Wanda Franz


Wanda Franz is a West Virginian anti-abortion lobbyist and activist.

Biography

Franz spent her childhood in post-World War II Germany, where her father was stationed. In the 1970s, she attended West Virginia University to obtain her doctorate in psychology. While attending WVU, she was asked to speak to anti-abortion activists where she connected her experience in Germany to anti-abortion activism.
In 1983, she served as a consultant for the Office of Popular Affairs in the Reagan and Bush administrations until 1991. In 1983, Franz wrote the introduction to Reagan's book Abortion and the Conscience of the Nation.
From 1991 to 2011, she was the President for the National Right to Life Committee. During her tenure as president, Fortune magazine recognized the organization twice as the "most publicly recognized and politically effective pro-life organization."
She is president of West Virginians for Life, the largest "pro-life" group in West Virginia, first getting the position in 1993 and again in 2018. She is working towards the creation of an amendment that specifies that "nothing in this Constitution secures or protects a right to abortion."
Franz retired from her professor of psychology position at WVU in 2003.