FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE September 19, 2019 CONTACT: Farrell Howe | Marketing & Communications Manager Kalamazoo Public Library | CEN 315 S. Rose St. | Kalamazoo, MI, 49007 (269) 553-7879 Meet the Author: Patricia Relf Featuring the book To Offer Compassion: A History of the Clergy Consultation Service on Abortion <https://www.kpl.gov/catalog/search/?f=*&st=*&k=To+Offer+Compassion%3A%C2%A0+A+History+of+the+Clergy+Consultation+Service+on+Abortion> by Doris A. Dirks and Patricia A. Relf Thursday, September 26, 6–7 pm Kalamazoo, MI, Thursday, September 19, 2019. Kalamazoo Public Library<http://www.kpl.gov/> is proud to welcome author Patricia Relf to Kalamazoo on Thursday, September 26, 6–7 pm in the Van Deusen Room<https://www.kpl.gov/venue/van-deusen-room-central/> at the Central Library<http://www.kpl.gov/cen> located at 315 South Rose Street. In 1967, when abortion was either illegal or highly restricted in every U.S. state, a group of ministers and rabbis formed to counsel women with unwanted pregnancies—including referral to licensed physicians willing to perform the procedure. By 1973, the Clergy Consultation Service on Abortion eventually spread from coast to coast, referring hundreds of thousands of women for safe abortions without a single fatality. Hear co-author Patricia Relf discuss the writing of this detailed history of this unique and largely forgotten movement, drawing on extensive interviews with original participants. Publisher’s Weekly wrote that the book, “Provide [s] critically important social history that too many in today’s abortion wars have never known or chosen to forget.” For more information about this book, please visit: offercompassion.com<http://offercompassion.com/> Books will be available for sale/signing at this event from Michigan News Agency<http://www.michigannews.biz/>. Patricia Relf is the author of numerous children's books. She has been a professor at the department of foreign languages at Western Michigan University<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Michigan_University> in Kalamazoo, Michigan where she lived until 2015. She now lives in Cleveland, Ohio. In 2017, Relf published her first book for adults, To Offer Compassion, which chronicles the Clergy Consultation Service on Abortion. Some of her major works include: What's Happening?: A Book of Explanations; A Dinosaur Named Sue; Tonka Trucks Night and Day. All Kalamazoo Public Library events are free and open to the public unless otherwise indicated in the event description. A library card is not required to attend. Guests who require special accommodations can submit their request to the event coordinator by calling 269-553-7800 or emailing events@kpl.gov<mailto:events@kpl.gov>. For more information about other fun KPL events, sign up for our e-newsletter<https://www.kpl.gov/connect/> or check out our quarterly magazine PRISM online<https://www.kpl.gov/patron-support/resources/prism/prism/>. ####