referred. together, the army of three (maginnis, gurner, and lana phelan) planned and executed civil disobedience actions in the late 1960s in order to overturn abortion laws in california. in 1968, after multiple bouts of handing out pamphlets with information about contraception and sexually transmitted infections (which was illegal under san francisco's municipal ordinance 188), maginnis was arrested. the outcome of her case overturned this local ordinance, but the army of three wanted to challenge the state law. to do this, they created abortion 'classes,' which maginnis was eventually arrest for in san mateo county. the case wasn't settled until after roe v. wade liberalized abortion laws in the united states, but they did succeed in overturning california's abortion law. des diethylstilbestrol (des) was discovered in 1938 and until 1971, it was given to pregnant women with the incorrect belief that it would reduce the risk of pregnancy complications and losses. in the late 1960s, a study published in jama endorsed the use of des as an emergency contraceptive, saying that it have no negative side effects. belita cowan began researching the side effects of des as a morning after pill at this time, because it was she had read medical literature that said des caused clear cell carcinoma, a rare vaginal tumor, in girls and women who had been exposed to this medication in utero. she also heard from her friends that the pill caused severe nausea for a short period of time. cowan brought together a group of female former patients at the university of michigan’s student health center and organized advocates for medical information. this group aimed to educate women in the side effects of the des pill and to oppose the use of it at the university hospital and other health centers in the country. in 1971, the organization received a grant from the student government to undertake a survey of women who had taken des. out of the sixty-nine women who responded, only a quarter of them were contacted by doctors after taking the medication. this proved that the advertisements for des were fraudulent. after concluding her research about the side effects of des, cowan believed that women around the country should know about the effects of the drug. she contacted ralph nader and other feminists to host a press conference in washington, d.c., in december 1972. an oral contraceptive pack. oral contraceptives when the birth control pill came on the market in 1960, barbara seaman was writing columns for women's magazines such as brides and the ladies' home journal. she launched her career as a women's health journalist and brought a new kind of health reporting to the field, writing articles that centered more on the patient and less on the medical fads of the day. seaman was first to reveal that women lacked the information they needed to make informed decisions on child-bearing, breast-feeding, and oral contraceptives. she even went so far as to alert women to the dangers of the pill, whose primary ingredient was estrogen (also the active ingredient in premarin, which had contributed to the death of her aunt). prolific output and the popularity of her published articles won seaman membership with the prestigious society of magazine writers. in 1969, seaman completed her first book, the doctors' case against the pill, which would become the basis for the nelson pill hearings on the safety of the combined oral contraceptive pill. as a result of the hearings, a health warning was added to the pill, the first informational insert for any prescription drug. robert finch, secretary of hew, praised seaman saying, "the doctors' case against the pill... was a major factor in our strengthening the language in the final warning published in the federal register to be included in each package of the pill." the jane collective officially known as the abortion counseling service of women's liberation, the jane collective, or jane, was an underground service in chicago, illinois, affiliated with the chicago women's liberation union that operated from 1969 to 1973, when abortion was illegal in the united states. the collective was started by activists in the women's liberation movement in an effort to address the increasing number of unsafe abortions being performed by untrained providers. since illegal abortions were not only dangerous but very expensive, the founding members of the collective believed that they could provide women with safer and more affordable access to abortions. the collective originated in 1969 with university of chicago student heather booth, who helped her friend's sister find an abortion provider. the founders of jane initially focused their attention on providing women access to competent physicians willing to provide abortion services. they found a physician they called "mike" who was willing to work with them. after creating a close relationship with mike they found out that he actually wasn't really a physician and some jane activists have characterized him as a "con man." however, many of the techniques he used were safe and effective. the women of jane then decided to cut out the middleman and perform the abortions themselves. mike taught the women how to perform dilation and curettage abortions, and from then on the women performed them themselves. during the years which jane operated, the collective performed more than 11,000 abortions. they disbanded after roe v. wade made abortion legal throughout the united states in 1973. "i'm not anti-doctor, that would only help set back attitudes on modern medical technology. women instead have to demystify doctors by learning more about their own bodies, and can then ask questions about gynecological examinations which have never been discussed thoroughly by doctors and their patients." – ellen frankfort on her book vaginal politics, as quoted in the crimson in 1972. our bodies, ourselves in 1969 at emmanuel college in boston, massachusetts, at one of the first conference's for women's liberation, nancy miriam hawley organized a workshop called "women and their bodies." twelve white, middle-class women between the ages of 23 to 39 attended the workshop, which allowed the women to discuss health. the discussion created a consciousness-raising environment; the strong discussion supplied the women with the necessary tools and ideas that led to the attendees organizing as "the doctors group" to research about women and healthcare. "we weren't encouraged to ask questions, but to depend on the so-called experts," hawley told women's enews. "not having a say in our own health care frustrated and angered us. we didn't have the information we needed, so we decided to find it on our own." as a result of this goal, they spent the summer researching topics they were interested in and began teaching a course titled after the workshop, based on what they had learned and written about. it contained sections on abortion, pregnancy, postpartum depression, sexuality, anatomy and physiology, sexually transmitted diseases, and critiques of patriarchy, capitalism, and the healthcare system. the book also contained information intended to guide women on "how to maneuver the american health care system, with subsections called 'the power and role of male doctors,' 'the profit motive in health care,'" 'women as health care workers,' and 'hospitals.' they put their knowledge into an accessible format that served as a model for women who wanted to learn about themselves, communicate with doctors, and challenge the medical establishment to change and improve the health of women everywhere. they used rhetoric that avoided describing the female reproductive system as passive, unproductive, helpless, or powerless, unlike any doctor or book at the time. their writing was so sought after that they started selling their research as a 35-cent, 136-page booklet called women and their bodies, published in 1970 by the new england free press. by 1973, 350,000 copies of the retitled our bodies, ourselves had been sold without any formal advertising. as a result of their success, the women formed the non-profit boston women's health book collective (which now goes by the name our bodies ourselves) and published the first 276-page our bodies, ourselves in 1973. the collective published it with the major publisher simon & schuster, only on the condition that they would have complete editorial control and that nonprofit health centers could purchase copies at a significant discount. it featured first-person stories from women, and tackled many topics then regarded as taboo. a plastic speculum. self-help gynecology