The Pre-Roe Pro-Life Movement in Minnesota and New York

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oadly. At the same time, Minnesota represented a unique and important battleground for the evolution, development, and continuation of the state- and nation-wide abortion debate. While Carolyn Gerster, the pro-life activist from Arizona, recalled her state as “very slow awakening” in joining the abortion debate, the Minnesota pre-Roe MCCL story begs the opposite conclusion. 3 In this way, MCCL provides a lens to observe the successes of the pre-Roe anti-abortion movement, when the debate was held on a state level and employed non-religious, bi-partisan, moral, and medical language, and involved and recruited activists on a local and community grassroots level. MCCL effectively entered the debate its MCLTP opposition constructed to hold off what many other states could not: the liberalization of nineteenth century anti-abortion laws. While MCCL leaders started to develop a more unified contemporary national organization in the late 1960s and early 1970s in light of the less organized and Catholicdominated National Right to Life Committee, the story of MCCL’s purely state-focused efforts in hindsight came to an almost predictable close with the biggest blow of the movement’s existence, one that “disgusted…disappointed…and surprised,” 4 but certainly did not halt, its sympathizers. Roe v. Wade did not discourage many MCCLers nor its founders, but instead bound the group more closely with pro-life groups in other states. Despite its continuation, the group could not effectively achieve everything the general pro-life movement wished on its own, as the primary movement shifted from a state to a national stage; the Supreme Court decision both nationalized and politicized the abortion debate. Instead, state groups fought some of the decision’s restrictions in their own 3 Gerster, quoted in Gorney, 178. 4 Abernathy Interview Transcript, Boxed 9 April 1993, Box 2, Folder 300, Kristin Luker Papers. 109
legislatures, and celebrated occasional victories there. MCCL still continues its mission today in Minneapolis, Minnesota, with efforts that extend across the state in its role as the voice of the Minnesota pro-life stance. MCCL founders and leaders followed the abortion debate to the national scale under the National Right to Life Committee. Yet MCCL activists soon grew frustrated with the Catholic-controlled NRLC, and split to found its own ACCL. Armed with half a decade of pro-life activist experience, rooted in successful tactics like employing nonreligious and bi-partisan rhetoric to appeal to a broad base of support, Mecklenburg, Hartle, Lampe, and others continued their pro-life charge. However, the split between the national groups “reflected ideological tensions, even ideological inconsistencies, within the ranks of antiabortion activists,” according to Critchlow. 5 Moving forward, activists found success for the movement increasingly difficult to obtain, as the national debate became politicized, often religious, and at times, seemingly too large and driven by a ruling too decisive to overturn. Indeed, Roe was a defeat that discouraged some and mobilized others. While Mecklenburg continued to progress in her pro-life work all the way to a Reagan appointment, many first generation actors were gradually more discouraged by the absence of decisive success in countering the Roe decision. William C. Hunt, a pre- MCCL founder involved in 1967 and an early actor and board member of ACCL, asserted in a 1981 open letter to ACCL membership that he was “bone-weary of the whole abortion issue…Over the years I have been discouraged – discouraged by the 1973 decision of the Supreme Court which removed legal protection from the unborn; discouraged by my own powerlessness to halt the carnage (1.5 million abortions per year 5 Critchlow, 140. 110
Page 1 and 2:
Abortion as a “Medical Problem Br
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Table of Contents Acknowledgements
Page 5 and 6:
Abbreviations ACCL - American Citiz
Page 7 and 8:
this first neighborhood grassroots
Page 9 and 10:
in New York, California, and Colora
Page 11 and 12:
is a unique and important one to te
Page 13 and 14:
major factors led to MCCL’s victo
Page 15 and 16:
Well before Blackmun’s 1972 Mayo
Page 17 and 18:
Chapter 1: The Pre-History of the C
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practice. The law as it stands is t
Page 21 and 22:
would have functioned independently
Page 23 and 24:
instances also increased awareness
Page 25 and 26:
threat of abortion criminalization
Page 27 and 28:
the actions of new twentieth-centur
Page 29 and 30:
of the MCLTP. 3 In the early 1970s,
Page 31 and 32:
from the Great Depression in its se
Page 33 and 34:
underestimated his opponents, as MC
Page 35 and 36:
who shared a “communitarian ethic
Page 37 and 38:
However, the Council did not offer
Page 39 and 40:
issue-based and activist politics f
Page 41 and 42:
Blake and Fred Mecklenburg and lobb
Page 43 and 44:
yet united front against abortion l
Page 45 and 46:
anti-abortion movement, but also be
Page 47 and 48:
emerging organizations across the c
Page 49 and 50:
the 1970s, and an additional thirte
Page 51 and 52:
When news of Roe and Doe broke, MCC
Page 53 and 54:
their efforts prior to the decision
Page 55 and 56:
the part of state groups and create
Page 57 and 58:
physical space in Minneapolis and r
Page 59 and 60:
58 of them were enacted. 37 Even fo
Page 61 and 62:
looms as a menace to all mankind an
Page 63 and 64: War.” 56 President Gerald Ford di
Page 65 and 66: the 1976 Republican Party Platform,
Page 67 and 68: should be noted that pro-life activ
Page 69 and 70: with us.” 81 Needless to say, by
Page 71 and 72: ecord of being vindictive.” 90 Ca
Page 73 and 74: decades of involvement. Yet before
Page 75 and 76: nationwide effort organized by the
Page 77 and 78: in drastic (at the extreme, irrecon
Page 79 and 80: and increase political effectivenes
Page 81 and 82: willing to be window dressing - no
Page 83 and 84: Warren Schaller, and others to form
Page 85 and 86: women, which would become the speci
Page 87 and 88: On multiple levels, ACCL became a p
Page 89 and 90: multi-issue approach was a tactic a
Page 91 and 92: asserted, “often a few key people
Page 93 and 94: Lampe, and others) split to form AC
Page 95 and 96: nomination. Jefferson’s tactics w
Page 97 and 98: administration. 82 Lampe took over
Page 99 and 100: and was also a member of Planned Pa
Page 101 and 102: As previously explored, Mecklenburg
Page 103 and 104: million; Schweiker’s stance and a
Page 105 and 106: Almost immediately after her appoin
Page 107 and 108: The last straw came when Mecklenbur
Page 109 and 110: on the national scene cautiously, m
Page 111 and 112: abortion debate she encountered as
Page 113: Conclusion Supreme Court Justice Ha
Page 117 and 118: ecognized nationwide as “one of t
Page 119 and 120: Bibliography Archives and Interview
Page 121 and 122: Gorney, Cynthia. Articles of Faith.
Page 123: Press, Eyal. Absolute Convictions:
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The Pre-Roe Pro-Life Movement in Minnesota and New York

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