Valerie J. Vidal was an adored mother, grandmother, advisor, advocate, and progressive champion who passed away tragically from cancer in April 2023. Her spirit of righteous fury in the face of craven injustices never waned, from her early days working on political campaigns in Iowa and Washington DC, to instilling her children Ethan and Victoria with the same values and outspoken beliefs, and to her very last days, making sure we would put her memory and legacy to good use helping anyone seeking an abortion to have the means and the right to do so.

Valerie was proud of her daughter-in-law Joanna Diamond for her work in the field of abortion rights here in Maryland. She was grateful for and proud of her own abortion in the early 1980s, which she had safely and successfully done in the hands of medical professionals by her own decision.