The NY Salon and the New York Society for Ethical Culture present:

What’s So Bad About Abortion?

   Thursday, August 7, 7 to 9pm

New York Society for Ethical Culture, www.nysec.org 
2 West 64th Street at Central Park West, 
New York, NY 10023 
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    Speakers

Donna Crane, Director, Government Relations, NARAL Pro-Choice America

Ann Furedi, Chief Executive Officer, British Pregnancy Advisory Service (UK)

Kirsten Moore, President and CEO, Reproductive Health Technologies Project

Vicki Saporta, President and CEO, National Abortion Federation

Moderated by Jean Smith, Director, NY Salon

Abortion is one of the most contentious issues in American politics, but the most recent polls show that most voters fall between somewhere between the extremes. This has led some to suggest that Democrats need a more nuanced view of abortion to win back the electorate. As the 2008 presidential race to the White House gets into full swing this international panel will examine:

• Why is abortion such an important issue in electoral politics in the US compared to Europe?
• What’s so bad about abortion?
• Why do women need the right to abortion?
• Should we seek a middle ground?
• Which 2008 presidential candidates, if any, will defend the right to abortion?

    Participant Biographies

Donna Crane, is the Government Relations Director at NARAL Pro-Choice America wwww.prochoiceamerica.org Crane has been with NARAL for more than seven years and has nearly 15 years of lobbying experience overall. As the organization’s lead lobbyist, she represents pro-choice Americans’ views to Congress and the executive branch.

She came to NARAL from the American Public Health Association, where she served as their Director of Congressional Affairs. She has also lobbied for the state health officials and for several biomedical research associations.

Crane also speaks frequently to the media and public on choice-related legislative issues, having appeared on National Public Radio, MSNBC, in National Journal and Roll Call newspaper, among others. Fortune magazine has rated NARAL Pro-Choice America as the top pro-choice advocacy organization in Washington.

Crane holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from San Jose State University and a master’s degree in legislative affairs from George Washington University. She has traveled widely and lived abroad – and is an enthusiastic gourmand.

Ann Furedi, is the Chief Executive Officer of British Pregnancy Advisory Service (bpas) www.bpas.org a non profit organization which provides abortion care for almost 60,000 women a year at its 17 specialist clinics. Read the bpas online news journal Abortion Reviewhttp://www.abortionreview.org

Furedi has worked in reproductive health care for more than 20 years, mainly in policy and communications. She ran the press office of the UK Family Planning Association before leading Birth Control Trust, a non profit organization that advocated the need for research and development in methods of contraception and abortion.

Before joining bpas, as its Chief Executive Officer in June 2003, Furedi was Director of Policy and Communications for the UK regulator of infertility treatment and embryo research, the Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority (HFEA). She is regarded as a leading pro-choice advocate and spokesperson often appearing in the media arguing that abortion is needed back up to contraception if women are to plan their families.

Furedi has written extensively on the causes and consequences of unwanted pregnancy and has a commentary on the need for progression abortion law reform in the current edition of the Journal of Family Planning & Reproductive Health.

Kirsten Moore is President and CEO of the Reproductive Health Technologies Project www.rhtp.org, a national nonprofit advocacy organization that seeks to improve the political and commercial climate in the U.S. so more and better contraceptive and reproductive health products are available to women.

In recent years, RHTP played a principal role in defining the advocacy agenda for expanding awareness of and access to EC in the U.S., culminating in an August 2006 decision by the Food and Drug Administration to allow over-the-counter access to consumers 18 and older.

In 2003, RHTP co-founded with the Union of Concerned Scientists of the Integrity of Science Working Group which crafted a highly successful earned media strategy that helped to make abuses of science in policymaking circles a favorite topic of editorial boards and cartoons.

Most recently, RHTP launched a multi-pronged project to develop and evaluate new communications strategies for talking about abortion that acknowledge changes in our culture, technology, and demographics in the decades since Roe v Wade.

Prior to joining RHTP, Kirsten managed projects focused on gender, reproductive health, and women’s autonomy for nonprofit and for profit clients. She received her Masters in Public Affairs from Princeton University in 1998.

Vicki Saporta is President and CEO of National Abortion Federation www.prochoice.org

Under Saporta’s direction, the National Abortion Federation has played a critical role in promoting and preserving women’s access to safe, legal abortion care. Since taking the helm in 1995, Saporta developed a public policy program that brought abortion providers and the women they serve into the forefront of the public debate about abortion; guided NAF as they set the standard for quality abortion care in North America and led the introduction of medical abortion (RU-486) in the U.S.; successfully advocated to improve law enforcement response to clinic violence; and broadened NAF’s outreach and direct assistance to under served women.

Major media outlets, federal and state legislators, national and international organizations, and the nation’s leading colleges and universities frequently call on Saporta for her expertise on public policy issues, reproductive health, and anti-abortion violence. Saporta currently serves on the District of Columbia Commission for Women, the Steering Committee of the National Council of Women’s Organizations, the Advisory Board of Law Students for Choice, and the Advisory Council of the Women’s Information Network. Saporta was a recipient of the Judge William B. Groat Alumni Award from Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations, the Karen Mulhauser Award from the Women’s Information Network, and the Choice USA Mentor of the Year Award.

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