Home > News > A Lifelong Commitment to Choice

A Lifelong Commitment to Affirming Reproductive Choice

January 23, 2008

Thirty-five years after the landmark abortion rights case Roe v. Wade was decided by the U.S. Supreme Court, the right of a woman to determine whether she will bear a child is more in danger of being overturned than at any time since the case was heard in 1973.

Sarah Allison, a resident of Tulsa, OK, might not seem like a typical crusader, but she worked quietly to ensure that women would continue to have a choice around reproductive matters.

According to her friend Barbara Santee, Allison "spent her life opening doors that were firmly shut against women." As a psychologist and psychotherapist (working in the early 1970s), Allison joined with a small group of concerned women and encouraged the Governor to begin the Oklahoma Commission on the Status of Women. The group, recalled Allison, "became known as Women for Equality," and recognized that "at the heart of equality, a woman needed to be able to make her own choices regarding family life and reproductive issues, free from government interference." Not surprisingly, the meeting, as well as subsequent gatherings, was held in the basement of All Souls Unitarian Church in Tulsa.

The group formed Modern Oklahomans for the Repeal of Abortion Laws (MORAL) and worked to reform reproductive legislation in the state. Partnering with local ministers and churches, the organization helped connect Oklahoma women to abortion services in other states with less restrictive laws and to professional help in-state for those who couldn't travel out of Oklahoma. This work, which occurred before the Roe decision was handed down, was critically important for the women who sought assistance.

Allison went on to serve on the board of the National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL) and was involved in selecting the case that would go to the Supreme Court, known now as Roe v. Wade. One of the criteria Allison insisted on was that the test case be brought by a female attorney, and NARAL selected twenty-seven year old Sarah Weddington, recipient of the Unitarian Universalist Women's Federation Ministry to Women Award in 2005.

According to her friend Barbara Santee, Allison "had a lifelong commitment to eliminating government interference from reproductive choices and to giving women control over those personal decisions."

Sarah Allison was given the Pinnacle Award by the Tulsa Mayor's Commission on the Status of Women and NARAL's Estelle Antell Footprints Award, honoring an individual "who personifies compassion, courage, leadership, vision, determination, and an unwavering dedication to maintaining reproductive freedom for all people."

Sarah Allison died on February 9, 2007, at the age of seventy-eight. A member first of All Souls Church and then of Hope Church in Tulsa, she was memorialized on February 14, 2007. Her daughter, Ann Allison, an attorney who attends All Souls Church in Tulsa, remembered her: "My mom spent her life fighting for the equality and reproductive choice of all, including those that she had never met but whose welfare was important to her, in this generation and generations to come. She was an inspiration to many, especially to me."

This is the first in a series of articles UUA.org will feature from January through March which lift up the critical reproductive health-related work of Unitarian Universalist individuals, congregations, and the Association.

For more information contact info @ uua.org.

Last updated on Monday, January 28, 2008.