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

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.
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