William Floyd Nathaniel Harrison (September 8, 1935 – September 24, 2010) was an American

obstetrician Obstetrics is the field of study concentrated on pregnancy, childbirth and the postpartum period. As a medical specialty, obstetrics is combined with gynecology under the discipline known as obstetrics and gynecology (OB/GYN), which is a surgi ...

who delivered 6,000 babies and then switched to

abortion Abortion is the termination of a pregnancy by removal or expulsion of an embryo or fetus. An abortion that occurs without intervention is known as a miscarriage or "spontaneous abortion"; these occur in approximately 30% to 40% of pregn ...

s, performing the procedure an estimated 20,000 times in his career. He became one of the only doctors in

Northwest Arkansas Northwest Arkansas (NWA) is a metropolitan area and region in Arkansas within the Ozark Mountains. It includes four of the ten largest cities in the state: Fayetteville, Springdale, Rogers, and Bentonville, the surrounding towns of Benton an ...

to provide this service to women, as other physicians stopped offering to perform abortions. His Fayetteville Women's Clinic was frequently picketed and blocked by

anti-abortion Anti-abortion movements, also self-styled as pro-life or abolitionist movements, are involved in the abortion debate advocating against the practice of abortion and its legality. Many anti-abortion movements began as countermovements in respons ...

protesters.

Biography

Harrison was born on September 8, 1935, in

Faulkner County, Arkansas Faulkner County is located in the Central Arkansas region of the U.S. state of Arkansas. As of the 2010 census, the population was 113,237, making it the fifth most populous of Arkansas's 75 counties. The county seat and largest city is Conwa ...

. His mother joked that it was inevitable that her son would become an obstetrician, after he had been born at home while his father was on the way to get a doctor to come to the house. He went to church and read through the Bible twice before reaching his teens, but was "thoroughly unimpressed with the God it described", as ''

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 ...

'' stated in his

obituary An obituary ( obit for short) is an article about a recently deceased person. Newspapers often publish obituaries as news articles. Although obituaries tend to focus on positive aspects of the subject's life, this is not always the case. Ac ...

. He attended the

University of Central Arkansas The University of Central Arkansas (Central Arkansas or UCA) is a public university in Conway, Arkansas. Founded in 1907 as the Arkansas State Normal School, the university is one of the oldest in the U.S. state of Arkansas. As the state's only n ...

, but received rather poor grades and enlisted in the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

. After completing his military service, he enrolled in the

University of Arkansas The University of Arkansas (U of A, UArk, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Fayetteville, Arkansas. It is the flagship campus of the University of Arkansas System and the largest university in the state. Founded as Arkansas ...

, switching his planned major from business to

pre-med Pre-medical (often referred to as pre-med) is an educational track that undergraduate students in the United States pursue prior to becoming medical students. It involves activities that prepare a student for medical school, such as pre-med course ...

in order to impress the woman he would later marry. After completing his undergraduate degree, he received his medical training at the

University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) is a public health sciences university in Little Rock, Arkansas. It is part of the University of Arkansas System and consists of six colleges, seven institutes, several research centers, a s ...

, where he received his M.D. and performed his

internship An internship is a period of work experience offered by an organization for a limited period of time. Once confined to medical graduates, internship is used practice for a wide range of placements in businesses, non-profit organizations and gover ...

and

residency Residency may refer to: * Domicile (law), the act of establishing or maintaining a residence in a given place ** Permanent residency, indefinite residence within a country despite not having citizenship * Residency (medicine), a stage of postgrad ...

. While at medical school in 1967, studying obstetrics, he examined a patient whom he determined was pregnant. When told she was going to have a baby, she said, "Oh, God, doctor, I was hoping it was cancer" — words that stuck with Harrison throughout his career as a physician.Martin, Douglas
"Dr. William Harrison, Defender of Abortion Rights, Dies at 75"
''

'', September 25, 2010. Accessed September 28, 2010. The Fayetteville Women's Clinic was established in 1972. After

abortion in the United States Abortion in the United States and its territories is a divisive issue in American politics and culture wars, with widely different abortion laws in U.S. states. Since 1976, the Republican Party has generally sought to restrict abortion ac ...

was legalized following the

United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...

decision in ''

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 st ...

