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How Hawaii Became the first state to legalize abortion

Two people, a catholic democrat State Senator Vincent Yano and a Republican State Representative Patrica Saiki, were responsible for decriminalizing abortion in Hawaii in 1970.

CREDIT: Vincent Yano 1988 interview courtesy of Ulu'ulu Moving Image Archive and Center for Labor Education and Research.

Podcast

This bill decriminalized abortion in Hawaii.

Rep. Pat Saiki's husband was an OBGYN.

"We all - my husband, the patient and I - could be arrested for breaking the law."  - Pat Saiki  (page 48)


Women needed legal abortions performed by a licensed 

physician in a hospital  setting.



Pat Saiki Book

it's legal now to have an abortion here

Honolulu Star Advertiser March 12, 1970


Any woman who has lived in Hawaii for at least 90 days now can have an abortion, provided her doctor and a hospital approve. 


https://www.newspapers.com/clip/17453923/the-honolulu-advertiser/

Contraception and Abortion delayed childbearing.

Contraception & Abortion laws

1972 - Title IX opens Higher Education

Young women delayed childbearing.

  • 1960 FDA approves the Pill. Contraception is still illegal.


  • 1965 - Birth control legal for Married couples. 


  • 1972 - Birth control legal for unmarried single women.


  • 1973 - Abortion legal nationwide.

Young women delayed childbearing.

1972 - Title IX opens Higher Education

Young women delayed childbearing.

For More American Moms, Kids are a 30's Thing.


  • Delayed childbearing has allowed more women to pursue educations and careers, and achieve some measure of financial independence--things that can buffer women from major shocks like an economic downturn or a failed marriage, demographers say. 


- The Wall Street Journal

1972 - Title IX opens Higher Education

1972 - Title IX opens Higher Education

1972 - Title IX opens Higher Education

  • Original intent of Title IX was not sports but access to higher education.


  • Five years after the pill. 30% increase in women attending college.


  • Ability to complete their education.
  • Ability to start a career.


  • Today in 2022, majority of college students are women.


Stand with our Wahine Pledge

State Elected Officials for the Right to Abortion in Hawai'i June 2022

        

In Hawaiʻi, a woman’s right to control her body was protected before Roe vs. Wade and will be protected after Roe. vs. Wade. 


Hawaiʻi was the first state to legalize abortion. This historic first did not occur in a vacuum but was part of a holistic effort to create a fair and supportive society for women. In the same effort and era, Hawaiʻi became the first state to create a government agency for women’s rights—the Hawaiʻi State Commission on the Status of Women—and, Hawaiʻi’s own Patsy Takemoto Mink, the first Asian-American women in Congress, opened the door to education for women by passing Title IX. 


These policy landmarks are rooted in our cultures. Traditional birth practices, like those of kānaka ʻōiwi, perpetuated a sacred respect for women. ʻŌmilomilo (abortion) was practiced by ʻōiwi practitioners prior to colonization. Women had the choice to “exercise control over decisions on when to have a child, how many children to have and how far apart they should be.”


The safety, bodily autonomy, and happiness of women and birthing people should not be controversial. It is not incompatible with religious practice. Women’s rights and māhū rights are part of who we are here in Hawaiʻi. 


Accordingly, I pledge to carry on the legacy of women’s rights forged by our ancestors, by Patsy Mink, and countless women leaders. 


I pledge to protect and strengthen a woman’s right to her body. 

Signed,

Governor David Ige

Lieutenant Governor Josh Green

State Senators - (Signed by 22 out of 25)

Senate President Ronald D. Kouchi

Senate Vice President Michelle Kidani

Senate Majority Leader Dru Mamo Kanuha

Senate Majority Policy Leader Les Ihara Jr.

Senate Majority Floor Leader Lynn DeCoite

Senate Majority Whip Lorraine R. Inouye

Assistant Majority Whip Gilbert S.C. Keith-Agaran

Assistant Majority Whip Jarrett Keohokalole

Assistant Majority Whip Clarence K. Nishihara

Assistant Majority Whip Brian T. Taniguchi


SENATE MEMBERS

Senator Laura Acasio

Senator Rosalyn H. Baker

Senator Stanley Chang

Senator Donovan Dela Cruz.

Senator Donna Mercado Kim 

Senator Chris Lee

Senator Bennette E. Misalucha 

Senator Sharon Moriwaki

Senator Karl Rhoads

Senator Joy A. San Buenaventura 

Senator Maile S.L. Shimabukuro 

Senator Glenn Wakai

State House of Representatives - (Signed by 39 out of 51 )

Speaker Scott K. Saiki

Majority Leader Della Au Belatti

Majority Floor Leader Dee Morikawa


HOUSE MEMBERS

Representative Patrick Pihana Branco 

Representative Linda Clark

Representative  Luella Costales

Representative Sonny Ganaden

Representative Cedric Asuega Gates 

Representative Mark J. Hashem

Representative Troy N. Hashimoto 

Representative Daniel Holt

Representative Linda Ichiyama

Representative Greggor Ilagan

Representative Aaron Ling Johanson 

Representative Jeanne Kapela

Representative Bertrand Kobayashi 

Representative Dale T. Kobayashi 

Representative Matthew S. LoPresti 

Representative Nicole Lowen

Representative Sylvia Luke

Representative Lisa Marten

Representative Scot Z. Matayoshi 

Representative Angus L.K. McKelvey 

Representative Nadine Nakamura 

Representative Mark M. Nakashima 

Representative Scott Nishimoto

Representative Takashi Ohno

Representative Richard H.K. Onishi 

Representative Amy A. Perruso

Representative Jackson D. Sayama 

Representative Gregg Takayama

Representative Roy M. Takumi

Representative Adrian K. Tam

Representative David Tarnas

Representative Chris Todd

Representative James Kunane Tokioka

Representative Tina Wildberger

Representative Ryan I. Yamane

Representative Kyle T. Yamashita


How Hawaii became the first state to legalize abortion

Learn how State Senator Vincent Yano a Democrat and Republican State Representative Patricia Saiki passed the HAWAII FREEDOM OF CHOICE ACT, decriminalizing abortion in 1970.

