Kathryn Kolbert

Activist, Change Agent, Educator/Teacher, Lawyer, Social entrepreneur

Kathryn Kolbert (Kitty) has had a long and distinguished career advancing women’s rights. In 1992, she made her second appearance before the US Supreme Court, arguing Planned Parenthood v. Casey, which has been widely credited with saving Roe v. Wade. A co-founder of the Center for Reproductive Rights and the Athena Film Festival, she also created NPR’s Justice Talking and the Athena Center for Leadership at Barnard College. Kolbert believes passionately that the reproductive freedom movement can no longer depend on the federal courts to protect our freedoms. Save Roe, Save Roe, Save Roe is no longer a viable strategy. In the next year, the Supreme Court is likely to permit states to ban abortion and within a short time as many as 27 states are likely to do so. We must fight back, express our justifiable anger and demand more from our elected officials. We must help women who need to travel to obtain services or find medication abortion. But most importantly, we need a laser focus on winning political power in the state legislatures and Congress so that we can ensure that all people, where ever they live, whatever their life circumstances, whatever their age or race or LGBTQIA+ status have the ability to choose whether to be a parent and obtain safe and legal abortions.

making change my grandchildren

Its time for a new long-range plan to win back the reproductive freedoms we are likely to lose in the next year. Save Roe is no longer a viable strategy. By building political power at all levels of government from local school boards, to town councils, to state legislative and gubernatorial seats and of course, Congress we can ensure that people across the country have access to safe and culturally sensitive reproductive health care and the ability to make important decisions about our lives, free of government interference.

Reproductive Rights, Women's Leadership