Gloria Feldt is the leading expert in women's rights, health, sex, media, leadership, and politics from where the personal meets the political. People Magazine called this former teen mom who became the leader of the world's largest reproductive and sexual health care provider and advocacy organization "the voice of experience." She's now a powerful independent voice through her books, keynote speeches, and media commentary.

Gloria's newest book, in collaboration with actress Kathleen Turner, is Send Yourself Roses: Thoughts on My Life, Love, and Leading Roles, will be published by Springboard, February 14, 2008. Her two previous books are The War on Choice: The Right-Wing Attack on Women's Rights and How to Fight Back and Behind Every Choice Is a Story.

Her commentary has appeared in The New York Times, USA Today, ELLE, and MS magazines among many others, and on-line in Alternet, Salon, The Huffington Post, Daily Kos, WIMNsVoices, Women’s e-News, and RH Reality Check. Gloria has appeared as both a newsmaker and a commentator on most major national radio and television news and public affairs programs, and is a SheSource expert. Vanity Fair magazine named Gloria one of America's "top 200 women legends, leaders, and trailblazers". Glamour magazine honored her as Woman of the Year. She was one of Women's e-News' 2007 "21 Leaders for the 21st Century."

Gloria exemplifies leadership on the frontlines. Her colleagues call her a “practical visionary”. For 22 years, she led Planned Parenthood affiliates in West Texas and Arizona. She then served as president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Federation of America and the its political arm, the Planned Parenthood Action Fund from 1996-2005. Her call to "fight forward" scored insurance coverage for contraceptives and accessible emergency contraception, as well as initiating the Prevention First Act and reintroduction of the Freedom of Choice Act. Her leadership helped bring over a million people to Washington D. C. in 2004 to the March for Women's Lives--the largest march of any kind in the nation's history.

Gloria is a fellow of the International Leadership Forum. She serves on the Women's Media Center board of directors and the advisory board of Our Bodies, Ourselves.

Gloria has a unique understanding of the confluence of the personal and the political in American culture. A confluence of the personal and the political propelled her own story too. As a young wife and mother from small-town Texas, she raised three children while attending college. She taught Head Start and was active in the civil rights movement and interfaith activities. There, she realized women's civil rights, equality, and social justice depend on having the human right to determine their own reproductive destiny. Her life's passion for social justice, especially for women, became her life's work. Texas Monthly, naming her to its Texas Twenty, described her as "part den mother, part businesswoman, part Mae West".

That's why today, she shares her expertise and experiences in her writing, speeches, and media commentary. She has a special passion for encouraging young people, through the media, to participate in the political process on behalf of their own rights and health. Next March, Women’s History Month, she’ll be touring campuses with an intergenerational panel of women called “Women, Girls, and Ladies”.

She and her husband, Alex Barbanell, have a combined family of six children, nine grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren. They live in New York and Arizona.

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Ms. Sánchez Fuentes is the executive director and guiding force of Grupo de Información en Reproducción Elegida (GIRE)—The Information Group on Reproductive Choice—based in México City. GIRE, a non-profit organization founded in 1992, is the leading national advocate for sexual and reproductive justice for the women of México. Under the dynamic and innovative leadership of Ms. Sánchez Fuentes, GIRE has become the key voice for the defense and advancement of sexual and reproductive rights for Mexican women, also generating strong influences throughout all of Latin America.

The current focus of GIRE—and the tireless efforts of Ms. Sánchez Fuentes—is the decriminalization of abortion, which includes safe and legal abortion services for all women who request it. Although abortion is usually illegal in México, there are some legal exceptions, such as rape and incest. Tragically, however, even women who are victims of these horrific crimes are routinely denied access to safe and respectful abortion care. As is true everywhere in the world, this does not stop Mexican women from seeking abortions. It does means that they are too often forced to risk their lives and health as they do so—obtaining unsafe procedures in unsanitary conditions—often resulting in infection, permanent reproductive health disabilities, and death.

Unsafe abortion is the fourth cause of maternal mortality in México and Ms. Sánchez Fuentes is absolutely determined to change this travesty. Her passionate and articulate advocacy toward the education of decision-makers, government officials, and the media is truly making a difference in the lives of women. The effort to destigmatize abortion—as well as to promote the importance of contraception in women's health—has placed GIRE as a shining example for all of Latin America. On April 24th of this year, a miracle occurred as a result of dedicated and relentless hard work—abortion in the first trimester of pregnancy was legalized in México City! Since then more than 1,500 women have received safe abortion care without complications in México's capital city. Compare this to the years 2002-2006, when only 91 women throughout the entire country were "allowed" to have legal abortions under the repressive restrictions of rape and incest. This is an incredible victory!

This victory—as well as GIRE’s numerous other successes—have significantly improved the quality of life for Mexican women. But Ms. Sánchez Fuentes knows this is not enough. She is determined to stop the death and suffering of the women of México. Her amazing courage in the face of political and religious obstacles—particularly under the iron fist of the Catholic Church that view abortion as a mortal sin and women as second-class citizens—is truly an inspiration for all of us.

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