NARAL Pro-Choice Colorado : News : Press Releases

NARAL PRO-CHOICE COLORADO TO COMMEMORATE 35TH ANNIVERSARY OF ROE V. WADE DECISION

Ruling Upheld Women’s Right to Privacy when Making Personal Health Care Decisions

DENVER (Jan.15, 2008) – Tuesday, January 22, 2008, will mark the 35th anniversary of the landmark Roe v. Wade decision by the U.S. Supreme Court upholding women’s right to privacy when making personal health care decisions, including whether to have an abortion. To commemorate the decision, NARAL Pro-Choice Colorado and partnering organizations will host the following event:

Featuring: NARAL Pro-Choice America President Nancy Keenan, Colorado State Senator Betty Boyd, & the Reverend Dr. Ignacio Castuera

Nancy Keenan is president of Washington, D.C.-based NARAL Pro-Choice America. Committed to working on behalf of America’s pro-choice majority, Keenan took the reigns of the organization in December 2004 to protect and defend the American values of freedom and privacy. A successful elected official in her native state of Montana, Keenan applied her experiences as a candidate in overseeing NARAL Pro-Choice America’s political program in the 2006 midterm elections, which helped fuel the gain of 23 pro-choice seats in the U.S. House and three in the U.S. Senate and the defeat of three anti-choice ballot measures, including the repeal of an abortion ban in South Dakota that was designed as a direct threat to Roe v. Wade. In its 2006 post-election analysis, National Journal listed NARAL Pro-Choice America as one of the top five major political organizations and as a leader among groups that “mobilized their grassroots and got voters to the polls in the most competitive races.” Under Keenan’s leadership, NARAL Pro-Choice America launched Prevention First, a values-based initiative encouraging lawmakers to focus on common-sense efforts to prevent unintended pregnancies through medically accurate sex education, birth control, and improved family planning services. Keenan’s work to reshape the debate on reproductive rights and protect women’s access to safe, legal abortion has gained her significant attention as a leading commentator on reproductive health issues. Her list of appearances includes NBC Nightly News, The Today Show, The Brit Hume Report on FOX, CNN and NPR. She also is quoted routinely in The New York Times, Washington Post, Newsweek, and other major national and regional publications.

Senator Betty Boyd (D, Lakewood, SD 21) understands that the majority of Coloradans trust women to make their own personal health-care decisions, in consultation with their doctors, their families, and their conscience. On issues related to reproductive freedom, Senator Boyd has sponsored legislation that would have ensured sexual assault survivors have immediate access to emergency contraception in the ER and that would have allowed pharmacists to dispense emergency contraception directly. Prior to serving as state senator, she served as state representative to Colorado House District 26. Before seeking legislative office, Senator Boyd worked for 8 years as a legislative advocate for social justice.

Reverend Dr. Ignacio Castuera is the first national chaplain for Planned Parenthood Federation of America and currently serves at St. John's United Methodist Church in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles. Rev. Dr. Castuera is a graduate of the School of Theology at Claremont University, where he studied and wrote about the problems of violence and the patriarchal worship of a mother goddess in Mexican culture. He was elected to three Jurisdictional Conferences and to the General Conference of the United Methodist Church and has served on the National Council of Churches Faith and Order Commission and on other boards and task forces as a representative of his denomination. Rev. Dr. Castuera was also the first Mexican-American district superintendent of the United Methodist Church in the Los Angeles District and went on to become the pastor of Hollywood United Methodist Church. During his 11 years at Hollywood United Methodist he transformed the church into a center of the growing movement aimed at creating a positive religious response to the AIDS pandemic.

NARAL Pro-Choice Colorado (NPCC) is the political action arm of the pro-choice movement in Colorado. NPCC has more than 30,000 supporters statewide and works to develop and sustain a constituency that uses the political process to guarantee every woman the right to make personal decisions regarding the full range of reproductive health choices, including preventing unintended pregnancies, bearing healthy children and choosing legal abortion.