BARBARA ALVAREZ is a Contributing Writer for FFRF. She was FFRF’s first Anne Nicol Gaylor Reproductive Rights Intern, a program set up to memorialize FFRF’s principal founder, who was an early abortion rights activist and author of the book Abortion is a Blessing. She is from Madison, Wis., and attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison, working on a Ph.D. in library and information sciences with a minor in gender and women’s studies. Alvarez was a major winner in one of FFRF's essay competition for graduate students, writing about the bible’s role in the abortion battle.