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

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Catholic priest Richard John Neuhaus in 1970, “the question of abortion is of more universal scope.” 36 MCCL founders deliberately shied away from invoking religion to support their arguments out of concern for alienating potential recruits to their cause. However, even though MCCL downplayed Catholicism (and religion in general), it did matter to some extent; certainly some MCCL activists were Catholic (or of some religious faith). Kelly is only partially correct if one applies his claim to Catholics as individual anti-abortion actors. That these activists mobilized as individuals within MCCL, rather than as a clergy-led group, further supports the Minnesota exception. Along with New York, Hawaii, and Colorado, Minnesota was a clear pioneer in the abortion discussion. California amended its anti-abortion statute several times between 1828 and the Roe decision. While California was one of the first states to enact its abortion ban in the nineteenth century, it repealed the law earlier than many others before Roe v. Wade. 37 Hawaii had a very similar story. 38 Minnesota remained exceptional as the sole leader among these states that did not pass a reformed abortion law before the 1973 Supreme Court decision. Other states considered liberalized abortion laws, but Minnesota remained one of the few that did not pass a proposal to change it. According to Halve-Neubauer, even after Roe, Minnesota was a “challenger state…[in that its citizens] demonstrated the greatest antipathy to Roe by enacting restrictions that undercut the decision or implemented it in the narrowest form possible.” 39 What made Minnesota a challenger? Minnesota’s tradition of informed, 36 Richard John Neuhaus, “The Dangerous Assumptions,” [~1970-1], Series 3: Program Records, Abortion, Box 17, Folder: Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life, 1970-1, Minneapolis YWCA Records, University of Minnesota Social Welfare Archives, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN. 37 Louis J. Palmer, Jr., Encyclopedia of Abortion in the United States, (Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, 2002), 260. 38 Ibid, 138-9. 39 Halva-Neubauer., 29. 33
issue-based and activist politics facilitated the formation of single-issue groups and the ability of one issue (abortion) to then dominate public debate. Indeed, this activist spirit thrived among a handful of Minnesotans throughout 1967, when Rev. William Hunt, soon to be known as “the father of MCCL” and lobbyist Alice Hartle, the “mother of MCCL,” became aware of the predecessor to the 1969 Gage/Bell-McMillan bill in the Minnesota legislature. 40 The pair saw the revised abortion bill not only as permissive murder, but also as the tip of the iceberg. What, one anti-abortion activist (a “Mr. Abernathy,” a 34-year old Catholic St. Paul man interviewed by sociologist Kristen Luker) argued, would stop man and the law from going further with human lives - to infants, to the physically and mentally retarded, and to anyone not “like us?” 41 Spurred to action, Hartle and Hunt joined forces with Dr. John McKelvey, a University of Minnesota Medical School professor, and Dr. John Falls, Public Policy Chairman of the Minnesota State Medical Association. They travelled around the state appealing to the most well known Minnesota anti-abortion voices. These prime movers, the handful of recruited vocal anti-abortion sympathizers and a few of Alice Hartle’s neighbors, met in March 1968 in Hartle’s living room to formally establish MCCL as a non-profit, non-denominational organization dedicated to fostering the right to life of each human being. 42 The group elected the first president, Dr. Fred Mecklenburg, a suburban Minneapolis physician, on the spot. Fred, along with the other founders, counted among their ranks the founders of Birthright St. Cloud, a Catholic priest at St. John’s Abbey, University of Minnesota and St. John’s University professors, 40 Mary and Robert Joyce interview. 41 Abernathy Interview Transcript, Boxed 9 April 1993, Box 2, Folder 300, Kristin Luker Papers. 42 Mary R. Joyce, The History of MCCL, article provided after Mary and Robert Joyce interview. 34
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 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: However, the Council did not offer
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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