Susan J. Frietsche accepting the “Unsung Hero” Award
We have been so busy telling you about our recent wins, we have not had a chance to tell you about recent honors!
WLP Senior Staff Attorney Susan J. Frietsche was honored with a prestigious “Unsung Hero” award from the National Abortion Federation (NAF).
“I am so grateful to NAF for this enormous honor, and to the brilliant rock star David S. Cohen, for nominating me and being the best colleague anyone could ever have, and to the Women’s Law Project for never backing down from a good fight,” says Frietsche. “And above all, I am grateful to the Pennsylvania abortion providers. When I need an example of courage or strength, I look to them.”
NAF’s C. Lalor Burdick Award has been presented each year since 1991 to honor “unsung heroes” whose dedication and daily contributions to ensuring reproductive freedom have, too often, gone unrecognized outside of their clinics and communities.
“Throughout Sue’s distinguished career, she has tirelessly supported abortion providers and protected women’s access to abortion care in Pennsylvania. Her smart advocacy and wise legal counsel have helped abortion providers comply with some of the most stringent and burdensome regulations in the country, and many providers in the state credit her with keeping their doors open,” says Melissa Fowler, Vice President of External Relations at NAF. “It is a great comfort to the providers in Pennsylvania to know that Sue is just a phone call away—and that she is always willing to answer the call and fight for them and their patients. Sue’s work has also changed the lives of countless women and families.”
From the nominating letter drafted by Drexel law professor and WLP board member David S. Cohen:
Sue worked tirelessly to keep the doors of much-needed healthcare facilities that provide abortion care to the people of Pennsylvania. Beyond Sue’s highly visible accomplishments are the day-to-day ways that Sue supports abortion clinics, providers, and patients in the state … She is quick to solve almost any problem, no matter how big or small, by bridging the gap between providers and police, local politicians, or statewide administrators. Her legal expertise goes beyond the abortion bread-and-butter of constitutional rights and spans local zoning law, architectural regulations, administrative procedure, compliance in many different fields, torts, criminal law, death certificates, freedom of information law, Medicaid minutiae, and much more. Sue does all of this with a steely yet warm calm. She gives every abortion clinic and provider the attention they deserve and the legal help that so many abortion providers across the country need but do not have. There have been countless times that all of us in Pennsylvania have talked with providers in other states and they have said, “If only we had our own Sue Frietsche!”
We are so glad to have our own Sue Frietsche. Congratulations, Sue!
The Women’s Law Project is a public interest law center devoted to defending and expanding the rights of women, girls, and LGBTQ people in Pennsylvania and beyond.
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