Podcast

PATSY MINK PAC 2022

Endorsed by Patsy Mink PAC

Endorsed by Patsy Mink PAC

Endorsed by Patsy Mink PAC

U.S. Senator Mazie Hirono and Lt. Governor Candidate Sylvia Luke are standing with Rep. Jeanne Kapela, Senator Sharon Moriwaki, Senator Joy San Buenaventura and other endorsed candidates.


PATSY MINK PAC 2022  HONOREES:

Ellen Godbey Carson,  Rebecca J.ʻI. Soon,  Younghee Overly

Patsy Mink T-shirt

Endorsed by Patsy Mink PAC

Endorsed by Patsy Mink PAC

The Women's Caucus of the Democratic Party of Hawaii is selling Patsy Mink Title IX  50th Anniversary T-shirts. Part of the proceeds will go to the Patsy Mink Education Foundation. The foundation provides scholarships to low-income women and children. 

 

Buy T-Shirt

LOCAL LEADER

Patsy Takemoto Mink mobilized voters in 1954 to break plantation owners control of government. She was elected to the Territorial House in 1956. She was the only woman in the Territorial Senate in 1958. Patsy Mink represented Neighbor Islands and Rural Oahu in the US Congress from 1964-1977.  She was elected to the Honolulu City Council in 1982 which she Chaired until 1985. In 1990 Patsy Mink was again elected to the U.S. House serving until her death until 2002.

Only Female in Territorial Senate

Maui born and raised. After law school her family settled in Waipahu.

Photo: Toddler Patsy, 1930. from "Fierce and Fearless by New York University Press. 

Photographer: Ralph Crane LIFE Magazine, 1965.

Patsy Takemoto

Maui High School

Patsy Takemoto graduated from Maui High School in 1944. 

She was both class Valedictorian and Student Body President. 

Biography

Born on December 6, 1927  in Paia, Maui, Hawaii Territory to Suematsu Takemoto and Mitama Tateyama Takemoto. Both sets of her grandparents were immigrants from Japan who came to Hawaii to work on sugar plantations. Patsy Takemoto was a third-generation Japanese American.  Growing up on Maui, she excelled in her studies. She was a Girl Scout and took piano and hula lessons. 


She attended Wilson College in Pennsylvania, the University of Nebraska and graduated from the University of Hawaii in 1948 with a bachelor's in zoology and chemistry.


Law Degree from the University of Chicago in 1951.


Married John Mink in 1951.

Daughter Gwendolyn born in 1952.


Political Career

In 1956, while living in Waipahu, Patsy Mink was elected to the Territory of Hawaii's House of Representatives. 


In 1958, she was elected to the Territorial Senate. 

When Hawaii became a state in 1959, Patsy Mink unsuccessfully ran for Congress.

Three years later, she won a seat back in the Hawaii State Senate in 1962. 


In 1964, Patsy Mink was elected to the US House of Representatives, where she served in Congress for 12 years until 1977.


Mink ran for President of the United States in 1972, the first Asian American to run for a national office.  In 1976, she ran for the US Senate, but was unsuccessful. 


President Jimmy Carter appointed Patsy Mink to Assistant Secretary of State for Oceans and International, Environmental and Scientific Affairs from 1977-1978.  Patsy Mink was President of Americans for Democratic Action from 1980-1982.


Returning to Hawaii, Patsy Mink was elected to the Honolulu City Council where she served from 1982-1986.  She lost races for Governor of Hawaii in 1986 and Mayor of Honolulu in 1988 before she was again elected in 1990 to the U.S. House of Representatives. She served her second phase in Congress for another 12 years, until her death at age 74 of pneumonia on September 28, 2002 in Honolulu, Hawaii.

50th Anniversary Title IX - June 23, 2022

Kauai County Council

STATE-WIDE CELEBRATIONS

Maui County Council

Maui High School with members of the Maui County Council in a ceremony honoring Congresswoman Patsy Mink from Maui. 

Maui College & American Association University Women

At University of Hawaii Maui College book signing: Jane Yamashiro, Author Judy Wu, Ruth Mukai (Patsy Mink's cousin from Maui), Joyce Yamada (UHMC), Pat Gotschalk (AAUW Maui president), Shawna Pabingwit (UHMC).  

City of Honolulu

City of Honolulu

City of Honolulu

Honolulu Mayor Rick Blandiardi signs a proclamation for Title IX with the American Association of University Women. 

Hawaii County

City of Honolulu

City of Honolulu

Hawaii County Mayor Mitch Roth with members of Zonta and the American Association of University Women.

Resolutions

Maui County (pdf)

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Hawaii County (PDF)

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Honolulu (pdf)

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Kauai County (pdf)

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