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“In the post-Roe environment, we’re not immune in California, and I’ve never felt like we were immune,” says Greene, the San Francisco Leadership Council chair of Reproductive Freedom for All, formerly known as NARAL Pro-Choice America, a national nonprofit dedicated to abortion protections and reproductive rights and founded in 1969.
The organization of 4 million members also stands for access to birth control, parental leave policies, pregnancy protections. and equal civil and LGBTQ rights. After helping organize the annual San Francisco Reproductive Freedom for All Luncheon — familiar to many as the San Francisco Power of Choice Luncheon for nearly 30 years — Greene is going to soon become a grandmother to a baby girl and felt a renewed energy to sound the alarm about reproductive rights for future generations of women at this year’s 30th luncheon on March 14. “ told everybody, ‘I’m not touching abortion, there’s no federal abortion ban, it’s the states,’ which was smoke and mirrors,” she said. “His base wants a federal abortion ban — hard stop.” One of Trump‘s first acts in office was to issue an executive order on only recognizing a person’s assigned sex at birth on official identification. It also included language defining “personhood” as beginning at conception — a red flag for abortion-rights advocates. “So we are doing everything in our power to hold members of Congress, the state legislatures — everyone — accountable,” Greene said. As states across the country continue to limit or restrict abortion access and Trump is just weeks into his second presidency, hundreds of reproductive rights advocates and leaders are gathering for the luncheon. There, they will discuss upcoming challenges and what’s been learned through the reproductive health movement in the last couple of years, and since the event’s inception in 1995. While the event has long been a critical opportunity for cultivation and inspiration within the movement, this year feels especially significant for those who’ve been involved since the beginning. “This year is special in the sense that things have just gotten so much worse,” said Dagmar Dolby, the founder of the event. When Dolby first organized the event, it was an informal gathering. At the time, talking about abortion protections still felt relatively new — Roe v. Wade had gone into effect a little more than 20 years earlier, and people felt secure in its standing. “As they learned how this was still at risk, then they became very passionate about it,” Dolby said. “We had, I reckon, about 250 people that first time, but the next year, we sold out to 500.” Dolby said that, as the size of the annual event grew even larger, she felt as if she and her peers became the “watchdogs” to ensure that abortion rights weren’t going in the opposite direction.Over the last 30 years, the luncheon has raised more than $25.5 million for the organization’s efforts in supporting reproductive freedom, such as expanding access to contraception, paid family leave, in vitro fertilization and gender-affirming care, as well as abortion. In the past three years since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned constitutional abortion protections with the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision, Dolby and her colleagues have watched as 12 states have banned abortion completely, while 29 have passed restrictions based on gestational period. However, despite the setbacks of the most recent election, they were heartened by the enshrining of abortion protections in seven state constitutions, from Maryland to Nevada. According to a Pew Research Poll conducted last year, 63 percent of Americans think abortion should be legal in all or most cases. “The majority really is with us,” Dolby says. “It’s just that before the election, I don’t think they heard the message.” At this year’s luncheon, Dolby said, she plans to discuss ways to expand the organization’s reach, communicate more effectively with a younger generation of voters, and maintain connections to their base supporters. Past speakers have included former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and Lizz Winstead, the co-creator of The Daily Show. Supermodel, entrepreneur and philanthropist Karlie Kloss, was chosen as one of this year’s speakers to bridge the gap with younger voters and potential new leaders in the movement and maximize their audience as much as possible. “There’s a significant population of voters who we weren’t able to break through to, to persuade them of the threat that remains in this country,” said Mini Timmaraju, the president and CEO of Reproductive Freedom for All since 2021. “More Americans than ever before are tuned out.” Timmaraju said new faces such as Kloss are becoming more important in the effort to spread the message more effectively. Kloss successfully used her platform during the last election to help campaign for a ballot measure in Missouri, her home state, which added abortion protections to the state constitution. “Her celebrity is really important, but also she’s a really great example of somebody who’s taken that and leveraged it to be an old-school activist, to figure out how to use influence and attention to get these issues in front of the folks who follow her,” Timmaraju said. Kloss and Timmaraju will have a discussion about those issues, and Kimberly Peeler-Allen, Reproductive Freedom for All board chair, will also speak. Timmaraju said she wants to take the time to address what could happen if Trump decides to push for a national abortion ban, as well as focus on the inspirational stories coming out about work being done on the ground in states such as California. In San Francisco, voters overwhelmingly voted to pass Proposition O in November, which enshrined abortion protections as city policy, while California Attorney General Rob Bonta has vowed to enable clinics to continue sending abortion pills statewide. “We’ve got to do a reality check about what the