the area in the center of New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the Unit ...

. Cook took the matter to the

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is a federal agency that was established via the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to administer and enforce civil rights laws against workplace discrimination. The EEOC investigates discrimination ...

(EEOC/EEO) who issued a decision favoring Schiess. The

General Convention of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America The General Convention is the primary governing and legislative body of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America. With the exception of the Bible, the Book of Common Prayer, and the Constitution and Canons, it is the ultimate authority ...

passed a resolution in July 1976 that "no one shall be denied access" to ordination in the church based on gender. In November 1976, Ned Cole, the bishop who had blocked Schiess' ordination, indicated that he would have her ordained in ceremonies to be held in January 1977.via ''

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. ne ...

''
"An Episcopal Bishop Will Ordain The Woman Who Sparked Dispute"
November 4, 1976. Accessed January 24, 2009. Interviewed after Cook's death, Schiess was quoted by ''

'' as stating that the legal challenge played a major role in driving the Episcopal Church to change its stance, noting that "Nothing significant would have happened without the attention of Constance Cook."

Quote

*''"I didn't really have a sense at that time that we had done something momentous, though it was long overdue ... oking back now, it seems like a bigger deal."'' (Constance Cook in re the 1970 New York State abortion bill; as she recounted to the ''New York Times'' in April 2000).

Death

Constance Cook died at age 89 at her home in

Ithaca, New York Ithaca is a city in the Finger Lakes region of New York, United States. Situated on the southern shore of Cayuga Lake, Ithaca is the seat of Tompkins County and the largest community in the Ithaca metropolitan statistical area. It is named ...

. Her husband, Alfred, had died in 1998. She was survived by two children, three grandchildren and a sister.

References

, - , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Cook, Constance E. 1919 births 2009 deaths Cornell Law School alumni Hunter College High School alumni Republican Party members of the New York State Assembly Politicians from Ithaca, New York Politicians from Shaker Heights, Ohio 20th-century American politicians