Lee Minto

Lee Minto (born 1927) is an American women's health activist and sex education advocate. She served as executive director of the Seattle-King County chapter of Planned Parenthood for 27 years, and was instrumental in Washington State Referendum 20, a referendum in 1970 that successfully legalized early pregnancy abortion in the state of Washington.

Early life and education Minto was born October 11, 1927, in Hamilton, Montana. Her grandparents had moved to Montana from Virginia in 1890; Minto's grandfather was the personal attorney of "Copper King" Marcus Daly and had helped form Montana's first legislature. Despite being supportive of a woman's right to choose, Minto later recalled that the group was primarily focused on the healthcare issues involved:

Those of us who worked on this, I guess it would be fair to say we were less concerned about women's rights than women's health. The medical people who were involved had all had direct experience with the very harmful effects of back alley abortions.

1980s During the 1980s, Minto initiated discussions with Seattle Archbishop Raymond G. Hunthausen, trying to find common ground between her organization and the Catholic Church; although the discussions were ultimately unsuccessful, Seattle stood as one of the only U.S. cities in which the Catholic Church entered into serious talks with Planned Parenthood.

1990s In 1991, Minto appeared before the Senate Committee on Labor and Human Resources to denounce new Title X regulations introduced in 1988 that prevented family planning clinics from giving any information about abortions to patients. Speaking as part of a panel alongside Senator Rhoda E. Perry and Beth Quill, director of ambulatory services of the Women and Infants Hospital of Rhode Island, Minto argued that family planning clinics could not provide effective healthcare services without the freedom to properly inform their patients of all options:

Family planning is all about planned and wanted children, and I really want to make this statement because I care a lot about that. It's about healthy mothers rearing healthy children ... Family planning is about having the information you need before you make decisions. It's about taking control of your own life and being responsible for your own body ... I've lived too long to think we can ever solve all the problems of women's healthcare – it's a moving target – but we can and we've got to look beyond the blinders of our own experience, our own religious beliefs, our own upbringing, sometimes our own cherished values, and see and appreciate the differing realities of other peoples' lives. She joined the Brush Foundation board of directors, which she chaired for three years before finally stepping down at the age of 80.