NARAL Pro-Choice America

Reproductive Freedom for All, formerly NARAL Pro-Choice America, is an advocacy group that works to bring awareness to women's reproductive issues and supports legislation to protect access to abortion. Its affiliates across the country organize supporters within communities to petition their state and federal legislators to enact laws that safeguard women's reproductive freedoms. The group's stated mission is to guarantee that women have the right to make their own decisions regarding their reproductive health, which includes the right to end a pregnancy through safe and legal abortion. Reproductive Freedom for All also works to reduce the need for abortion by advocating for comprehensive sex education programs in schools and by increasing access to birth control, including emergency contraceptives. The organization also advocates for access to quality prenatal care for women who decide to become moms or for those who choose adoption and advocates for paid family leave for new parents.

Brief History

The group began in February 1969 in Chicago, Illinois, at the First National Conference on Abortion Laws: Modification or Repeal? At the time, abortion was illegal in the United States, so the group adopted the name National Association for Repeal of Abortion Laws (NARAL). Some of the founding members of NARAL included Dr. Bernard Nathanson and Betty Friedan, a feminist activist and the author of The Feminine Mystique (1963). Lee Gidding became the group's first executive director, and she opened NARAL's first office in New York City in March of 1969.

Because abortion was illegal, many women who were unintentionally pregnant sought abortions from untrained providers or tried to perform abortions on themselves. Women who underwent illegal abortions sometimes suffered serious injury and many even died. Therefore, NARAL's main mission was to repeal laws that criminalized abortion in the United States and support legislation that would allow women access to safe abortions performed by competent doctors.

On January 22, 1973, the US Supreme Court decision in the case of Roe v. Wade held that abortion within the first three months should be a private matter between a woman and her doctor. Although the decision in Roe v. Wade made abortion legal across the country, states could still enact laws that regulated the procedure, making it difficult for some women to obtain abortions or restricting the amount of time that women had to get an abortion. Following the Supreme Court's decision, NARAL changed its name to the National Abortion Rights Action League to reflect its new mission—safeguarding women's newly gained reproductive freedoms. The organization moved its headquarters to Washington, DC, and began a political action committee (NARAL PAC) to raise money and support government officials working to protect women's reproductive rights.

During the next two decades, NARAL worked to keep anti-choice judges off the Supreme Court, fought against state resolutions calling for a constitutional amendment to ban abortion, and organized one of the largest pro-choice marches on Washington. In 1994, the organization changed its name yet again to the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League to emphasize its commitment to protecting women's reproductive choices, including the choice to use birth control, obtain an abortion, or have a healthy pregnancy.

However, NARAL and other pro-choice organizations faced significant challenges in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Women's reproductive rights came under constant threat in the US Congress and in state legislatures, and violence against doctors who performed abortions escalated. During the 1990s, several doctors were shot and killed at women's health clinics that provided abortions, and a bombing at a clinic in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1997 left several people injured.

The 2022 Supreme Court case Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization overturned Roe v. Wade, removing the constitutional right to abortion and leaving the legality to individual states. Many states made quick changes to legislation to ban or legalize abortion. This decision disproportionately impacted marginalized groups and low-income individuals and led to an increase in the number of individuals who had to travel to receive an abortion. In response, the organization began the Fight Back for Freedom campaign that aimed to slow the progression of this decision and limit anti-abortion laws.

After Ilyse Hogue's presidency ended in 2021, the group elected lawyer and activist Mini Timmaraju to the position. Under Timmaraju’s leadership in 2023, the organization changed its name to Reproductive Freedom for All to reflect its continued commitment to equitable reproductive healthcare.

Impact

In 2003, NARAL changed its name again, becoming NARAL Pro-Choice America. The following year, the organization helped sponsor the March for Women's Lives, during which more than one million people marched on Washington to call on lawmakers to protect women's reproductive choices, including access to abortion. Also in 2004, the group named Nancy Keenan its new president. Keenan served the organization for nearly ten years before stepping aside in 2013. At the time, NARAL was looking for a leader who would encourage young women to join the fight for reproductive rights by voting for political leaders who support pro-choice legislation. This led the organization to choose Ilyse Hogue as its new president in 2013.

That same year, the Texas branch of NARAL helped support state legislator Wendy Davis in a lengthy filibuster to prevent a bill that would close all but five abortion clinics in Texas. Davis successfully blocked the bill, and NARAL celebrated her victory. However, Texas lawmakers soon passed additional laws that limited women's access to abortion. One law, known as Texas House Bill 2 (HB2), was extremely controversial. The main issues with the law were that it required women's health clinics to upgrade their facilities to be similar to hospitals and required doctors at these clinics to have admitting privileges at local hospitals. While proponents of the bill argued that these provisions were added to ensure women's safety, critics argued that this would force many clinics to close and leave many women in the state without access to abortion. The law was challenged in the US Supreme Court in Whole Woman's Health v. Hellerstedt (2016). NARAL supporters stood outside the court in June 2016 waiting to hear the decision. In a 5–3 ruling, the justices struck down the law. NARAL and other pro-choice groups lauded the decision as a victory for women's reproductive rights.

The organization continued to work to protect reproductive freedom by becoming involved in the 2016 presidential election. NARAL supported Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, and Hogue spoke at the Democratic National Convention. During her speech, she not only talked about reproductive rights but also discussed her own experience with abortion in graduate school. In subsequent interviews, Hogue said that Republican nominee Donald Trump's picking Governor Mike Pence, who supported extreme anti-choice measures in Indiana, as his running mate showed that the politician would not support women's reproductive choices if he were elected president. With this in mind, NARAL continued a campaign called #AskaboutAbortion, initially launched during the presidential primaries. During the general election, the campaign encouraged voters to question the candidates' stances on reproductive rights and had moderators ask questions about abortion during the presidential debates.

Reproductive Freedom for All conducted its largest electoral program in its history during the 2024 election. Volunteers for the organization made over 5.8 million phone calls and sent 45 million texts in support of about 400 candidates. While the organization expressed its disappointment in the overall outcome of the election of Donald Trump to the presidency, it also noted the election of many reproductive freedom champions in the Senate and House who would advocate for reproductive rights.

Bibliography

De Vogue, Ariane, et al. "Supreme Court Strikes Down Texas Abortion Access Law." CNN, 27 June 2016, www.cnn.com/2016/06/27/politics/supreme-court-abortion-texas. Accessed 2 Jan. 2025.

"History." Reproductive Freedom for All, reproductivefreedomforall.org/about/history. Accessed 2 Jan. 2025.

"National Abortion Rights Action League. Records, 1968-1976: A Finding Aid." Harvard University Library, 1980, hollisarchives.lib.harvard.edu/repositories/8/resources/6738. Accessed 2 Jan. 2025.

Padilla, Mariel. "‘I Don’t Think We Can Be Alarmist Enough’: Naral’s New Leader Steps in as Abortion Rights Look Increasingly Endangered." 19th News, 4 Nov. 2021, 19thnews.org/2021/11/naral-mini-timmaraju. Accessed 2 Jan. 2025.

Rinkunas, Susan. "The President of NARAL on What Abortion Means in This Election." The Cut, 27 Sept. 2016, nymag.com/thecut/2016/09/naral-president-on-what-abortion-mean-in-this-election.html. Accessed 2 Jan. 2025.

Solinger, Rickie, editor. Abortion Wars: A Half Century of Struggle, 1950–2000. U of California P, 1998.