In 1971, Abrams’ foster daughter, then 15, was raped in her high school in Berkeley, Calif. The girl was not allowed to call home. After being taken to a hospital, it took over an hour before a doctor saw her. The doctor was great at telling jokes, but didn’t offer the girl a pregnancy test or check her for sexually transmitted disease.
Infuriated, Abrams sought the help of two friends to found Bay Area Women Against Rape — the first rape crisis center in the U.S. “She was one of the significant movers and shakers in the very beginning of the rape crisis movement,” said the organization’s current executive director, Marcia Blackstock. “She identified very early on the needs of rape survivors that were not being met in the system and found ways to create inroads to those systems.”
Abrams didn’t stop there: she then went on to become the first victim-witness advocate for the Alameda County district attorney’s office, often escorting rape victims to court to support them during testimony. Abrams, known as “Lee” among friends, died January 8. She was 77.