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National President:
Morgan Healey


president

Dr Morgan Healey took over the leadership of ALRANZ in March 2011 after the association's longtime president, Dame Margaret Sparrow (see bio below), stepped down from the post at the AGM in Wellington.

Morgan brings to the role a background in women's studies and pro-choice activism. Born and raised in the United States, Morgan graduated with a B.A. from Connecticut College in New London where her studies inspired what was to become an abiding interest in feminist issues. During her undergraduate years, Morgan spent a semester in Amsterdam studying the intersection of gender, sexuality and identity.

In 2003, Morgan moved to Cork, Ireland, to pursue a master's degree in Women's Studies through University College. Her M.A. thesis focused on the unprecedented election of 1992, which saw 20 women enter Ireland's lower house of Parliament (the Dáil Éireann). In her research, she examined the impact these women had on the political agenda, and particularly on the struggle for reproductive rights in Ireland.

It was through one of her professors, Dr Sandra McAvoy, that Morgan came to appreciate Ireland's damaging and draconian abortion laws, under which abortion is constitutionally banned except where the life of the mother is at risk. Along with several of her friends, Morgan became active in the Cork Women's Right to Choose Group, of which Dr McAvoy was a founding member. This group sought to end the cycle of discrimination and recrimination forced upon Irish women who seek access to abortion services. Because of the law, women living in Ireland (both the Republic and Northern Ireland) must travel abroad for abortions, with an estimated 4,000 to 6,000 going to Britain each year. In 2005, Morgan began work at the University of Limerick toward a Ph.D. Four years later, she and her New Zealand partner moved to Wellington, and Morgan spent much of the first ten months in the country at her desk working on her doctoral thesis. She successfully defended her work in October of that year.

It was through her independent membership at the Wellington branch of the National Council of Women that Morgan was introduced to ALRANZ. Soon she was on the National Committee and later became the association's National Secretary. One of her focuses in ALRANZ has been to recruit younger women and men to the pro-choice movement. She co-sponsored a film event with Victoria University's Women's Rights Officer, Caitlin Dunham, in May 2010 for Women's Fest. From there she worked with a small group of women to help form Action for Abortion Rights, the pro-choice group at Victoria. Morgan was also an organiser of the national prochoice gathering in Wellington in March 2011.

She is currently working with other organisations and individuals to form a coalition whose focus is on changing the current law in New Zealand. Morgan is also a member of NCW's Parliamentary Watch Committee and a collective member of Muse feminist zine.



Morgan has worked alongside Dame Margaret Sparrow since the beginning of her involvement with ALRANZ, and in taking over the presidency, pointed to the huge debt of gratitude owed Margaret for her wise and unwavering leadership. "Together with ALRANZ members and everyone who sees reproductive rights as human rights, I aim to pay tribute to that leadership by continuing to build the movement for change," she said in a media release announcing the new leadership line-up.