Ann McGuiness

Ann McGuiness, a behind-the-scenes force in women’s health and reproductive rights who raised vast amounts of money for Planned Parenthood and other groups and then was a founder of the Contraceptive Access Initiative, which seeks to make hormonal birth control more available over the counter, died on August 3 2022 in Albany, N.Y. She was 65. Ann McGuiness was the driving force behind launching Contraceptive Access Initiative (CAI) with the goal of making reproductive health accessible to all: free from stigma, barriers, or coercion. Throughout her career, Ann inspired foundations and philanthropists to invest hundreds of millions of dollars to lift up the lives of women and girls. She informed them, as well, about ways to extend purposeful support to reproductive rights initiatives. Her influence and strategy propelled organizations such as Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Families USA, NARAL Pro-Choice America, International Women’s Health Coalition, the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association, and Rewire Group. In 2006 she began her 12-year career at the Planned Parenthood Federation of America.After leaving Planned Parenthood in 2018, Ms. McGuiness helped found the Contraceptive Access Initiative in 2020, McGuiness grew up in Newington, Conn., and earned a bachelor’s degree in political science at what is now the University of St. Joseph in West Hartford in 1979. In 1984 she earned a master’s degree in public administration at Columbia University. McGuiness was survived by her husband, William T. Reynolds; a daughter, Nora McGuiness Reynolds; a son, Nicholas McGuiness Reynolds; two brothers, Patrick and Timothy McGuiness; and a sister, Mary Kate Hallisey.