Why a Doctor Told Gloria Steinem: ‘You Must Promise Me Two Things’

NY times ^ | September 3,2026 | Jill Filipovic

[Morgana]

When Gloria Steinem was 22 years old and a recent graduate of Smith College, she found herself sitting in a doctor’s office in London, asking for an abortion. Not long before, she had slipped off her engagement ring, tucked it under her fiancé’s pillow and, in her words, fled. She was headed to India on a fellowship, leaving behind the comfortable domestic life expected of her, and walking into a future that must have looked awfully fuzzy even without an unwanted pregnancy blurring her path forward.

This was 1957, and elective abortion was illegal in both the United States and Britain (not to mention much of the rest of the world). Ms. Steinem managed to find a doctor who agreed to help her anyway. She dedicated her 2015 memoir to him, recalling what he told her: “You must promise me two things. First, you will not tell anyone my name. Second, you will do what you want to do with your life.”

By the time Ms. Steinem died this week at the age of 92, she had done more than anyone could have possibly imagined with her life. Among her biggest accomplishments was enabling millions of other women to do what they wanted with their lives.

At the core of that work was reproductive freedom, as she called it: the right to have sex for pleasure without shame and to say no without grave consequence, to use contraception to prevent unintended pregnancies, to have access to safe and legal abortion, to have children by choice in safety and with support. She, and the second-wave feminist movement of which she was a part, succeeded in many of those aims. Premarital sex has been largely stripped of its stigma.

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TOPICS: Chit/Chat; Society
KEYWORDS: abortion; gloriasteinem; prolife

[Bullish]

“You must promise me two things. First, you will not tell anyone my name. Second, you will do what you want to do with your life.”

She made this stupid shit up as sure as I'm sitting here. What a total douche she was.

[central_va]

When I hear abortion and London I think of the original movie Alfie.

[aquila48]

“”First, you will not tell anyone my name. Second, you will do what you want to do with your life.””

Including snuffing the life of your baby.

The baby didn’t get any chance to do what he/she wanted to do with its life.

[Presbyterian Reporter]

“””””“In the years after Roe, women flooded into colleges and the work force. Millions were able to do what they wanted with their lives. They became doctors and lawyers, artists and entrepreneurs, dedicated mothers, aunties and friends....”

Someone anyone tell me this is not true and this is the first time I’m learning about it.”””””””””

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Years prior to Roe the Birth Control Pill was available. The pill had an effect on young women’s ability to go to work.

And we faced inflation in the 1970’s which impacted a married couple’s ability to live comfortably with only one bread winner.

And there are likely other factors that have led more women to pursue a work career in the past 60 years.

[AbolishCSEU]

BINGO! My husband’s ex-shrew had an abortion without telling him. They went on to marry and have 3 more children which was a big mistake on his part (marrying an unstable woman).

[AbolishCSEU]

Me too.

[BAN-ONE]

She had 70 years to seek forgiveness..
70..
She chose . . poorly.

[howlinhound]

“You must promise me two things. First, you will not tell anyone my name..”

The doctor needs to be reminded that God knows his name.

[Albion Wilde]

Well, thanks. Maybe no. But then again, it’s AI and the internet, so maybe she really did say it. But I’ll stop posting the meme for now.

[ken in texas]

It's probably still a pretty good school, but it recently came under fire for violating its "women only" policy by admitting men who decided to identify as female.

One thing we do know is that it's expensive. According to this post: 15 colleges now cost $100K+ per year — and almost none of them are worth it, Smith clocked in at just over $102,000 a year.

[Bigg Red]

Well said.

But we can’t deny her legacy. She helped create a segment of the culture that thinks it is perfectly acceptable to murder an innocent child, and now we have a brigade of child-hating females celebrating a murderess who snuffed out the lives of 3 helpless children.

Gloria, I am betting it is very warm where you are.

[Albion Wilde]

By the way, here is Snopes' research:

Gloria Steinem, a prominent feminist activist, has been vocal about her support for gun control measures. In 2018, Steinem was among the several notable figures who endorsed the "Never Again" movement, which was initiated by survivors of the Parkland school shooting. This movement advocated for stricter gun control laws to prevent future mass shootings. Steinem's support for gun control aligns with her broader advocacy for policies aimed at ensuring public safety and preventing gun violence. According to Snopes Archives, Steinem's stance on gun control is consistent with her efforts to promote measures that could potentially save lives and reduce the prevalence of firearms in society.

According to AZQuotes, Steinem said:

The U.S. has more guns per capita and supplies more guns to the world than any other country. What would be a fistfight without guns turns into dead bodies with them. Families with guns in the house are more likely to shoot themselves accidentally than to shoot any intruder. Women abused by their partners have a five-fold increased risk of being killed when their partner owns a gun. Every three hours, at least one child is wounded or killed by gunfire.

So it would appear that someone made an abbreviated attribution for that meme. Fake, but accurate.

[Bigg Red]

How do we even know the fiancé even existed?

[j.havenfarm]

Of course she did. Nobody talked like that back then. If the story was set in the late 60’s or thereafter, it might be credible

[sgt_lau]

Satan to Gloria: “You’ve come a long way, baby.”

[Fledermaus]

If she was so damn smart she had a responsibility to not get pregnant.

[IncPen]

For all her ‘progress’ on women’s rights, where did she stand on men in girls’ bathrooms?

Asking for a friend

[JayGalt]

Until women could kill their babies they were nothing/s

[al baby]

Nope she dint make it past the gates

[JeemBeau]

Their archives hold collections on U.S. Communists in California, such the group that L.A. Mayor Karen Bass hung out with - The “Reconciliations”.

Jane Fonda has bequeathed her materials to Smith College.