National Right to Life Committee
FoundedApril 1, 1968 (1968-04-01)
FounderNational Conference of Catholic Bishops[1]
EIN 52-0986195
Location
Members
7 million
Key people
Carol Tobias, President
Bishop James T. McHugh
James Bopp, Jr, General Council
Revenue
$5,717,028 (2012–2013)
Expenses$6,288,548 (2012–2013)
Websitewww.nrlc.org

The National Right to Life Committee (NRLC) is the oldest and largest national anti-abortion organization in the United States with affiliates in all 50 states and more than 3,000 local chapters nationwide.[2][N 1]

Since the 1980s, NRLC has influenced anti-abortion policy at national and state levels through campaign financing of anti-abortion and almost exclusively Republican candidates and writing model legislation that would restrict or ban abortion.

Organization

The national organization of National Right to Life comprises the:

  • National Right to Life Committee, Inc. (NRLC), 501c(4), EIN: 52–0986196;
  • National Right to Life Committee Educational Trust Fund, 501c(3), EIN: 52–1241126;
  • National Right to Life Educational Foundation, Inc., 501c(3), EIN: 73–1010913;
  • National Right to Life Conventions, Inc., 501c(4), EIN: 52–1257773;
  • National Right to Life Political Action Committee (NRLPAC); and
  • National Right to Life Victory Fund, an independent expenditure political action committee, i. e., a "SuperPAC".

History

National Conference of Catholic Bishops: 1968–73

In 1966 the National Conference of Catholic Bishops (NCCB) asked James T. McHugh to begin observing trends in the reform of policy on abortion. At the time then McHugh was Director of the United States Catholic Conference (USCC) Family Life Bureau, and later became the Bishop of Camden and then of Rockville Centre.[3] The NCCB asked McHugh during its annual conference in April 1967 to organize the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC) and fund the established NRLC with $50,000 to "initiate and coordinate a program of information" with state affiliates that would inform stakeholders of the wave of proposed state legislation to liberalize statutes prohibiting abortion.[3][4]

The National Right to Life Committee was formalized in 1968. McHugh hired executive assistant Michael Taylor to help with the day-to-day needs of the organization. In October 1968, they published the first NRLC newsletter formally introducing the organization and providing information on the efforts to change abortion laws. On the state level, independent right to life organizations were beginning to form and began to rely on NRLC for direction and information. The newsletter lasted until 1971.[3]

NRLC held its first meeting of nationwide anti-abortion leaders in Chicago, Illinois in 1970 at Barat College. New Jersey attorney Juan Ryan served as the first President of NRLC. In the following year NRLC held its first convention at Macalester College in Saint Paul, Minnesota.[3]

"The only reason that we have a pro-life movement in this country is because of the Catholic people and the Catholic Church", stated the executive director of NRLC James T. McHugh in 1973.[5][6]

Incorporation and Human Life Amendment

The NRLC was formally incorporated in May 1973, in response to the Roe v. Wade ruling of the US Supreme Court and the desire to gain autonomy apart from the Catholic Church, to attract more Protestants to the organization.[7] The National Conference of Catholic Bishops launched a campaign to amend the United States Constitution by enacting a Human Life Amendment that not only invalidated Roe v. Wade but also prohibited both the US Congress and the States from legalizing abortion in the United States.[8][9][10] Its first convention as an incorporated organization was held the following month in Detroit, Michigan. At the concurrent meeting of NRLC's Board, Ed Golden of New York was elected president. Among the founding members was Mildred Jefferson, the first African-American woman to graduate from Harvard Medical School. Jefferson subsequently served as president in 1975.[11]

Schisms

In 1978, NRLC found itself $100,000 in debt after Jefferson's presidency. Rather than acknowledge her record, she left the organization to form the Right to Life Crusade.[7] On April 1, 1979, the American Life League (ALL) was founded[12][13] by Judie Brown, former public relations director of NRLC, and 9 others after a schism within the NRLC.

