Betty Mary Goetting

Betty Mary Goetting (née Smith 1897–1980) was an American librarian, civic leader and women's rights activist. She is known for bringing Planned Parenthood to El Paso, Texas.

Biography Goetting was born 1897 in Jefferson, Texas. She and her family moved to El Paso in 1910. In 1915, she graduated from El Paso High School and then went to California to attend the Riverside Library Service School in 1917. Some of her involvement in the social world were merely for fun, like the Saturday Bridge Club. Goetting had other interests, such as history and reading. She created the first book club in El paso and co-founded the History Club in El Paso in 1926. Goetting recognized a need for birth control services in El Paso and wanted to start a clinic. She began to search for rental property, but "as soon as property owners knew what the property was to be used for, prices doubled." By 1938, they had helped 731 patients in under a year. 1939, they changed the name to the El Paso Birth Control Clinic. In 1970, she received a Presidential Award for her work as a curator for the EPHS. Goetting continued to fight for women's access to birth control until her death in 1980.