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1946 - 2004
Jane Boggess - advocate for contraception
Jane Boggess, a former state official and health advocate who helped lead the effort in California to deregulate emergency contraception, died Sunday of a stroke at her Oakland office. She was 57.
Ms. Boggess won national recognition for leading the effort that made the "morning-after" contraceptive pill available without advanced prescriptions at about 800 participating pharmacies in California -- the first state to pass such legislation.
"She really changed the landscape and planted the seeds of using pharmacies as part of the health care team to provide services to women," said Sharon Cohen, program administrator for the Pharmacy Access Partnership, a center of the Public Health Institute that Ms. Boggess founded in 1999 to advocate the legislation. "A lot of her work was increasing access for consumers, allowing them to get reproductive health services more efficiently."
For more than five years, Ms. Boggess worked to make emergency contraceptives, which are taken by women after unprotected sex to prevent pregnancy, available without a prescription. She testified in a Food and Drug Administration hearing in December to make the emergency contraceptive Plan B, also called the "morning after pill," an over-the-counter drug.
"She had an enormous impact on changing policy," said Robert Melton, a member of the Public Health Institute's board of directors. "There were always obstacles, but Jane was never discouraged. She set her goals and very intelligently and systematically went after them."
On Jan. 30, Ms. Boggess was to receive the California Pharmacists Association's "Outstanding Organizational Partner of 2004" award, one of the organization's most prestigious awards, for her contributions to the field. Her daughter, Maggie O'Neill, will receive the award in her honor.
Ms. Boggess was born in San Bernardino County town of Upland and raised in Claremont, Los Angeles County. She graduated from Claremont High School in 1964.
She earned her bachelor's degree in anthropology from UC Berkeley in 1969.
While studying for her Ph.D., which she earned from UC Berkeley, Ms. Boggess studied primates in Nepal, where she developed an interest in impoverished populations.
"She was concerned about disadvantaged people. She saw public health as a way to help people," said her partner, Ted Trzyna. "She had very strong feelings and a sense of obligation. She was absolutely passionate about her work."
Gov. Pete Wilson appointed Ms. Boggess to head the state Office of Family Planning in 1994. In 1999, she founded the Pharmacy Access Partnership in Oakland, where she served as executive director.
In addition to her daughter and partner, Ms. Boggess is survived by her mother, Margaret Boggess of Claremont.
A memorial service will be held Feb. 6 at 3 p.m. at Claremont United Church of Christ, 233 West Harrison Ave. in Claremont. Another memorial will be held Feb. 12 at 2 p.m. at Preservation Park, Nile Hall, 668 13th St., Oakland.
Gifts in Ms. Boggess's memory may be sent to the Jane Boggess Memorial Fund, c/o Claremont United Church of Christ, 233 West Harrison Ave., Claremont, CA 91711.
~ San Francisco Chronicle
Jane Boggess, 57; Led California Office of Family Planning
Jane Boggess, 57, an advocate for easily accessible and low-cost reproductive health services for men and women, died January 18, 2004 of a stroke that she suffered at her Oakland office.
From 1993 to 1998, Boggess served as chief of the California Office of Family Planning. There she earned national recognition in public health circles for launching the state's successful FAMILY P.A.C.T. program, which provides free and low-cost family planning health services to low-income residents.
She recently won national recognition for her efforts to make the "morning-after" contraceptive pill available without advance prescriptions at hundreds of pharmacies throughout the state.
A native of Upland, Boggess earned her undergraduate degree and a doctorate in anthropology from UC Berkeley. She spent four years studying monkeys in the Himalayas.
Boggess began her career working as an assistant director of the Health Officers Assn. of California. She later became director of Women's Health for San Bernardino County, where she was involved in reproductive health-care issues.
~ The Los Angeles Times
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