Media publicity

Since its incorporation, the NRLC prioritized its politics over getting publicity due to its concern of being portrayed in a poor light and lack of funds.[14] By 1980 NRLC's annual budget increased to $1,600,000 and retained a membership of 11 million, allowing the organization to invest in media strategy and establish its media department in 1984.[15][14] By 1985, the organization had a communications department that produced and distributed a radio program, media campaigns, and maintained press connections. Its media strategy worked to create a public image that differentiated the NRLC from allies by using medical professionals, including its president and primary spokesperson John Willke.[14][16] One hallmark of their media campaign was utilizing the slogan "Love them Both" which embraces claims of women's rights and welfare through compassion to gain the support of those ambivalent on the issue.[17]

In 1995, the NRLC coined the term "partial-birth abortion" to describe a new medical procedure also known as "dilation and extraction," or D&X, and "intact D&E" in which the fetus is removed intact from the uterus after 20 weeks gestation. The organization illustrated and published drawings of the procedure in booklets and paid newspaper advertisements to generate public opposition to both the procedure and abortion in general.[18] The NRLC criticized Bill Clinton's 1995 veto of a bill that would ban the procedure.[19] The phrase was used by Congress in the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003.[20]

In 1992 and 1998, Fortune magazine recognized the NRLC as the most publicly recognized and politically effective anti-abortion organization.[14] In 1999, Fortune ranked them as the 8th most influential public policy group working in Washington, DC.[21]

The Silent Scream

In 1984 the Committee co-produced the documentary The Silent Scream on abortion with Bernard Nathanson. In 1985, following 2 years of a boycott of a product of the Upjohn Company that NRLC coordinated, the Company ceased all research on abortifacient drugs. Three years later, NRLC joined other anti-abortion organizations in saying that if any company sold an abortifacient drug, the millions of Americans who opposed abortion would boycott all the products of that company.[22]

NRLC boycott of Hoechst Marion Roussel and Altace

In the 1990s the NRLC began a nationwide grassroots lobbying campaign against the Freedom of Choice Act, and announced a boycott of the French pharmaceutical company Roussel Uclaf and its American affiliates for permitting its abortion drug, mifepristone, into the United States.[23] The U.S. National Right to Life Committee announced a 1994 U.S. boycott of all Hoechst pharmaceutical products including Altace, targeting the abortion pill RU-486.[24]

According to Keri Folmar, the lawyer responsible for the language of the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act, the term "partial-birth abortion" was developed in early 1995 at a meeting of herself, Charles T. Canady, and NRLC lobbyist Douglas Johnson.[25] The phrase elicited strong negative reactions from a focus group and became a key phrase in NRLC's attack on abortion.[16]

Campaign financing

In 1978, James Bopp was hired to serve as legal counsel[26] and the NRLC became more involved in elections to further influence state and federal legislation to advance their anti-abortion position. In 1980, the National Right to Life Political Action Committee (NRL PAC) was founded to support anti-abortion candidates, mostly Republicans.[27][28] Also that year, Bopp led a walkout of conservative delegates from a White House Conference on Families[29] and defended the NRLC's 1980 presidential election voter guides from legal challenges of improper electioneering by a nonprofit.[30]

By the 1990s, the NRLC became a major player in campaign financing through its $2 million campaign contributions in the 1996 presidential election. In 1999, the NRLC aggressively lobbied against the 1999 Shays-Meehan bill, which later became the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 (BCRA), because it would reclassify many of its and other nonpartisan groups' ads as campaign contributions. A bipartisan group of legislators including John McCain, Ronnie Shows, and Zach Wamp criticized the organization for getting involved in issues that did not affect the unborn.[31] Legislative Director Douglas Johnson defended the NRLC's involvement in campaign financing, saying that the bill "would cripple the prolife movement."[32]

In 2003, Bopp filed a lawsuit on behalf of the NRLC against the Federal Election Commission about whether BCRA violates the First Amendment in its prohibition of the use of "soft money" in campaign financing. On May 1, 2003, the district court issued judgment on the case and the NRLC appeals to the Supreme Court.[33] Later that year, the case was consolidated along with eleven other lawsuits into McConnell v. FEC.[34] In the ruling, the Supreme Court upheld the control of soft money and the regulation of electioneering communications in BCRA.[35]

The death of Justice William Rehnquist and retirement of Justice Sandra Day O’Connor changed the Supreme Court to a conservative majority, and in 2007 NRLC's affiliate Wisconsin Right to Life brought a case against the FEC again challenging BCRA provisions. In FEC v. Wisconsin Right to Life, Inc., the justices held that issue ads may not be banned from the months preceding a primary or general election.[36]

Model legislation strategy

At the national and state level, NRLC writes model legislation that lawmakers can utilize in bills to restrict or ban abortion.[37][38] Their legislation is written with the composition of the Supreme Court in mind, so that the court would be less likely to block it afterwards. For instance, when Justice Anthony Kennedy was on the bench, bills were introduced that would ban abortion after 20 weeks. After the conservative Gorsuch, Barrett and Kavanaugh were appointed, legislations began to pass trigger laws.[37]

Prior to the ruling on Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, NRLC released model legislation that bans all abortions unless "necessary to prevent the death of the pregnant woman".[38] Enforcement strategies of the legislation include criminal penalties for anyone aiding or abetting a person seeking an abortion, selling or distributing of abortifacients, and transporting a pregnant minor to obtain an abortion.[39]

