Nurse, political leader, women's rights activist. A graduate of the University of Kansas, Kabler is best-known as founder and chair of Wisconsin Citizens for Family Planning, a statewide organization formed in 1966. Kabler lobbied for the liberalization of Wisconsin’s laws restricting access to contraceptive devices. She played an instrumental role in overturning a law that prevented single women and unmarried couples from obtaining contraception (1976). Once the law passed, she established the Wisconsin State Family Planning Coordinating Council, to secure federal funding and statewide services for parents. She also served on the Planned Parenthood national board in 1970’s and 80’s and as its Great Lakes Regional Chair for Public Affairs.

Kabler opened the first Wisconsin shelter for battered women during the late 1970s. She worked to pass the Madison Equal opportunity Ordinance and was a member of Wisconsin Citizens for Fair Housing. In 1974 Kabler received an activist award from the Wisconsin Confederation of Zero Population Growth to salute her efforts in the birth control and abortion reform movements. In 2003, she received the Manfred E. Swarsenky Humanitarian Service Award for volunteering contributions on the behalf of race relations, women’s health, conservation and public service.

Sources: Gaylor, A. N. (1980.). Abortion is a blessing: Appendix c . ; Love, B.J. (2006). Feminist Who Changes America 1963-1975. (p.242). University of Illinois Press; Wisconsin Magazine of History Vol. 71, No.1. (p. 71-73).

Learn More

Dictionary of Wisconsin History

Explore more than 1,600 people, places and events in Wisconsin history.

[Source: Submitted by Eileen McCarthy of Alverno College. See citations above.]