Frances Kissling (born 15 June 1943) is an activist in the fields of religion, reproduction, and women's rights. She is the president of the Center for Health, Ethics and Social Policy. She was president of

Catholics for Choice Catholics for Choice (CFC) is a dissenting Catholic abortion rights advocacy group based in Washington, D.C. Formed in 1973 as Catholics for a Free Choice, the group gained notice after its 1984 advertisement in ''The New York Times'' challe ...

(founded 1973) from 1982 until 2007, when she turned over the reins to Jon O'Brien. She is now a visiting scholar at the Center for Bioethics at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest- ...

, and at th
Instituto de Investigaciones Filosóficas
at UNAM, Mexico City. She regularly contributes pieces to ''

The Nation ''The Nation'' is an American liberal biweekly magazine that covers political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's '' The Liberator'', an abolitionist newspaper t ...

'' and ''

The Huffington Post ''HuffPost'' (formerly ''The Huffington Post'' until 2017 and sometimes abbreviated ''HuffPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and ...

''. She contributed the piece "Dancing Against the Vatican" to the 2003 anthology '' Sisterhood Is Forever: The Women's Anthology for a New Millennium'', edited by

Robin Morgan Robin Morgan (born January 29, 1941) is an American poet, writer, activist, journalist, lecturer and former child actor. Since the early 1960s, she has been a key radical feminist member of the American Women's Movement, and a leader in the ...

Early life

Kissling was born Frances Romanski into a Polish

working-class The working class (or labouring class) comprises those engaged in manual-labour occupations or industrial work, who are remunerated via waged or salaried contracts. Working-class occupations (see also " Designation of workers by collar colou ...

family in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

in 1943, to Thomas and Florence Romanski (née Rynkiewicz).New York Times, 27 Feb. 2007
retrieved 12-31-08 Five years later, after having another daughter, her mother divorced and later married a man named Charles Kissling, with whom two more children were conceived. Inspired by the nuns at her Catholic school, she joined a

convent A convent is a community of monks, nuns, religious brothers or, sisters or priests. Alternatively, ''convent'' means the building used by the community. The word is particularly used in the Catholic Church, Lutheran churches, and the Angl ...

in the early 1960s at age 19, but after just six months she left and enrolled in the

New School The New School is a private research university in New York City. It was founded in 1919 as The New School for Social Research with an original mission dedicated to academic freedom and intellectual inquiry and a home for progressive thinkers. ...

Abortion rights activism

Kissling became active in the

women's movement The feminist movement (also known as the women's movement, or feminism) refers to a series of social movements and political campaigns for radical and liberal reforms on women's issues created by the inequality between men and women. Such is ...

in the 1960s. In 1970, after

abortion Abortion is the termination of a pregnancy by removal or expulsion of an embryo or fetus. An abortion that occurs without intervention is known as a miscarriage or "spontaneous abortion"; these occur in approximately 30% to 40% of pre ...

was made legal in New York, she was asked to direct an

abortion clinic Abortion is the termination of a pregnancy by removal or expulsion of an embryo or fetus. An abortion that occurs without intervention is known as a miscarriage or "spontaneous abortion"; these occur in approximately 30% to 40% of pregnan ...

in Pelham, which she accepted. In 1977 she was appointed founding President of the

National Abortion Federation The National Abortion Federation (NAF) is the professional association of abortion providers. NAF members include private and non-profit clinics, Planned Parenthood affiliates, women's health centers, physicians' offices, and hospitals who together ...

. In 1978 she joined the board of

Catholics for a Free Choice The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

, and in 1982 she took over as president – a position she held for 25 years until her retirement in 2007. She supports public funding for contraception and abortion, and is the co-author of '' Rosie: The Investigation of a Wrongful Death'', with Ellen Frankfort. Kissling was a 2007–2008 Fellow of the Radcliffe Institute Fellowship Program, part of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University. Her project while in residence was a book, ''How to Think about Abortion: Pro-choice Reflections on Rights and Responsibility''. She is currently a visiting scholar at the

Center for Bioethics.

References

External links

* United States National Library of Medicine
Guide to Oral Histories in Medicine and the Health Sciences
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kissling, Frances 1943 births American abortion-rights activists University of Pennsylvania faculty American people of Polish descent Living people Activists from New York City American women's rights activists Catholic feminists Catholic feminism