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'Our Bodies, Ourselves' Marches On, Into The 21st Century

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Our Bodies Ourselves executive director Julie Childers (left) and co-founder Judy Norsigian (middle) stand with Here & Now co-host Robin Young in the Here & Now studios. (Eileen Bolinsky/Here & Now)
Our Bodies Ourselves executive director Julie Childers (left) and co-founder Judy Norsigian (middle) stand with Here & Now co-host Robin Young in the Here & Now studios. (Eileen Bolinsky/Here & Now)

A crowd funding campaign has saved the organization behind the iconic book "Our Bodies, Ourselves" from the brink of collapse.

"Our Bodies, Ourselves" was first published in 1971 by a women's collective called Our Bodies Ourselves (OBOS) and it soon became an invaluable source of information about women's sexual and reproductive health to generations of women in the U.S. and around the world. But despite its success, funding dried up and in 2015 it looked like OBOS was going to shut down.

OBOS called in Gloria Steinem and Lena Dunham, who teamed up to write a fundraising letter asking supporters to contribute to "the book that rocked the world." Here & Now's Robin Young speaks with OBOS' new executive director Julie Childers and co-founder Judy Norsigian about the impact and new vision of "Our Bodies, Ourselves."

"What is so distinctive and important about 'Our Bodies, Ourselves' is how we combine information about women’s bodies that leads to self-knowledge with political activism and with an understanding of how the social and political sphere influences how we live our lives,” Childers said.

More Photos From Our Bodies Ourselves

The founders of Our Bodies Ourselves in the 1960s. (Courtesy/Our Bodies Ourselves)
The founders of Our Bodies Ourselves in the 1960s. (Courtesy/Our Bodies Ourselves)
The cover of "Our Bodies, Ourselves" from 1970. (Courtesy/Our Bodies Ourselves)
The cover of "Our Bodies, Ourselves" from 1970. (Courtesy/Our Bodies Ourselves)
The 1973 edition of "Our Bodies, Ourselves." (Courtesy/Our Bodies Ourselves)
The 1973 edition of "Our Bodies, Ourselves." (Courtesy/Our Bodies Ourselves)
The cover of the Arabic edition of "Our Bodies, Ourselves," published in 1991. (Courtesy/Our Bodies Ourselves)
The cover of the Arabic edition of "Our Bodies, Ourselves," published in 1991. (Courtesy/Our Bodies Ourselves)
The Polish edition of "Our Bodies, Ourselves." (Courtesy/Our Bodies Ourselves)
The Polish edition of "Our Bodies, Ourselves." (Courtesy/Our Bodies Ourselves)
The "Our Bodies, Ourselves" edition from Bangladesh, published in 2009. The book has been adapted to 30 countries. (Courtesy/Our Bodies Ourselves)
The "Our Bodies, Ourselves" edition from Bangladesh, published in 2009. The book has been adapted to 30 countries. (Courtesy/Our Bodies Ourselves)
The Vietnamese edition of "Our Bodies, Ourselves," published in 2015. (Courtesy/Our Bodies Ourselves)
The Vietnamese edition of "Our Bodies, Ourselves," published in 2015. (Courtesy/Our Bodies Ourselves)

Guests

  • Julie Childers, executive director for Our Bodies Ourselves. The organization tweets @oboshealth.
  • Judy Norsigian, co-founder of Our Bodies Ourselves, serving as executive director from 2001 to 2015.

This segment aired on June 2, 2016.

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