Confronting Violence

"Doctors announce campaign to combat domestic violence," January 1989

In 1989, Surgeon General C. Everett Koop and Luella Klein, MD announced the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (AGOG) campaign to help OB/GYNs identify and assist women patients who were experiencing partner violence. Klein explained that all 27,000 members of the ACOG would receive information that would enable them to detect if their patients had been battered. While members were not expected to "treat the pathology of battering," they were expected to help women understand their rights, and to provide community resources to help their patients.

Courtesy National Library of Medicine