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

decades of involvement. Yet before one can understand the trajectory of these actors, one
first must understand how these actors and the movement at large began to navigate the
new national stage upon which the abortion debate continued after Roe v. Wade.
The earliest contemporary movement did not develop as MCCL did. While state
groups formed on a largely grassroots level, and expanded thereafter, the most prominent
national group, the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), materialized as a project
of the Catholic Church. The NRLC started its nationwide communication efforts as early
as 1966, when the National Conference of Catholic Bishops mandated Monsignor James
McHugh, the director of the Family Life Bureau, to begin tracking the abortion issue in
response to reform and rumblings in national and state governments. 1
The organization
in fact reached the early MCCL leaders in October of 1968 and set up a small office in
Washington in 1969, but it didn’t appeal for a broad base of nationwide support (in
particular, by involving existing statewide groups) until the after Roe. 2
The NRLC
started as an organization created and directed from above by the United States Catholic
Conference (USCC) and the National Conference of Catholic Bishops (NCCB). 3
Yet, as
the movement neared the Roe decision, state anti-abortion activists joined, provided
suggestions and advice, and shaped the organization itself. 4 Although the NRLC was not
a grassroots organization, activists who were products of grassroots beginnings became
members and leaders in the largely Catholic group. Soon statewide associations
themselves became affiliated and involved with NRLC; by 1973, 250 organizations were
1 Critchlow, 138.
2 National Right to Life Committee: Statement of Purpose of the National Right to Life Committee
and History, ACCL Records, Box 4, Folder: National Right to Life Committee 1973 (1), Gerald R. Ford
Library.
3 Young, 145.
4 Ibid.
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