NARAL, National Abortion Rights Action League, announced that it is endorsing Obama.

Sen. Obama has said, "A woman’s ability to decide how many children to have and when, without interference from the government, is one of the most fundamental rights we possess. It is not just an issue of choice, but equality and opportunity for all women."

Further, I believe Sen. Obama is going to be the Democratic nominee. He leads in pledged delegates, superdelegates, the popular vote, and cash-on-hand. As a former elected official, I know that having the three “m’s” of a campaign - money, message and manpower (or womanpower!) - are how we win elections. Sen. Obama will be our next president.

Actually, there's only one "m" Nancy Keenan cares most about--money.

In all fairness I should say that I'm not totally surprised. NARAL, under Nancy Keenan's leadership, long ago lost its credibility in defending a woman's right to choose.

NARAL has made really boneheaded political moves, such as not showing up to fight Samuel Alito's confirmation to SCOTUS, endorsing Joe Lieberman over Ned Lamont, and not coming out solidly against Sam Brownback's "Unborn Child Pain Awareness Act," which was totally based on junk science.

WKJM is calling this endorsement "a key get by any measure." Ben Smith at Politico says it's another sign that the party is coalescing around Obama.

Sigh.

UPDATE FWIW, this comment was posted over at Taylor Marsh's site:

I just got off the phone with NARAL NY. They said that it was the National NARAL office that endorsed Oblique without consulting with ANY of their affiliates. Here is a statement they issued this morning:

May 14, 2008 Today, NARAL Pro-Choice America endorsed Senator Barack Obama for President. This decision was made internally by NARAL Pro-Choice America, based in Washington D.C., and without the consultation of the NARAL state affiliates across the country. NARAL Pro-Choice New York will not be issuing an endorsement at this time. NARAL Pro-Choice New York believes that this endorsement in the Democratic primary is premature. We are fortunate to have two pro-choice candidates in Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton and Senator Barack Obama. When a nominee is named, NARAL Pro-Choice New York will stand proudly with the pro-choice Democratic candidate in order to defeat anti-choice Republican candidate John McCain in November.

This makes sense. NARAL endorsed Joe Lieberman without consulting the Connecticut NARAL affiliate:

Local Connecticut NARAL head Carolyn Treiss is well aware of the limitations of Joe Lieberman and his positions with regard to reproductive rights -- his comment telling rape victims to take a "short ride" if they want emergency contraception was no doubt one of the factors (along with his critical cloture vote for the ragingly anti-choice Samuel Alito) that led her to buck the national organization and vote for Ned Lamont when she was a delegate to the CT Democratic Convention in May of this year. She then went on to join Conncticut Choice Voice, an organization of pro-choice women supporting Ned Lamont and vigorously opposing Joe Lieberman for the lipservice he pays to women's issues that he quickly abandons whenever it's crunch time.

Nancy Keenan, on the other hand, went out of her way to defy local Connecticut choice groups and give the national NARAL endorsement to Lieberman.