Interview with Jean Pakter, MD by Laurie Sammeth Campbell

Jean Pakter, MD, MPH graduated from the New York University School of Medicine and then spent five years at Mount Sinai Hospital, finishing her residency in 1939. An advocate for maternal and child health, she devoted her life to serving not only the City of New York, as Director of the Department of Health’s Bureau of Maternity Services and Family Planning from 1960 to 1982, but the nation as well. She and her team studies and findings proved that the legalization of abortion in New York State in 1970 was associated with a decline in maternal and infant mortality and a decline in births. Her discipline for gathering and sharing statistics led to many noteworthy studies on prematurity, maternal and fetal mortality, abortion, sudden infant death syndrome, and promotion of breast feeding. Her Mount Sinai training of using scientific study and clinical expertise as a means of enacting social change led deservedly to numerous honors, awards, and citations, most notably in the Roe v. Wade decision and the War on Poverty.