MARY ANN SORRENTINO
Author: Abortion: The A Word – Real Women, Tough Choices, Personal Freedom
Mary Ann Sorrentino was Executive Director of Planned Parenthood of RI, from 1977-1987 when it opened the first outpatient abortion clinic in RI, the most Roman Catholic state in the union (65%.) Predictably and of necessity, Sorrentino became, and remains, a leading advocate for reproductive rights and women’s rights in general. In 1985, the diocese of Providence tried to prevent her then 15-year-old daughter from being confirmed, and publicly declared Sorrentino excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church in a first-ever such declaration. Her case is still widely cited by legal and religious scholars and is a benchmark in canon law.
Sorrentino was vindicated by the Canon Law Society of America in 1987 and, later that year, she left Planned Parenthood for what would eventually become a 13 year run as Southern New England’s leading radio talk show host and advocate for a number of human rights issues. Meanwhile, her newspaper columns run regularly in Rhode Island (Providence Phoenix), M
assachusetts (Standard Times) and New Hampshire (Keene Sentinel) and periodically in other states across the country. Her political insights have allowed her to create a following among those who admire her habit of “saying what many others are thinking but may be afraid to say.” She is an internet blog staple.
She has received the Associated Press Award for Best Talk Show in Southern New England four times. She was listed among America’s Top 100 Talk Hosts by Talkers Magazine every year for the last 5 years of her tenure on WPRO radio in Providence, the areas top talk station with a reach into Boston, northern New England, CT, and parts of NY. She also worked part time at WRKO in Boston in the early 2000’s.
She has appeared on national television including the TODAY show, CNN, CBS Morning News, and all major network news shows. Print coverage includes People, New York Times, L.A. Times, Redbook, TIME, Newsweek, Reader’s Digest and many national newspapers
She has also been a frequent guest on talk shows across America and in Europe.
She appears in the PBS Emmy award-winning documentary “Taking on the Kennedy’s”. At that film’s premier at the Boston Museum of Art, her segments brought the audience to its feet to applaud. She appears as well in the TV documentary, “Vote for Me.”
Rhode Islander Magazine named her one of the state’s “Bulldogs” for advocacy and she has been honored by NOW, The House of Compassion (AIDS), RI Rape Crisis, Travelers Aid for the Homeless, Survivors’ Network (Catholic survivors of sexual abuse by priests) and Planned Parenthood for her dedication to human rights causes. She is one of the “Remarkable People” in the book by that name by photographer Stephan Brigidi.
In 1986, Sorrentino presented a paper on Outpatient Female Sterilization at the First Conference on Male and Female Sterilization at the University of Bologna, and she is a contributing author, in Italian, to the published collection resulting from that conference.
Her campus appearances include Boston College, U. of Wisconsin, Holy Cross College, Brown University, Northeastern U., Hartford College, Middlebury College and others. In 2005 and 2006, she appeared at the Harvard School of Public Health in conjunction with a film festival and forum on Reproductive Rights and Religion. She also debated Village Voice columnist Nat Hentoff at the University of RI after which a noted pro-life advocate said, “Mary Ann always wins [these debates] because she’s so passionate about it.” She considers that statement one of the greatest compliments of her life.
Well-connected to the political establishment locally and nationally, and with a veteran’s knowledge of the broadcast medium, Sorrentino is a tireless promoter of the issues she believes in and has managed to successfully make her views and her vehicles for expressing them hot commodities.
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