I am sure that it may surprise many of our dear readers that the face of the National Right To Life Movement for many years was none other than that of Dr. Mildred Fay Jefferson, co-founder of that influential organization and the first black woman to graduate from Harvard Medical School.
Well, let me just say that it surprised me.
So, in honor of Women's History Month and to provide a platform for this extraordinary woman of faith, values, and vision, here is an excerpt from an article on Dr. Jefferson from the website: www.thehistorymakers.org:
Dr. Mildred Fay Jefferson was born in 1927 in Pittsburg, Texas - the daughter of Gurthie Roberts Jefferson, a public school teacher, and Millard F. Jefferson, a Methodist minister. She attended public schools in East Texas and entered Harvard Medical School in 1947 after receiving a B.A degree summa cum laude from Texas College in Tyler, Texas and a M.S. degree from Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts.
Jefferson became the first African American woman to graduate from Harvard Medical School in 1951. She was the first woman to be a surgical intern at Boston City Hospital and the first woman admitted to membership in the Boston Surgical Society. She is, however, best-known for her longtime support and involvement in the “right-to-life movement” in America. She helped to establish the National Right to Life Committee and served three times as its president. She has been a local, regional and national speaker and activist.
After her Harvard Medical School graduation, Jefferson served as a general surgeon with the former Boston University Medical Center and Assistant Clinical Professor of Surgery at Boston University Medical School.
Jefferson has had a career-long interest in medical jurisprudence, medical ethics and the interface between medicine and law, as well as their impact on public policy and society. As a founding member of state and national “right-to-life” organizations, she is president of Right to Life Crusade.
Jefferson is a founding member of the Board of Governors and a past President of the Value of Life Committee of Massachusetts and is also active with the American Life League and Americans United for Life Legal Defense Fund. Jefferson is also a member of Black Americans for Life and is held in high esteem by Feminists for Life. Jefferson passed away on October 18, 2010.
Like Dr. Jefferson who stood strong in her stance, first as a doctor to, "first, do no harm" and then as a feminist to put the needs of pregnant women first, we too must hold the line when it comes to abortion and the naked genocide of American children. As she was quoted as saying:
“I became a physician in order to help save lives. I am at once a physician, a citizen, and a woman, and I am not willing to stand aside and allow the 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,” Dr. Jefferson explains in a 1978 video from the National Right to Life Committee (embedded at the bottom of this article).
Google Dr. Jefferson and dig deeper to learn more about her. Many blessings! Sylvia
Song: "You Are Enough" by Anthony Brown