After 32 years at the helm, I have retired as Executive Director of the Women’s Law Project.
I am pleased and proud to announce that WLP Director of Policy & Advocacy Amal Bass, based in the Philadelphia office, and Susan J. Frietsche, founder and director of WLP’s Western Pennsylvania office, have been appointed interim co-directors of Women’s Law Project.
Amal Bass, pictured here testifying in support of pregnant worker protections, joined WLP in 2006.
Leading Women’s Law Project has been the honor of my life, and I can’t thank you enough for all the support you have shown me over the years. You’ll hear more about my plans for the future soon. Right now, it’s time for me to shift from leader to supporter of this incredible organization.
On a personal level, I’ll admit it isn’t easy to retire amid the rage and turmoil of losing our federal right to abortion. But I want to be clear: I could not have more confidence in the future of the WLP or more faith in Sue and Amal’s ability to meet the immense challenges of the moment, and to steer us through our plan to save reproductive freedom in Pennsylvania.
Sue Frietsche, pictured receiving the “Unsung Hero” award, joined WLP in 1992 and opened the Western PA office in 2002.
WLP attorneys have been representing Pennsylvania-based abortion providers in Pennsylvania for 48 years in both impact litigation and day-to-day compliance issues. We saw this coming and have been preparing for this moment for a long time.
We have a plan, but it relies on you.
This fall, WLP attorneys expect to present oral arguments in a case that challenges the state’s discriminatory ban on Medicaid coverage of abortion care and asks the court to affirm what we believe and will argue, to be true: Pennsylvanians have a fundamental right to abortion protected by the state constitution.
WLP is also working with partners across the state and country to stop Senate Bill 956, the anti-abortion constitutional amendment that would pave the way to banning abortion in Pennsylvania.
The harm of banning abortion cannot be overstated and the Dobbs ruling endangers people who don’t even realize it yet. WLP has always worked on a broad range of intersecting issues with reproductive rights as the keystone because reproductive freedom underpins our ability to prevent and address gender-based violence, obtain economic security, and live free from excessive government intrusion and surveillance.
And as Justice Thomas made clear, the current Court is only getting started. Marriage equality, the right to contraception, and the freedom to express gender-diverse identities without discrimination are all vulnerable.
We are in the fight of our lives – again.
If you take away one thing today, know this: The future of reproductive freedom and abortion access in Pennsylvania is up to us. What we all do – or don’t do – in the next few months will inform the future of reproductive freedom and LGBTQ+ equality for generations to come.
I hope you will continue to support WLP at this critical time and join me in welcoming Amal and Sue as interim co-directors.
Thank you.
Women’s Law Project is a public interest law center in Pennsylvania devoted to advancing and defending the rights of women, girls, and LGBTQ+ people in Pennsylvania and beyond. As a non-profit organization, we can not do this work without you. Please consider supporting our work.
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