Montanan named President of NARAL

I saw Nancy in Helena this year when she came to Helena to speak for the group People for the American Way. http://www.pfaw.org/pfaw/general/.

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By BOB ANEZAssociated Press
HELENA -- Nancy Keenan, a former Montana legislator and superintendent of public instruction, will be the new president of the national abortion rights organization known as NARAL-Pro-Choice America.
Keenan, 52, assumes her new duties Dec. 1, replacing Elizabeth Cavendish, who has been interim president since May.
A native of Anaconda, Keenan takes over NARAL -- formerly called the National Abortion Rights Action League -- at a time when the group sees what it calls "unprecedented threats to women's rights in the courts, in Congress and in state legislatures across the nation."
"The stakes have never been higher," Keenan said in a statement Friday. "Every branch of the federal government is dominated by powerful opponents of choice."
She believes President Bush plans to make appointments to the U.S. Supreme Court who would vote to overturn the landmark abortion rights decision, Roe vs. Wade, in 1973.
"Years of progress on women's health, reproductive freedom and personal privacy are in peril," Keenan said.
Keenan has directed education policy for the Washington-based liberal advocacy group, People for the American Way since early 2003. She was Montana school superintendent for three terms, from 1989 through 2000, and spent three terms in the state House before that.
Keenan was an unsuccessful U.S. House candidate in 2000, losing to Republican Denny Rehberg by a 51-46 percent margin in a three-way race.