A Film by Sue Perlgut and Nils Hoover

Articles and Reviews

 

Opinion piece that references Connie Cook’s work

Times Union, 8/7/22

History shows New York’s abortion rights won’t be entirely safe until they’re protected in the state constitution.

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Opinion piece written by End Abortion Stigma

Tompkins Weekly, July 13, 2022

Opinion: Planned Parenthood vs. crisis pregnancy center

Excerpt: With a person’s legal right to abortion under fierce examination and judgment these days, it is important that we focus on truth and compassion for all those caught at the crossroads of an unplanned pregnancy.

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Sue Perlgut interviewed in this online article

NBC News, May 3, 2022

Speak up. Don’t be ashamed’: Activists who fought for Roe urge younger generation to keep fighting

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Opinion piece written by members of End Abortion Stigma

NY Times, 9/21/21

Excerpt: To the Editor:

We are women who came of age before Roe v. Wade

Many of us had illegal abortions. We are the lucky ones who survived. Thousands didn’t. The process was fraught with committing illegal acts and being compelled to have blind faith in practitioners who had dubious medical credentials.

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Recent article in the Cornell Chronicle about Cornell Law school women graduates who blazed new trails. Connie Cook is featured in the article.

Cornell Chronicle December 2020

Excerpt:

Connie Cook ’41, J.D. ’43

As one of only three women in the New York State Assembly from 1962 to 1974, Connie Cook led extraordinary efforts to create change within a male-dominated government. As a Republican assemblywoman for New York’s 125th district, she wrote legislation in 1970 that decriminalized abortion in New York state, which paved the way for Roe v. Wade in 1973.

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Stop the Ban Rally, Ithaca NY, May 21, 2019

The Ithaca Voice

Ithaca Journal

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From the Ithaca Voice (8/25/16)

Tompkins Republican key to decriminalizing abortion celebrated in documentary

New Documentary Celebrates Trailblazing Lawyer and Lawmaker Connie Cook’ 43
by Owen Lubozynski, Spotlight, Cornell University Law School Web Site (01/28/16)
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Excerpt:

In 2009, documentary filmmaker Sue Perlgut attended the memorial service of Connie Cook ’43. “Speaker after speaker after speaker talked about this phenomenal woman,” she recalls. Standing with fellow attendees afterward, Perlgut remarked that someone should make a documentary about the trailblazing lawyer and lawmaker. In 2015 that idea came to fruition with the release of Connie Cook: a Documentary.

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Pro-Choice Republican
by Melissa Whitworth, The Ithaca Times (04/08/15)
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Excerpt:

As a pro-choice Republican Assemblywoman in the 1970s—one of only three women in the Assembly when she was elected in 1962—Connie Cook found herself in a difficult but not a lonely place: Cook knew that without compromise, nothing would ever get done; no bills would pass and her struggle for women’s equality would fail at the first step. At the time politicians on both sides of the house praised her for her measured, practical, and determined approach to the business of lawmaking

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Film features area women’s pioneer
by Matthew Hayes, The Ithaca Journal (03/05/15)

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Excerpt:

A documentary chronicling the work of a Republican politician from Ithaca who helped decriminalize abortion in New York state in 1970 can be seen in Ithaca this March and April.Constance Cook, a Republican assemblywoman representing the 128th district of Tompkins, Yates and Seneca counties, was a pioneer for women in politics during her 10-year career in the male- dominated New York Assembly. One of her most lasting impacts was her work in 1970 that opened up legal access to abortion a full three years before the Roe v. Wade decision by the U.S. Supreme Court

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Ithaca’s liberal Republican gets a documentary film
by Matthew Hayes, The Ithaca Journal (11/14/14)
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Excerpt:

Assemblywoman Connie Cook of Ithaca pioneered a shakeup in gender attitudes during a career that pushedwomen into new roles in education and politics. A new documentgary explores her life.In protest on the streets of New York City in the late 1960s, Sue Perglut and other feminists of her day congregated in fervent demand for women’s right issues, including a call for the legal right to end a pregnancy in New York. Then, in the spring of 1970, those pushing for fuller reproductive rights suddenly had one less reason to keep up the protest: On April 9, a bill decriminalizing abortion passed the New York state assembly by a single vote, a full three years before the Roe v. Wade decision by the U.S. Supreme Court changed women’s reproductive rights for the entire country.

Documenting A Progressive Life
by Jesse Disbrow, Prime Times

Excerpt:

Connie Cook was one of the area’s most progressive congresswomen, and Sue Perlgut hopes that a new documentary will help inform people about Cook and the issues she faced. Perlgut has always had a background in the theater and performance, she’s been part os performances and troupes since high school. Within the past eight years she’s put together a pair of documentaries and directed a fitness video.

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