sue. This association was formed in 1964 by Dr. AlanGuttmacher of Planned Parenthood as an educational association. Only twenty activemembers, consisting of doctors, lawyers and other professionals, were actively involved inthis group. However; the ASA was important in lending credibility and authority to theabortion movement in the early years when this support was badly needed. It should benoted that in the early years the ASA was not in the forefront of the movement as itrefused to support aggressive measures to change the abortion laws. The ASA was crucial in bringing together activists who disagreed with the ASAscautious approach. These activists later worked together to found the NationalAssociation for Repeal of Abortion Laws (NARAL). Lawrence Lader, NARAL founder,had become a ASA boardmember as a result of his research on abortion. Ruth Smith,another NARAL founder, had served as executive director of the ASA. Also, Dr. LonnyMyers was crucial to the founding of NARAL and Lader contacted her through his ASAcontacts. Early organizers used their connections to recruit professionals who would lendthis movement prestige and influential power.The early Pro-Choice movement also benefited from other social movements of theera. Women, college students and other young people who were activated by earliermovements of the 1960s became the grass-roots constituents of the movement to legalizeabortion. These constituents were available and also felt very strongly about the issues athand.The population organizations of the time also aided the early Pro-Choicemovement. The Association for Voluntary Sterilization (AVS) and Zero PopulationGrowth(ZPG) shared members with NARAL. ZPG, especially, had local chapters thatwere heavily student influenced. These local chapters became deeply involved in themobilization of the movement.The women’s movement was emerging as the abortion movement was getting offthe ground. The National Org...
