Dr. Robert Garland Kisner, an obstetrician-gynecologist for 31 years in East Liberty who promoted family-planning options for women and better care for African Americans and poor people, died Monday night from an apparent heart attack. He was 63.

Dr. Robert Kisner

Dr. Kisner, of Fox Chapel, opened his practice in 1973 and was one of the first doctors to perform abortions in Pittsburgh following the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in the Roe v. Wade case. He served as medical director for Family Health Council for more than 28 years and was honored in 1999 by the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association.

Raised in the Hill District, Dr. Kisner returned to Pittsburgh after medical school and became one of the first black physicians to complete specialty training at Magee-Womens Hospital. When he finished his training, Dr. Kisner became only the second black obstetrician in private practice in town, recalled Dr. Robert Thompson, another black obstetrician who started practicing here in the 1970s.

Dr. Kisner treated patients without regard to their ability to pay for services, said his practice partner, Dr. Morris Turner. That philosophy fit with Dr. Kisner's decision to practice in East Liberty throughout his career.

"It was important to him to be in the midst of the community, where the practice could be accessible to people who traditionally did not have access to medical care except in clinics and emergency rooms," Turner said. "He had a true passion for his work, as well as a profound compassion for his patients."

Dr. Kisner was born in Lexington, Ky., but completed elementary and middle school in Pittsburgh. He graduated from Schenley High School in 1959.

Dr. Kisner was a star swimmer at Morgan State University in Baltimore, where he earned his undergraduate degree in 1964. He married Gloria Hinmon in 1963, and the couple had two children.

After graduating from Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tenn. in 1969, Dr. Kisner returned to Pittsburgh for specialty training. He and other obstetrician-gynecologists of his generation were passionate about giving women access to all family-planning options, including abortion, said Claire Keyes, director of the Allegheny Reproductive Health Center in East Liberty.

"Women have always had abortion, but those doctors recognized that the kind of suffering and infection [that came with illegal procedures] -- none of that had to happen if abortion was legal," Keyes said.

Dr. Kisner was one of the first obstetricians in Pittsburgh to work in conjunction with nurse practitioners and nurse midwives, said Turner. Neither effort was popular among all obstetricians, but Dr. Kisner believed nurses would help extend family planning and obstetric services to patients who otherwise might struggle to find care.

Turner recalled a time in the 1970s when Dr. Kisner was the only private practice physician at Magee who delivered babies for women covered by the state's Medical Assistance health insurance program. Reimbursement from Medical Assistance for a normal delivery was $90 at the time -- a fraction of what other insurers paid, Turner said -- but Dr. Kisner believed women should have an alternative to delivery at a hospital clinic.

Patients appreciated it.

Ruth Lena Davis, 55, of McKeesport, first became a patient of Dr. Kisner's while he was training at Magee. She stayed with him ever since, and credited him with helping her overcome fertility problems.

"They said I could never have any children, but now I have four beautiful children," said Davis. "He was so respectful, so kind."

Dr. Kisner is survived by a daughter, Angela Lee Kisner Gregory, of Orlando, Fla.; two brothers, William T. of Wilkinsburg and James W. of Pittsburgh ; and a sister, Denise Kisner Parker, of Lakeland, Fla.

Visitation will be from 4 to 9 p.m. tomorrow at Percy E. Law Jr. Funeral Home, Center and Wallace streets, Wilkinsburg. A funeral service will be held at 11 a.m., Saturday at Dunumis Baptist Church, 751 Wallace Ave., Wilkinsburg.