fbpx

Nancy Keenan to Step Down from NARAL

Nancy Keenan announced this week that she will step down as president of NARAL at the end of this year.

According to the Washington Post, “Keenan said she is leaving out of concern for the future of the pro-choice movement – and thinks she could be holding it back.”

In other words, Keenan has become a liability.

The WaPo article goes on say:

In recent years, Keenan has worried about an “intensity gap” on abortion rights among millennials, which the group considers to be the generation of Americans born between 1980 and 1991. While most young, antiabortion voters see abortion as a crucial political issue, NARAL’s own internal research does not find similar passion among abortion-rights supporters. If the pro-choice movement is to successfully defend abortion rights, Keenan contends, it needs more young people in leadership roles, including hers.

“There’s an opportunity for a new and younger leader,” Keenan said during a Wednesday interview in her downtown Washington office. “Roe v. Wade is 40 in January. It’s time for a new leader to come in and, basically, be the person for the next 40 years of protecting reproductive choice.”

A bit optimistic, don’t you think?

League Confronts NARAL on Multiple Occasions

The Pro-Life Action League has directly engaged with Keenan and NARAL on multiple occasions over the past few years.

In February of last year, League Executive Director Eric Scheidler did a radio debate with Keenan on the subject of abortion funding under Obamacare during which she repeatedly cited the bogus statistic that ““87% of health plans cover abortion.”

Last June, we greeted Keenan and her guests at a NARAL fundraiser held at a posh Chicago restaurant with graphic abortion signs and handheld signs reading, NARAL: Stop the War on Unborn Women.

Then, a few months later, we once again brought out our graphic signs to protest another NARAL fundraising event in downtown Chicago — this one honoring HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius — who noted in her remarks at the event how “appalled” NARAL’s supporters were to have to behold pictures of what they support.

NARAL: A Sinking Ship

One can’t help but wonder how much more there is to the story of why Keenan is leaving NARAL.

Clearly, there were many outspoken pro-choice activists who were not fans of hers (see these two Abortion Gang posts, for instance).

I also note, without comment, that Keenan’s departure comes a mere two weeks after Abortion Gang contributor Steph Herold aired no small amount of dirty laundry when she wrote extensively about the “toxic work environments” at the major national pro-choice organizations.

Now the question is: who will be the next head of the sinking ship that is NARAL?

Share Tweet Email