Feldt, 62, resigned last week - effective immediately - after eight years as president of the country's most influential and controversial family planning organization. Her path to the top was unlikely: at 15, she was newly pregnant in a small West Texas town; by 20, she had three children and dim career prospects.

Feldt had been conferring with her board of directors for several months about stepping down and described the departure as amicable - with some differences over timing but not over strategies.

Feldt now plans to write, travel and enjoy new freedom as a speaker. She cited her comments about Kerry as something she would not have dared say in her former post.

Under Feldt, Planned Parenthood escaped from financial crisis and began taking the offensive on policy issues, lobbying hard for abortion rights, more access to contraceptives and comprehensive sex education. Last year, the traditionally nonpartisan organization gave Kerry its first-ever presidential endorsement.

"It's not our fault that the pro-choice candidate didn't win," Feldt said, contending many voters were unsure exactly where the Democratic candidate stood on abortion-related issues.

A Kerry spokesman expressed surprise at Feldt's comments, noting that Kerry explicitly vowed to oppose Supreme Court nominees who might overturn the right to abortion.

"John Kerry's record in the Senate for 20 years and throughout the presidential campaign was crystal clear that abortion should be safe, legal, and rare," David Wade said.

Kerry's loss, and Republican gains in Congress, have prompted some Democrats to question whether they need to reach out to anti-abortion voters, but Feldt insists that the cause of abortion rights is not a political liability.

"The finger of blame shouldn't be pointed at us who've been doing the work on the ground," she said. "The finger should be pointed at the anti-choice extremists who don't even support family planning programs that would make abortions less necessary."

Yet she said abortion-rights supporters need to take a cue from their foes in terms of political organizing.

"You can't fault the anti-choice groups for participating in the democratic process," she said. "They took over the Republican Party precinct by precinct; they did it by studying Democracy 101."

For many anti-abortion activists, Planned Parenthood under Feldt was the No. 1 target of vilification.

Her resignation was greeted by the American Life League with a news release titled, "Gloria Feldt's Reign of Death Comes to End" _ alluding to the more than 1.3 million abortions performed in Planned Parenthood clinics during her leadership.

"I love a fight," Feldt said. "No attack from an external source has ever gotten me down.

"But what's problematic is that these attacks create a social climate in which many people are afraid. Many physicians are afraid to continue providing their patients with a full range of reproductive health care, including abortions."

Planned Parenthood is the country's largest single abortion provider, performing more than 244,000 in 2003. Its 850 clinics treat more than 2.8 million people annually, offering contraceptives, pregnancy and breast cancer tests, gynecological exams and other services.

As a teenage bride, Feldt and her 19-year-old husband moved to Odessa, Texas, where she initially had no ambition but to be a wife and mother.

"I had this mental picture of what it would be like to be this all-American girl with a house and two little babies, and packing your husband's lunch," she said. "That's what I thought I wanted in my 15-year-old's fantasy."

She began to develop a sense of social activism while working part-time with Head Start, and in 1974 began working at a Planned Parenthood affiliate in Odessa. Later, she headed an Arizona chapter founded by the wife of conservative Republican Barry Goldwater.

"Her shoes will be tough to fill," said Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano, who as a young lawyer worked with Feldt. "She was always very pragmatic, very articulate, very knowledgeable about the issues."

Looking back, Feldt speaks glowingly of the dedication of her Planned Parenthood colleagues, and voices dismay at the many recent state and federal laws that have chipped away at women's access to abortion. She's also concerned that future appointments by President Bush may tilt the U.S. Supreme Court and lower courts toward anti-abortion positions.

"Reproductive rights are human rights," she said. "Whether and when to have children is probably the most fundamental civil and human right that any of us have."

© 2005 The Associated Press

Editor's note: