Susan Paynter (born August 29, 1945) is an American journalist and writer based in the Northwest who has covered and commented on social issues since the late 1960s.
[1]) Two years before the U.S. Supreme Court ruling on Roe v. Wade she wrote two multipart series on the campaign for the passage of abortion reform in Washington state.
Paynter covered and commented on topics including equal pay, domestic violence, reforms in the reporting and prosecution of rape, societal attitudes toward working mothers, and the role of religion in American public life.
Other columns pressed for FDA approval and unfettered availability of emergency contraception, and for marriage equality for gays and lesbians, making her a target of conservative commentators, including Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly and Tom Leykis.
She also received a Power of Choice lifetime achievement award[2] from the Washington state affiliate of NARAL Pro-Choice America, presented by Sarah Weddington, the attorney who argued Roe v. Wade before the U.S. Supreme Court.