Speaker Clarifies Right to Life Movement

Dr. Mildred Jefferson, the first African-American female graduate of Harvard Medical School and a former president of the National Right to Life Committee, addressed more than 50 people last night in Boylston Hall’s Ticknor Lounge.

Jefferson spoke about abortion, population control, birth control and the right to life movement at the event, sponsored by the Harvard Right to Life group and funded by the Ann Radcliffe Trust.

“I happen to believe that this is a land for everyone, not just the perfect, privileged, or planned,” Jefferson said.

In the talk, entitled “Race, Gender & Abortion: Pro-Life Politics in the 21st Century,” Jefferson questioned the intentions and priorities of famous birth control pioneer and family planning proponent Margaret Sanger. Jefferson, who graduated from the Medical School in 1951, said that Sanger believed in poverty impacting people’s genes, rendering people “disgenic.”

Jefferson also described a historical process by which the population control movement has gained a wide foundation in the U.S. and subsumed the birth control movement.

As a result, “[The birth control movement] has become perhaps the most dynamic and destructive social movement in the United States, and is sweeping throughout the world,” she said.

In a question-and-answer session following her talk, Jefferson attacked the concept of “overpopulation.”

“Nobody has ever determined for any jurisdiction at any given time what the optimal number of people is for a region,” she said. “Nobody has ever proved what overpopulation actually is.”

Jefferson also drew a clear distinction between what she called “the right to life” movement and the anti-abortion movement.

“My objective is not to stop abortion. My objective is to restore the right to life to the Constitution,” she said. “I am a right to life activist. I am not an anti-abortionist.”

Olga Yevglevskaya ’03 spoke favorably on the merits of Jefferson’s talk, though she said she has different beliefs.

“I personally don’t agree with what Jefferson said, but I did find her views very enlightening,” Yevglevskaya said. “She was very clear in distinguishing between the right to life movement and the anti-abortion movement.”

James E. Kruzer ’04, president of Harvard Right to Life, said that he thought the Ann Radcliffe Trust’s funding of the event showed the Trust was willing to support a potentially controversial speech.

“I think it represents an open mind about the issue of abortion,” Kruzer said. “It allows us to enter into a dialogue about what this means for women, minorities, and the unborn.”