NARAL Co-Founder Proskauer Smith Dies

Main Category: Abortion
Also Included In: Sexual Health / STDs;  Women's Health / Gynecology
Article Date: 28 Jan 2010 - 4:00 PDT

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Ruth Proskauer Smith, a longtime abortion-rights advocate and one of the founding members of NARAL Pro-Choice America, died Friday in Manhattan at age 102, the New York Times reports. Smith's work in the reproductive rights field began as a field worker for the Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts in the 1940s, and she later worked as the group's executive secretary.

Throughout her career, Smith held high positions with several national reproductive rights organizations, including being a founding member of the National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws in 1969. The group changed its name to the National Abortion Rights Action League after the Supreme Court ruled on Roe v. Wade in 1973 and adopted its current name in 2003.

Smith remained involved with NARAL Pro-Choice New York in recent years and also was active in the right-to-die movement in support of physician-assisted suicide for the terminally ill (Fox, New York Times, 1/27).

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