Susan Frietsche, Esq.

Susan Frietsche is a reproductive rights lawyer who co-directs and leads the legal program of the Women's Law Project (WLP), a nonprofit, Pennsylvania-based legal advocacy organization devoted to gender equality and the eradication of sex discrimination. 

Frietsche joined the Women's Law Project staff in 1992 and opened WLP's Pittsburgh office in 2002. She represents Pennsylvania abortion providers and young people needing course approval to consent to abortion care. She is currently counsel for appellants in Allegheny Reproductive Health Center v. Department of Human Services, a state constitutional challenge to Pennsylvania's Medicaid abortion coverage ban, which is currently pending before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. Frietsche has litigated, lobbied, and organized on behalf of low-income families, domestic and sexual violence survivors, lesbian and gay parents, and trans students. 

Prior to joining the Women's Law Project, she spent seven years as the Deputy Director of the Pennsylvania chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union and as their state lobbyist. For many years, Frietsche has served on the adjunct faculty at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. She is the co-author of "Preserving the Core of Roe: Reflections on Planned Parenthood v. Casey," published in the Yale Journal of Law & Feminism. 

Frietsche is a founding board member of Friends of Aseema, a Pittsburgh-based nonprofit supporting high-quality, secular education for children living in extreme poverty in the streets and slums of Mumbai, India. Frietsche is a graduate of Temple Law School and Bryn Mawr College.