Records of the National Abortion Rights Action League, 1968-1976

NARAL is the only national lobbying and membership organization devoted solely to maintaining the availability of safe, legal abortion. Originally called the National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws, NARAL was established at the First National Conference on Abortion Laws: Modification or Repeal?, held in February 1969 in Chicago. The conference, sponsored by 21 organizations and attended by 350 people, included a planning session for NARAL and the report of NARAL's pre-formation planning committee: Lawrence Lader of New York, Garrett Hardin of California, and Dr. Lonny Myers of Chicago. Those attending the session elected a 12-person Planning Committee: Lawrence Lader (Chairman), Ruth Proskauer Smith (Vice Chairman), Ruth Cusack (Secretary), Beatrice McClintock (Treasurer), Constance Bille Finnerty, Mrs. Marc Hughes Fisher, Betty Friedan, Norval Morris, Stewart Mott, Dr. Bernard Nathanson, Edna Smith, and Percy Sutton. The committee held its first official meeting in New York on February 25, 1969. It hired Lee Gidding as the first Executive Director; she opened NARAL's office in New York City on March 3.

The Planning Committee, meeting regularly between February and September 1969, defined NARAL's purpose and program, drafted by-laws to submit to the membership for approval, prepared a slate to run for the Board of Directors, and directed NARAL's activities. The Committee defined NARAL's purpose as follows:

NARAL, recognizing the basic human right of a woman to limit her own reproduction, is dedicated to the elimination of all laws and practices that would compel any woman to bear a child against her will. To that end, it proposes to initiate and co-ordinate political, social, and legal action of individuals and groups concerned with providing safe abortions by qualified physicians for all women seeking them regardless of economic status.

The original NARAL program had six parts:

The Board of Directors, elected by the membership, officially replaced the Planning Committee at the first Board meeting, held on September 27, 1969. The Board elected Honorary Officers (Dr. Lester Breslow and Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm as Presidents, Senator Maurine Neuberger as Vice President), Officers (including New York City Councilwoman Carol Greitzer as President), an Executive Committee (Lawrence Lader, Chairman), and a Nominating Committee. In addition, the Board adopted a very specific program of action (see NARAL News, Winter 1970).

From 1969 till early 1973, NARAL worked with other groups to repeal state abortion laws and to oversee implementation of abortion policies in those few states that had liberalized their laws. On January 22, 1973, in Roe vs. Wade, the U.S. Supreme Court held that, during the first three months of pregnancy, abortion should be a private decision between a woman and her doctor, and that during the second three months state regulation should be permitted only to protect the health of the woman. To reflect the Court's repeal of restrictive abortion laws, NARAL became the National Abortion Rights Action League in late 1973.

The Court decision did not settle the issue of women's right to choose abortion. Anti-abortion groups, funded predominantly by the Roman Catholic Church and some other religious organizations, stepped up their political activities, exerting pressure on hospitals, abortion clinics, state legislatures, and the U.S. Congress to limit, or prohibit, abortions. In response, NARAL began to recruit members and funds more actively, expanded its staff, moved its headquarters to Washington, D.C., to facilitate lobbying, and established a political action committee (NARAL PAC) to solicit funds and work on behalf of political candidates. Since its establishment in 1969, NARAL has sponsored workshops, symposiums, and conferences; initiated legal suits; raised funds; published and distributed educational materials; cooperated with numerous other groups in a variety of projects; and demonstrated, lobbied, and testified on behalf of women's right to legal, safe abortions.

NARAL's newsletters, press releases, mailings to members, and annual meeting minutes are a good source of information on the history, resolutions and policies, and activities of the organization, as well as information about abortion rights activities in the states and overseas. Additional published material about abortion, reproduction and birth control, activities of pro-choice and anti-abortion groups, and related information has been transferred from the NARAL subject files to the book division of the Schlesinger Library.