In cases of rape

In 2022, responding to reports that a 10-year-old rape victim obtained an abortion, the group's general counsel James Bopp said that the group's proposed legislation would have banned that abortion; he also said that they believed she should have carried the baby, and "as many women who have had babies as a result of rape, we would hope that she would understand the reason and ultimately the benefit of having the child."[38]

Affiliates

NRLC has affiliates in all fifty states and over 3,000 local chapters.[40][41]

Its Virginia affiliate, the Virginia Society for Human Life, was founded in 1967 as the first state right to life organization. Other early affiliates include Georgia Right to Life.

Past presidents

  • 1968–1973 – Juan Ryan, New Jersey
  • 1973–1974 – Edward Golden, New York
  • 1974–1975 – Kenneth VanDerHoef, Washington
  • 1975–1978 – Mildred Jefferson, Massachusetts
  • 1978–1980 – Carolyn Gerster, Arizona
  • 1980–1983 – John C. Willke, Ohio
  • 1983–1984 – Jean Doyle, Florida
  • 1984–1991 – John C. Willke, Ohio
  • 1991–2005 – Wanda Franz, West Virginia
  • 2005–present – Carol Tobias, North Dakota

See also

References

Notes

  1. ↑ The oldest state pro-life organization in the US is Virginia Society for Human Life which was founded in 1967.
     • Nation's Oldest Right to Life Organization Supporting Thompson Standard News Wire.com, December 20. Retrieved: September 9, 2013.
     • Fred Thompson Receives the Endorsement of Virginia Society for Human Life Presidency Project UCSB.EDU, December 20, 2007. Retrieved: September 9, 2013.

