Wahington Post: NARAL President Nancy Keenan to step down

Abortion rights opponents, however, contend that Keenan and her colleagues are fighting a losing battle. A change in leadership, they say, won’t galvanize young supporters. “This is not about tactics or strategy,” said Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the anti-abortion group Susan B. Anthony List. “This is about the youth trending pro-life, or ambivalent.”

This article first appeared online at The Washington Post on May 10, 2012.

Exclusive: NARAL President Nancy Keenan to step down
Posted by Sarah Kliff

At the end of this year, Nancy Keenan will step down from her post as president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, the country’s oldest abortion-rights advocacy group.

The 60-year-old 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 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.

Continue reading at The Washington Post.

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