Founder of the New Jersey "Right to Choose" campaign in 1975, Fran Avallone speaks to school groups about sex education, publishes a newsletter and lobbies for abortion reforms.  RTCNJ has successfully sued the state to get Medicaid funding for abortions for poor women.

Avallone, who has been happily married for 30 years and has 2 adult children, says, "I don't know if I ever could have an abortion." But at the age of 26 she had a miscarriage, and was forced to lie on a hospital bed with a 5-month-old fetus for an hour until the Board of Health showed up to certify that she hadn't aborted it. "Things like that stay with me,"  Avallone says. She's also witnessed the pain of her intellectually-disabled cousin when the cousin's children were taken away from her. Her cousin had tried to get her tubes tied and to abort the pregnancies—both requests had been denied.

Reflecting on her work with RTCNJ, Avallone says, "I'd rather be doing something else, really. When I started Right to Choose, I thought it would last only a few years and the job would be done."

 Update: Fran Avallone died of lung cancer in December of 2003, in her Los Angeles home. She was 66.