From a statement by Amber Roseboom, President of Right to Life of Michigan:
We are inspired by the legacy of pioneering women like Dr. Mildred Jefferson, a brilliant surgeon who dedicated her life to serving women, challenging the harmful narrative that abortion is somehow empowering. As she eloquently stated,
‘I am at once a physician, a citizen, and a woman, and I am not willing to stand aside and allow this concept of expendable human lives to turn this great land of ours into just another exclusive reservation where only the perfect, the privileged, and the planned have the right to live.’
Early feminists understood that true liberation meant addressing the systemic issues that forced women into desperate situations. They fought for a society where every woman had the resources, support, and opportunities to thrive.
Dr. Mildred Jefferson
First African American woman to graduate from Harvard Medical School. Graduated Harvard Medical Class of 1951. Mildred Fay Jefferson was born on April 4, 1926, in Pittsburg, Texas. She earned her bachelor’s degree from Texas College at age 16, and earned her master’s degree from Tufts University in 1947.
Photo Credit: Barry AU H2O, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Remembering Pro-Life Trailblazer Mildred Jefferson
Author: Kay Coles James & Jeanne Mancini
Original date: Feb 4, 2020
Dr. Jefferson was a bona fide pro-life icon. A brilliant, Black, Harvard-educated surgeon, she helped found the nation’s oldest and largest pro-life organization; her eloquent pro-life arguments and her irrepressible passion also inspired some of the biggest voices in the nation to speak up for the unborn.
In fact, in 1972, after seeing Jefferson on a national television interview, then-California Gov. Ronald Reagan credited her with his pro-life conversion. He wrote to her: “No other issue since I have been in office has caused me to do so much study and soul-searching. … You made it irrefutably clear that an abortion is the taking of human life. I’m grateful to you.”
That letter would mark the beginning of a frequent correspondence between Jefferson and the governor. Reagan would go on to be one of the most unapologetically pro-life presidents in American history.
Read the rest here.