Mary Jane Gallagher is the President & CEO of the National Family Planning & Reproductive Health Association. She brings to this important job a no-nonsense, straight-talking approach which can only be found in a woman born and bred in the Appalachian foothills of West Virginia. Her progressive yet independent sensibilities have helped to invigorate an association whose members provide a service that is at once vital to society and under constant attack by groups dedicated to decreasing the scope of our public health system.
Gallagher creates opportunities for the association's members to counter those
attacks. Members are helping to win support for access to comprehensive family
planning for the uninsured and those living in poverty through constant engagement
of public policymakers and other key stakeholders. She is a fierce advocate for
women's health and family planning. Her commitment to non-profit efficiency and
her communications acumen perfectly anchor her belief that all people deserve
access to services which will help them act responsibly, stay healthy and plan
for strong families.
Conservatives, pundits, and Democrats alike perpetuated myths about contraception, Medicaid and family planning this week. Here, we set the record straight.
Last Tuesday’s election offered major gains, both congressional and presidential, for advocates of family planning and reproductive health.
What I ask of you, Secretary Leavitt, is to clarify the new HHS regulations. Release a statement saying that pressing the definition of abortion to include contraception is an unacceptable distortion of these regulations.
The Bush administration is proposing sweeping new restrictions on recipients of health-related federal funding. Click here to send a letter to Secretary Leavitt and
demand that these draft regulations never come to fruition. And read more about the new regulations here.
