The Pre-Roe Pro-Life Movement in Minnesota and New York
The Pre-Roe Pro-Life Movement in Minnesota and New York
The Pre-Roe Pro-Life Movement in Minnesota and New York
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on the national scene cautiously, meekly, virtually unnoticed, the 48-year-old mother of<br />
four sits atop an explosive keg of federal family policy.” 125<br />
As one of the founders of the<br />
anti-abortion/pro-life movement itself, she was thought as one who could champion that<br />
cause from the <strong>in</strong>side when she was first appo<strong>in</strong>ted through to the end of the pro-life<br />
struggle. 126 Yet given the ever-chang<strong>in</strong>g rhetoric <strong>and</strong> tactics the abortion debate required<br />
<strong>and</strong> her lack of government adm<strong>in</strong>istrative experience, Mecklenburg could not effectively<br />
push certa<strong>in</strong> programs <strong>and</strong> reta<strong>in</strong> her <strong>in</strong>sider position.<br />
Additionally, the contemporary pro-life movement saw fewer major victories<br />
s<strong>in</strong>ce the more conservative era of the 1980s. Mecklenburg’s resignation signaled an<br />
<strong>in</strong>creas<strong>in</strong>g decl<strong>in</strong>e with<strong>in</strong> the movement, <strong>and</strong> clearly among the actors themselves, as<br />
strongly demonstrated by Mecklenburg’s <strong>in</strong>creas<strong>in</strong>g disillusionment <strong>in</strong> her government<br />
post. While she first conv<strong>in</strong>ced the public, “[e]xperience has taught me the complexity<br />
<strong>and</strong> difficulty of these issues, but work<strong>in</strong>g together with the Adm<strong>in</strong>istration, Congress,<br />
social service agencies <strong>and</strong> the volunteer sector – <strong>in</strong>clud<strong>in</strong>g young people <strong>and</strong> their<br />
families – I am confident we can make progress,” she eventually could not achieve all she<br />
wished to <strong>in</strong> her time as Director of OAPP. 127<br />
Despite her unheroic resignation, she did<br />
represent the rise <strong>and</strong> fall of an overall enthusiastic contemporary pro-life movement.<br />
This movement, <strong>and</strong> Mecklenburg herself, was traced from early <strong>and</strong> small grassroots<br />
beg<strong>in</strong>n<strong>in</strong>gs <strong>in</strong> a neighbor’s liv<strong>in</strong>g room to organized <strong>and</strong> major statewide efforts that<br />
survived well beyond the <strong>Roe</strong> decision. <strong>The</strong> movement ma<strong>in</strong>ta<strong>in</strong>ed enthusiasm,<br />
125 Sue Mull<strong>in</strong>, “<strong>The</strong> lady beh<strong>in</strong>d the ‘squeal rule,’” <strong>The</strong> Wash<strong>in</strong>gton Times, 1B, 28 December<br />
1982, ACCL Records, Box 35, Folder: M. Mecklenburg Fed Positions, Gerald R. Ford Library.<br />
126 Paige, 223.<br />
127 “M<strong>in</strong>neapolis Woman Appo<strong>in</strong>ted To Head Office Of Adolescent <strong>Pre</strong>gnancy <strong>Pro</strong>grams,” 2<br />
March 1981, ACCL <strong>Pre</strong>ss Release, ACCL Records, Box 35, Folder: M. Mecklenburg Fed Positions, Gerald<br />
R. Ford Library.<br />
104