'', Harrison began offering abortion services to his patients starting in 1974, though at the time he primarily performed handled births, delivering more than 6,000 babies through his practice. As the years progressed, he started to see more women looking for an abortion and he ultimately gave up delivering babies. He wanted to provide his patients with a safe option to terminate pregnancy and started getting more patients as other doctors in Northwest Arkansas abandoned the procedure. In data provided by

NARAL Pro-Choice America NARAL Pro-Choice America, commonly known as simply NARAL ( ), is a non-profit 501(c)(4) organization in the United States that engages in lobbying, political action, and advocacy efforts to oppose restrictions on abortion, to expand access to ...

in 2010, 97% of counties in Arkansas had no abortion provider. Harrison had no qualms about becoming the only abortion provider in the area and frequently spoke in public about his defense of a woman's right to reproductive choice, saying, "I have chosen to ride this tiger unquietly, raking its side with verbal spurs, swinging my hat and whooping like a cowboy". In the aftermath of

Hurricane Katrina Hurricane Katrina was a destructive Category 5 Atlantic hurricane that caused over 1,800 fatalities and $125 billion in damage in late August 2005, especially in the city of New Orleans and the surrounding areas. It was at the time the cost ...

, he offered free abortions to women who had survived the disaster. In a 2005 profile in the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

'', Harrison said that he had been encouraged by his wife to retire after undergoing surgery for a head injury, but as one of only two abortion providers in the state, he felt that "there's no one to take my place."Simon
"Los Angeles Times Profiles Arkansas Abortion Provider William Harrison"

Medical News Today ''Medical News Today'' is a web-based outlet for medical information and news, targeted at both the general public and physicians. All posted content is available online (>250,000 articles as of January 2014), and the earliest available article ...

, December 1, 2005, copy of article from ''

''. Accessed September 27, 2010. He performed an estimated 20,000 abortions during his career. As a physician, Harrison believed that there was a higher moral value to protect the well-being of a

pregnant Pregnancy is the time during which one or more offspring develops (gestation, gestates) inside a woman, woman's uterus (womb). A multiple birth, multiple pregnancy involves more than one offspring, such as with twins. Pregnancy usually occur ...

woman, but would not perform abortions during the third trimester of pregnancy, even in cases where the

fetus A fetus or foetus (; plural fetuses, feti, foetuses, or foeti) is the unborn offspring that develops from an animal embryo. Following embryonic development the fetal stage of development takes place. In human prenatal development, fetal deve ...

is severely disabled, as infants at that stage of development are viable and can feel pain. He would send women seeking a

late-term abortion Late termination of pregnancy, also referred to as late-term abortion, describes the termination of pregnancy by induced abortion during a late stage of gestation. In this context, ''late'' is not precisely defined, and different medical publicati ...

to Dr.

George Tiller George Richard Tiller (August 8, 1941 – May 31, 2009) was an American physician from Wichita, Kansas. He gained national attention as the medical director of Women's Health Care Services, which was one of only three abortion clinics nationwide ...

, who ran a clinic in

Wichita, Kansas Wichita ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kansas and the county seat of Sedgwick County, Kansas, Sedgwick County. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population of the city was 397,532. The Wichita metro area had ...

, often providing gas money to women making the trip. Tiller was murdered in 2009 by an

activist. Harrison's practice in Fayetteville was a frequent target of

protesters and his clinic was picketed, vandalized and even firebombed over the years, in addition to the death threats he received. Harrison described the protesters as "right-wing crazies", though he facetiously welcomed them as an excellent form of advertising for prospective patients. He stopped seeing patients a few months before his death, as

leukemia Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia and pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and result in high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or ' ...

made it impossible for him to practice medicine.Editorial
"Good work"
''

Arkansas Times ''Arkansas Times'', a weekly alternative newspaper based in Little Rock, Arkansas, is a publication that has circulated more than 40 years, originally as a magazine. Founded as a small magazine on newsprint in 1977 by publisher Alan Leveritt, i ...

'', August 5, 2010. Accessed September 28, 2010. Harrison died at age 75 on September 24, 2010. He was survived by his wife, the former Betty Waggoner, as well as by two daughters, a son and seven grandchildren.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Harrison, William 1935 births 2010 deaths American abortion providers American obstetricians Deaths from cancer in Arkansas Deaths from leukemia in the United States People from Faulkner County, Arkansas Physicians from California United States Navy sailors University of Arkansas alumni University of Central Arkansas alumni