Citations

  1. ↑ http://www.christianlifeandliberty.net/RTL.bmp K.M. Cassidy. "Right to Life." In Dictionary of Christianity in America, Coordinating Editor, Daniel G. Reid. Downers Grove, Illinois: InterVarsity Press, 1990. pp. 1017,1018.
  2. ↑ "National Right to Life Convention kicks off in Jacksonville". Florida Independent. Archived from the original on July 9, 2012. Retrieved June 25, 2012.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Karrer, Robert N. (2011). "The National Right to Life Committee: ITS Founding, ITS History, and the Emergence of the Pro-Life Movement Prior to Roe V. Wade". The Catholic Historical Review. 97 (3): 527–557. doi:10.1353/cat.2011.0098. ISSN 0008-8080. JSTOR 23052569. PMID 22069796. S2CID 9890064.
  4. ↑ Karrer, R. N. (2011). "The National Right to Life Committee: its founding, its history, and the emergence of the anti-abortion movement prior to Roe v. Wade". Cathol Hist Rev. 97 (3): 527–57. doi:10.1353/cat.2011.0098. PMID 22069796. S2CID 9890064.
  5. ↑ "God's Own Party: The Making of the Religious Right", p. 116. ISBN 978-0-19-534084-6. Daniel K. Williams. Oxford University Press. 2010.
  6. ↑ Williams, Daniel K. (October 4, 2010). God's Own Party: The Making of the Christian Right. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199798872.
  7. 1 2 Karrer, Robert N. (2011). "The Pro-Life Movement and Its First Years under "Roe"". American Catholic Studies. 122 (4): 47–72. ISSN 2161-8542. JSTOR 44195373.
  8. ↑ Staggenborg, Suzanne (1994). The Pro-Choice Movement: Organization and Activism in the Abortion Conflict. Oxford University Press US. p. 188. ISBN 0-19-508925-1.
  9. ↑ Greenhouse, Linda (2010). Before Roe v. Wade: Voices that Shaped the Abortion Debate before the Supreme Court's Ruling. Kaplan Publishing. ISBN 978-1-60714-671-1. Archived from the original on January 14, 2013.
  10. ↑ Prendergast, William B.; Prendergast, Mary E. (1999). The Catholic Voter in American Politics: The Passing of the Democratic Monolith. Georgetown University Press. ISBN 9780878407248.
  11. ↑ Hevesi, Dennis (October 18, 2010). "Mildred Jefferson, 84, Anti-Abortion Activist, Is Dead - Obituary (Obit)". The New York Times. Archived from the original on June 12, 2014. Retrieved November 7, 2012.
  12. ↑ "Founded". Archived from the original on March 30, 2014. Retrieved March 30, 2014.
  13. ↑ http://www.clmagazine.org/article/index/id/MTM1NDE Archived May 2, 2014, at the Wayback Machine A saintly influence: Pope John Paul II's impact on American Life League—and me. Judie Brown. Celebrate Life Magazine.
  14. 1 2 3 4 Rohlinger, Deana A. (2006). "Friends and Foes: Media, Politics, and Tactics in the Abortion War". Social Problems. 53 (4): 537–561. doi:10.1525/sp.2006.53.4.537. ISSN 0037-7791. JSTOR 10.1525/sp.2006.53.4.537.
  15. ↑ Alesha E. Doan (2007). Opposition and Intimidation: The Abortion Wars and Strategies of Political Harassment. University of Michigan. p. 90. ISBN 9780472099757.
  16. 1 2 Rohlinger, Deana A. (2015). Abortion Politics, Mass Media, and Social Movements in America. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781107069237.
  17. ↑ Siegel, Reva B. (2012). "Abortion and the "Woman Question:" Forty Years of Debate". Yale Law School.
  18. ↑ Rovner, Julie (February 21, 2006). "'Partial-Birth Abortion': Separating Fact From Spin". NPR. Retrieved February 5, 2020.
  19. ↑ Mitchell, Alison (December 14, 1996). "Clinton, in Emotional Terms, Explains His Abortion Veto". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved February 5, 2020.
  20. ↑ Santorum, Rick (November 5, 2003). "S.3 - 108th Congress (2003-2004): Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003". www.congress.gov. Retrieved February 5, 2020.
  21. ↑ Djupe, Paul A.; Olson, Laura R. (July 2014). Encyclopedia of American Religion and Politics. Infobase Publishing. ISBN 9781438130200.
  22. ↑ "Boycott Threat Blocking Sale of Abortion-Inducing Drug" New York Times
  23. ↑ "Abortion Drug Draws Boycott - New York Times". The New York Times. July 8, 1994. Retrieved June 25, 2012.
  24. ↑ http://www.ewtn.com/library/PROLIFE/RUBOYCOT.TXT Archived September 24, 2015, at the Wayback Machine Now's the Time to Defend Our Borders - A Pro-Life Boycott Could Keep RU 486 out of the U.S.
  25. ↑ Gorney, Cynthia. Gambling With Abortion Archived January 6, 2009, at the Wayback Machine. Harper's Magazine, November 2004.
  26. ↑ "Attorney Profiles". The Bopp Law Firm. Retrieved January 6, 2021.
  27. ↑ "Take Action | National Right to Life". Retrieved January 5, 2021.
  28. ↑ "National Right to Life PAC Home Page". www.nrlpac.org. Retrieved January 5, 2021.
  29. ↑ "Eugene Register-Guard - Google News Archive Search". news.google.com. Retrieved January 5, 2021.
  30. ↑ Kirkpatrick, David D. (January 25, 2010). "A Quest to End Spending Rules for Campaigns (Published 2010)". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved January 5, 2021.
  31. ↑ "Washingtonpost.com: Campaign Finance Special Report". The Washington Post. Retrieved January 8, 2021.
  32. ↑ "Abortion foes head up coalition of unlikely allies". The Boston Globe. October 7, 1997. p. 10. Retrieved January 15, 2021.
  33. ↑ "National Right to Life, et al. Jurisdictional Statement" (PDF). May 28, 2003. Retrieved January 5, 2021.
  34. ↑ "McConnell et al v. FEC et al". apps.publicintegrity.org. Retrieved January 5, 2021.
  35. ↑ "McConnell v. FEC". FEC.gov. Retrieved January 5, 2021.
  36. ↑ "Wisconsin Right to Life, Inc. v. FEC". FEC.gov. Retrieved January 8, 2021.
  37. 1 2 "Who and what is behind abortion ban trigger law bills? Two groups laid the groundwork". NPR. Retrieved July 12, 2022.
  38. 1 2 3 "National Right to Life official: 10-year-old should have had baby". POLITICO. Retrieved July 14, 2022.
  39. ↑ "NRLC Post-Roe Model Abortion Law" (PDF). June 15, 2022. Retrieved July 14, 2022.
  40. ↑ "NRLC State Affiliates | National Right to Life". Retrieved January 8, 2021.
  41. ↑ Kirkl, Jordan (August 26, 2020). "Kat Cammack adds endorsement from the National Right to Life PAC". The Capitolist. Retrieved January 8, 2021.

Further reading

  • Karrer, Robert N. "The National Right to Life Committee: Its Founding, Its History, and the Emergence of the Pro-Life Movement Prior to Roe v. Wade", Catholic Historical Review, Volume 97, Number 3, July 2011, pp. 527–57, in Project MUSE.
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