Bangor, Maine
Whileearning her RN degree at the University of Rochester, Mabel SineWadsworth heard of Margaret Sanger's pioneer work in birth control,and developed her own interest in helping women gain control overtheir reproductive lives.
When Ms. Wadsworth moved to Bangor in 1946, she joined theMaternal Health League, an organization patterned after Sanger'swork promoting contraceptive education.
Mabel Wadsworth's community involvement in volunteer organizationshave included the League of Women Voters and the Hospital Auxiliary.She helped form the Abnaki Council of Girl Scouts, served as thefirst president of the Bangor Counseling Center's Board of Directors,and was active in the development of the Women's Resource Center,out of which evolved the Displaced Homemakers Organization.
In the 1960's, Ms. Wadsworth organized the first Family Planningprogram in Maine and as the first director of Family Planningin the central Maine area, she used the outreach ideas she hadseen employed years earlier by the Maternal Health League. Shealso set a precedent when she sent a registered nurse to nursepractitioner school so that Family Planning need not rely solelyupon physicians to deliver birth control services.
In the early 1970's, Mabel Wadsworth was highly instrumentalin the passage of legislation which mandated teenagers the rightto confidential contraceptive services. She helped establish theMaine Family Planning Association, and was the first president;she is currently an active member.
Ms. Wadsworth is presently a member of the Board of Directorsof Legal Services for the Elderly, and raises funds for the BangorSymphony, Spruce Run (the local family violence project), theUnited Way and Red Cross. Still visible in the struggle to maintainreproductive rights for women, Ms. Wadsworth is an original founderof the Mabel Wadsworth Women's Health Center, where she inspiresand shares that organization's vision of a feminist health centerempowering all women, through knowledge and with advocacy, totake control of their lives.
1990 Photograph
Inducted March, 1990
