Frances Kissling is a visiting scholar at the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania where she is exploring and writing about new ways of thinking and talking about abortion from a feminist pro-choice perspective. Her primary interest is the development of a new ethic of abortion that seeks to infuse the traditional feminist approach to abortion as a human right with a commitment to personal responsibility and respect for the value of fetal life. She began that work as a fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies at Harvard University. Kissling has published extensively in popular media. She is a columnist for Salon.com and Religion Dispatches. Her work has recently appeared in The New York Times, Washington Post, LA Times, The Nation, and Mother Jones. She has been a leader in both the Catholic feminist and secular choice movement for over 40 years, serving for 25 years as the president of Catholics for Choice. Kissling is the co-author of Rosie: The Investigation of a Wrongful Death (Dial Press, 1988) and of the CFC communications manual “How to Talk about Abortion” (CFFC, 1999) and has contributed chapters to 8 books on population, environment and reproductive health as well as authored over 250 published articles and op-eds.
Kissling has testified on a range of issues related to abortion before the British, Spanish, Brazilian, Irish and Uruguayan parliaments as well as at numerous UN and EU conferences. She has participated in several dialogues aimed at developing understanding between those who are prochoice and prolife with the Public Conversations Project, the UN Population Fund and the Western Behavioral Institute.