Rachel MacNair

Rachel M. MacNair (born November 4, 1958) is an American sociologist and psychologist who adheres to the consistent life ethic. She is an activist against abortion and war, and has written against the culture of violence and the eating of meat. An expert on veteran psychology, she coined the term "Perpetration-Induced Traumatic Stress" (PITS), a form of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) that may result from the action of killing. She edited Working for Peace: A Handbook of Practical Psychology. She is also a Quaker, which influences her anti-violence work.

MacNair served for ten years as the president of Feminists for Life, an anti-abortion organization, and she founded the Susan B. Anthony List to help elect anti-abortion politicians. She is a director of the Institute for Integrated Social Analysis, the research arm of the Consistent Life Network.

Education MacNair was the valedictorian for her class at Paseo High School in Kansas City, Missouri. In the 1970s, MacNair was active in the anti-nuclear movement. MacNair worked mostly alone in her position, operating FFL out of an office inside a crisis pregnancy center on East 47th Street in Kansas City. MacNair wished to counter EMILY's List by providing early campaign funds to anti-abortion women candidates.

Also inspired by EMILY's List, in 1992 the WISH List was formed to promote candidates who support abortion rights and were members of the opposing Republican Party. In November 1992 after many favored candidates won their races to create the "Year of the Woman", MacNair announced the formation of the SBA List, describing its purpose as endorsing and supporting women candidates who held anti-abortion beliefs, without regard to party affiliation. MacNair determined to challenge the EMILY's List and the WISH List notion that the top female politicians primarily supported abortion rights. She named Kansas governor Joan Finney and Louisiana Representative Lindy Boggs as examples of ideal politicians—liberal women, not candidates holding right-wing beliefs. The PAC paperwork was initiated on February 4, 1993, listing MacNair as the first secretary; the group operated out of MacNair's office in Kansas City.

MacNair founded the group with two other Feminists for Life leaders, Helen Alvaré and Susan Gibbs. After three years, MacNair, Gibbs, and Alvaré moved on to other projects. They were succeeded by experienced political activists Marjorie Dannenfelser and then Jane Abraham, changing the aim of the group away from bipartisan candidates. According to MacNair, "basically what happened is that Republicans took over". The SBA List now endorses male candidates, including anti-abortion men who are running against women who support abortion rights, and also Republican anti-abortion candidates of either sex running against Democratic anti-abortion candidates. Regarding the change of focus, MacNair said, "I was furious... but at that point there was nothing I could do about it." In October 2004, director David O. Russell shot footage of MacNair speaking about PTSD and PITS for his documentary Soldiers Pay.

Personal life At age 14 MacNair became a member of the Religious Society of Friends, and is currently a member of the Penn Valley Meeting in Kansas City. In the 1970s and 1980s, MacNair was arrested seven times for protesting nuclear weapons, five times for protesting nuclear power plants, and five times for protesting abortion clinics. She is the mother of a son conceived in 1984 by anonymous artificial insemination. She lives in her childhood home in Kansas City, Missouri.