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

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they could be countered. 7 McCoy began writing to newspapers and sending letters across the state, urging those sympathetic to the cause to involve their peers, call and write state representatives, and fill newspaper “letter to the editor” columns with statements of support for the liberalization of abortion law. 8 McCoy himself wrote countless letters and articles to Minnesota citizens and newspapers, advocating the liberalization of the abortion law and advertising his own counseling organization, which directed women seeking abortions to out-of-state physicians. McCoy’s Minnesota Abortion Counseling Service (MACS) became publicly associated with MCLTP in 1970. 9 The leaders of MCLTP were all on the board of MACS, including MCLTP President Betty Benjamin and Treasurer Katherine Taylor. MCCL would soon mimic MCLTP’s moves to tie itself to other organizations to increase support and membership. As MCLTP membership continued to grow, the group adjusted its arguments and tactics to match the medical framing of the abortion discussion and gain greater support in the legislature and across the state. Joining with medical, civic, political, professional, and social organizations, the group used discussions of prenatal defects, poverty, ecology, rape, and morality in its letters, articles, and literature it wrote and distributed. 10 Its pamphlets were heavily illustrated with photographs, ranging from teenage mothers to deformed (and aborted) fetuses to Dorothea Lange’s famous Migrant Mother photograph 7 The MCCL Archives, the personal papers of Mary and Robert Joyce, and the ACCL Records contain newspaper articles and internal correspondence regarding Robert McCoy. MCCL and ACCL activists traced his actions and organized protests in front of the abortion clinics he would organize after the Roe v. Wade decision. 8 Robert McCoy to undisclosed recipients, 22 January 1967, Correspondence, Box 2, Folder: Elections and Abortion, NARAL Pro-Choice Minnesota Papers. 9 MCCL leaders began appearing on Board of Directors lists in 1970. Box 1, Folder: Abortion Counseling Center of Minnesota 1970-71, Katherine Taylor Wood Papers. 10 “MCLTP,” [~1971], Box 2, Folder: MN NARAL brochures, undated and 1967-1983, NARAL Pro-Choice MN Records. 25
from the Great Depression in its section on poverty. 11 From the graphic to the sentimental, these photographs triggered powerful emotions: discomfort, disgust, and sympathy. MCLTP felt that advances in medicine and genetics necessitated abortion law reform; it therefore distributed literature on recent advances in medical procedures to persuade Minnesotans that existing abortion restrictions were dangerously out of date. The pamphlets focused on the hazards of x-ray radiation, hallucinogens, and rubella (German measles) to the fetus, and the genetics advancements that facilitated the prenatal detection of those defects. 12 MCCL, formed soon after MCLTP, would directly respond to these arguments in its publications in the late 60s and early 70s. Given the pro-abortion/pro-choice debate today is often associated with women’s rights and medical reasoning, MCLTP’s focus on morality as an argumentative framework is striking. 13 While anti-abortion sympathizers relied heavily on the morality of preserving the life of the fetus, MCLTP instead used morality to explain the insensitivity of the anti-abortion camp itself. They argued that a woman could have respect for human life in deciding not to bring a child into the world, unable to provide a rich, happy life for him or her. Further, in response to those who deemed abortion murder, MCLTP simply avoided a full discussion of the matter, stating the fetus is just “flesh, cells, organs, bones, and tissues,” 14 not a human being. MCLTP argued, by aborting a fetus, a mother was not killing a human life, but rather removing parts – flesh and bones – of a potential one. This response involved and fused both medical and moral discourse, used by all sides of the abortion debate. This in fact represented a turning 11 Ibid. 12 Ibid. 13 Ibid. 14 Ibid. 26
Page 1 and 2: Abortion as a “Medical Problem Br
Page 3 and 4: 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
Page 19 and 20: 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: of the MCLTP. 3 In the early 1970s,
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 and 114:
Conclusion Supreme Court Justice Ha
Page 115 and 116:
legislatures, and celebrated occasi
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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