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

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efforts on awareness, education, formation, and coordination with other grassroots and national groups. The ACCL founders saw among the many NRLC weaknesses an inability and unwillingness to affiliate and work with state groups. Full of experience on the state level, Mecklenburg, Lampe, Schaller, and Fink wanted an umbrella organization for state groups that still enacted programs aimed at tackling the issue on a national level. 40 ACCL would be simultaneously in tune with the state and national abortion debates; MCCL Vice-President Dr. David O’Steen proclaimed, “no matter how much progress the pro-life movement makes in Minnesota, there can be no hope of passage of a Human Life Amendment until 38 states are prepared to ratify such an amendment.” 41 Passing the Human Life Amendment would require coordination on the national and state level; ACCL was the first group to fully grasp this concept. Additionally, Mecklenburg did not want ACCL to be a single-issue group focused on the life of the unborn. She wanted to embrace pro-life issues more generally and initiate programs that created alternatives to abortion; Schaller explained this “means counseling and education programs for young people, programs to aid single mothers, and tax incentives for parents who have or adopt children who are born with handicaps.” 42 More broadly, ACCL would tackle policies around healthcare and welfare, world hunger, issues around death and dying, and support services for young pregnant 40 Others serving on the initial group were Area Representatives from Maine to Hawaii, including Robert Greene (former executive director of NRLC), Albert Fortman, M.D. (former NRLC executive committee member), Rev. Robert Holbrook (national coordinator of Baptists for Life), Thomas J. Mooney (executive director of the National Youth Pro-Life Coalition), Joseph Stanton, M.D. and Edward Kilroy, M.D. (members of the executive committee of Americans United for Life) and others, who were officers in prominent state organizations – Kathleen Barthen (South Dakota), John Beliveau (Maine), TJ Bosgra (Hawaii), Dennis Cook (Utah), Dorothy Czarnecki, M.D. (Pennsylvania), Otto Harling, Ph.D. and Beth Harling (Washington), Charles L. Heatherly (California), Dolores Horan (Illinois), Betty Johnson (New Jersey), Patricia Kelley (Illinois), Dorothy Shald (Nebraska), Paulette Standefer (Texas), and Jeanna D. Sweeney (New York). 41 MCCL Vice-President Dr. David O’Steen, quoted in “MCCL Directors Attend Special Board Meeting,” MCCL Newsletter, November-December 1974, page 3, MCCL Archives. 42 Fogg, “Abortion opponents part ways.” 79
women, which would become the specific cause Mecklenburg championed for over a decade. 43 On the contrary, the NRLC had made its sole goal the enactment of a Human Life Amendment, and at that point had obviously taken no action on sex education or birth control. With all this in mind, ACCL pushed back on the NRLC’s image dominated by “conservative Catholic male[s]” and moved forward in its efforts to broaden and invigorate the pro-life cause. 44 One of ACCL’s first programs was the annual Prayer Breakfast for Life, which brought together prominent clergy, Congressmen, and laypeople of many faiths to Washington, D.C. to discuss and advocate a pro-life stance in the American abortion debate. Additionally, ACCL formed organizational development teams to help nurture new groups in several states, and also assisted established pro-life groups in improved structure, fundraising, education programs, and other hurdles ACCL founders had dealt with since MCCL’s founding in 1968. 45 ACCL held conventions around the nation, attracting religious leaders, professionals, and government leaders to speak about the abortion issue, and held small group workshops at the state, regional, and chapter levels around the country. Through these programs, ACCL developed an image and a name for itself, attracting the attention of supporters and critics nationwide, among them Eunice Kennedy Shriver, who proclaimed that “[i]n a society which seems 43 Gerald R. Ford Library. “American Citizens Concerned for Life, Inc.: Records, (1968) 1974-1982 (1986).” . 44 Internal note written by Joseph Lampe, 1973, ACCL Records, Box 4, Folder: NRLC 1973 (5), Gerald R. Ford Library. 45 For example, Patricia DeGrinney, the President of Maine Right to Life Committee, said of ACCL, “Maine Right to Life Committee has found ACCL to be an invaluable resource for the past two years. The materials, particularly those on organization and development and, more importantly, the personal counsel in all facets of pro-life activity, have helped us to respond to the growing needs in our state. A truly wise and dependable sister organization!” Patricia DeGrinney, quoted in ACCL Congressional Action Project literature, ACCL Records, Box 15, Folder: Letters Re: ACCL Organization from Late 1974, Gerald R. Ford Library; and ACCL Pamphlet, ACCL Records, Box 15, Folder: Mailings/Pamphlets, Gerald R. Ford Library. 80
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 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: Warren Schaller, and others to form
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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