The Illinois Pro-Choice Alliance (IPCA) was founded on January 29, 1979, to coordinate religious, civic, labor, and women's rights organizations in defense of legal abortion in Illinois. The Illinois Women's Agenda, a coalition of seventy Illinois women's rights organizations, convened the founding meeting in reaction to legislative efforts to regulate abortion in Illinois. According to IPCA's original mission statement, the Alliance was formed "to eliminate unfocused and duplicate efforts, to activate existing networks, to broaden local grassroots efforts into a coordinated mobilization, to provide technical assistance, to pool resources and constituents, and in general, to guarantee the existence of a full-time continuous effort for reproductive freedom in Illinois." The IPCA was formed to mobilize Illinois pro-choice organizations against anti-abortion legislation in Illinois and "to display the diversity and strength of the pro-choice constituency to the state leglislature, media and general public." In the 1980s, the IPCA campaigned against anti-abortion legislation, hospital administrators, and pro-Life activists that sought to limit and regulate access to safe, legal abortions. By 1991, the IPCA and IPCA Educational Fund consisted of forty-four diverse member organizations including Chicago Catholic Women, League of Women Voters of Illinois, Women's Bar Association, and Operation PUSH.
From the description of Records, 1977-1995. (University of Illinois-Chicago Library). WorldCat record id: 56396082
