Minnesota NARAL Follows National Group’s Name Change
by Paul Nowak
LifeNews.com Staff Writer
December 16, 2003
Minneapolis, MN (LifeNews.com) — Minnesota NARAL has announced it will change its name later this month, mimicking the superficial change the national organization made in 2002.
The group will now be called NARAL Pro-Choice Minnesota. The state affiliate of the pro-abortion group was previously known as the Abortion Rights Council of Minnesota.
"The new name retains NARAL, a widely known name that is synonymous with our role as the political arm of the pro-choice movement," Tim Stanley, the group’s Executive Director told the Minnesota Star-Tribune.
Though the name has changed, its advocacy of extreme positions on abortion and pro-life legislation won’t.
"Minnesota NARAL still maintains it’s radical pro-abortion agenda that it always has," said Scott Fischbach, Executive Director of Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life.
"This name change is a desperate response to the mounting losses by those who support abortion on demand," Fischbach told LifeNews.com. "To try and mask their identity now with the ‘pro-choice’ name is indicative of their approach to women and unborn children."
According to Stanley, the name change is part of a larger effort to mobilize Minnesota abortion-rights supporters in 2004.
In January 2002, the national organization, NARAL, changed its name to "NARAL Pro-Choice America." That was the fourth name change since the groups founding in 1969 as the "National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws." Following the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, the group became known as the "National Abortion Rights Action League," then added "Reproductive Rights" to the name in 1993 in order to establish abortion internationally as a "reproductive right."
The 2002 name change, and this month’s Minnesota Affiliate name change, is the first time the group is not using the acronym "NARAL" to represent anything in particular.
Related web sites:
Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life – https://www.mccl.org