crisis is,” Timmaraju says. “But we also have to make sure our supporters and our activists understand how much their work matters and leave with a sense of hope about what’s possible.” Among the 20 members of the San Francisco Leadership Council are Daphne Jackson Dickson, Janie Friend, Beth Grossman, Leslie Hume, Priscilla Geeslin, Meagan Ryan, Lita Sam-Vargas, Lucie Weissman and Jane Wolf. The 2025 luncheon theme, “Moving Forward,” asks how the movement’s supporters can build on the good work already being done and keep it growing.Past luncheons have highlighted topics that Greene said still resonate with her to this day, such as in 1996, when Bill Bell shared the story of his daughter, Becky, who died at 17 from complications of an illegal abortion in 1988 due to the state of Indiana’s parental abortion consent law at the time.Greene said that over the years, there have been parental-consent ballot measures in California, but each time they’ve been voted against. “It felt scary even then. ... As a parent, you feel it so viscerally,” she said. “I always feel like we need to connect to people’s hearts.” Greene said that’s one of her goals for this month’s luncheon. By focusing on the heart, she aims to encourage more activism in the newcomers, even if it starts out small. “Most people don’t just dive into something,” she said. “You have a friend who talks to you about it, maybe you support a candidate, maybe you look online and see what’s going on across the country.” Two of Dolby’s granddaughters will be at the luncheon for the first time, also representing the new wave she said she hopes will join the fight. “The fact that we’ve had these defeats, it should give us more inspiration,” Dolby said. “There is no destruction without creation or creativity ... when things really get bad, that gives you a chance to rebuild. And I think that’s what I’m hoping for.”March 14 The 30th San Francisco Reproductive Freedom for All Luncheon The Fairmont Hotel 11 a.m.–1:30 p.m. To register, visitSome 27 years after first pitching a plan to replace an aging marina on Treasure Island, a local developer has finally received a key thumbs-up to move forward.“We are excited to move ahead on a project that we have been planning for years, and that has undergone a meticulous review and approval process,” Kenwood Investments CEO Darius Anderson said in a prepared statement. BCDC regulates projects that fill or extra materials into or out of San Francisco Bay. The marina project would add about 225 cubic yards of solid fill to the Bay. The commission’s approval is one of the important hurdles the project needed to pass to go forward. Kenwood’s project would replace a decaying set of docks and gangways with new, floating docks and aluminum gangways. It would also install wrapped steel guide pilings in place of creosote-treated wood ones. The piers would be tall enough that with its floating docks the marina would be capable of adapting to the anticipated rise in sea levels.Responding to concerns about the size and potential impacts of its proposal, Kenwood has repeatedly reduced the size of its proposal. As recently as 2017, it was still proposing that Anderson and Kenwood’s original plans for the marina were “ambitious,” said Bill Kreysler, chairman of the board of the Treasure Island Sailing Center, which offers group and private sailing lessons for kids and adults out of Clipper Cove. But under those plans, the marina would have offered large slips designed for yachts and bigger boats. The center was concerned that such a large operation and the presence of such big boats would hinder its ability to teach kids how to sail and affect its other programs. “To their credit, they came back with a significantly reduced footprint,” which was an acceptable compromise, Kreysler said. “As part of the design process, we listened closely to the concerns of local recreational sailors and users of Clipper Cove, as well as Treasure Island residents, and created a project plan that addresses those concerns,” Anderson said in the statement. Coincidentally, the sailing center recently closed for an expected two to three years due to construction related to the ongoing redevelopment of Treasure Island. The former military base is in the midst of being transformed with new residential and retail buildings, parks, trails and open space, and other amenities. Sonoma-based Kenwood expects to begin reconstruction of the marina in 2026 and take about two years to complete it, it said in a press release. It expects to finish all its water-related work in in a single season. A Kenwood-related entity called Treasure Island Enterprises is leading the marina redevelopment effort. Treasure Island Enterprises is leasing the project area from the Treasure Island Development Authority, the San Francisco agency that oversees the economic development of the island, formerly a naval base. Anderson founded Kenwood in 2000. The firm has since invested in real estate development, media, tourism and hospitality projects and has long been involved in the larger effort to redevelop Treasure Island. The company is currently embroiled in litigation with Stockbridge Capital Group and developer Wilson Meany, its partners in the redevelopment of Treasure Island, over proceeds from the massive project.Click and hold your mouse button on the page to select the area you wish to save or print. You can click and drag the clipping box to move it or click and drag in the bottom right corner to resize it. When you're happy with your selection, click the checkmark icon next to the clipping area to continue.This is the name that will be displayed next to your photo for comments, blog posts, and more. Choose wisely!Create a password that only you will remember. If you forget it, you'll be able to recover it using your email address.Forgot Password An email message containing instructions on how to reset your password has been sent to the email address listed on your account.
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