This courageous, trailblazing woman should have made the history books.
Growing up as a woman in the eugenic Jim Crow South, Mildred Fay Jefferson knew all about adversity. It was a time of intense racism and prejudice against the black population.
While her African-American contemporary, Maya Angelou, had the incredible courage to choose life for her unborn child when she became pregnant at 16, later in life she couldn’t apply that principle politically. She helped raise money for Planned Parenthood and advocated for abortion. I assumed, or wanted to believe, that Angelou was pro-life.
But if you’re looking for someone who made a life-long contribution to the civil rights movement and the pro-life movement, the woman you’re looking for is Dr. Mildred Jefferson.
Trailblazing Woman
At a young age “Millie” followed the town doctor around on his horse drawn buggy, and this would later inspire her to become a doctor.
Exceptionally bright, Millie graduated high school at the age of 15 and college at the age of 18. Since she was too young to attend medical school, she went to Tufts University where she received her master’s degree in biology. She then went on to Harvard Medical School and graduated in 1951, becoming the first black woman to do so. Meanwhile, her home state of Texas remained segregated by law.
As a physician and professor, she was passionate about caring for the sick and endeavored to expose the evil of eugenics. Powered by her strong faith in God and deep love of the country, she worked to protect babies from abortion. (source)
She Testifies Before Congress
She testified before Congress against Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion, stating the law “gave my profession an almost unlimited license to kill.”
Dr. Jefferson, testifying as a surgeon, was speaking in support of a bill, sponsored by Senator Jesse Helms and Representative Henry J. Hyde, that sought to declare that “human life shall be deemed to exist from conception.”
Had it passed, it would have allowed states to prosecute abortion as murder.
“With the obstetrician and mother becoming the worst enemy of the child and the pediatrician becoming the assassin for the family,” Dr. Jefferson continued to testify, “the state must be enabled to protect the life of the child, born and unborn.”
She helped found the National Right to Life Committee.
With 28 honorary degrees and the ability to speak professionally, yet eloquently, to the issue of abortion, Dr. Jefferson was a pioneer.
Millie, as many called her, was also responsible for changing Ronald Reagan’s stance on abortion from pro-choice to pro-life.
He stated to her in a letter:
- “You have made it irrefutably clear that an abortion is the taking of a human life. I am grateful to you.” ~Ronald Reagan (source)
True Feminism
She epitomized true ‘feminism’ like the leading ‘feminists’ of the early 20th century.
This interview, from 1978, captures the essence of this passionately pro-life physician.
Dr. Mildred Fay Jefferson || from issues4life on GodTube.
It matters a great deal which kind of feminists we’re talking about.
Founding feminists Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton (though I don’t agree with everything they did) firmly believed that abortion is “infanticide” (pg. 2, third column). Referring to one specific rural county in Maine, they decried that there were “four hundred murders annually produced by abortion in that county alone.” (source)
These women, many of them proud mothers like Mrs. Stanton, embraced what made them women while fighting boldly for equality.
They were heroines and sturdy women.
“As a woman I’m ashamed that the voices raised loudest in this demand to destroy the unborn children of those of other women, are blinded by an all-absorbing selfishness. These women are trying to force society to grant them rights without the responsibilities that our social contract demands and privileges without the payment that our moral order commands.” ~Dr. Mildred Jefferson
Dr. Mildred Jefferson didn’t have to depend upon gender enmity to tear down men. She didn’t choose to disparage others. And she didn’t regard her own wonderfully-made, life-giving womanly biology as her enemy.
She may never be in your children’s history books, but this trailblazing woman made history that should never be forgotten.
“Defend the weak and the fatherless; uphold the cause of the poor and the oppressed.” ~Psalm 82:3
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Francie
Thank you for posting this. I myself used to be a feminist back in my 20s. And without getting into detail, I can honestly say that I am all too familiar with the pain that third wave feminism can cause young women. Now days I am a full time homeschool mom, and I am definitely going to write a list, starting with this woman. I need a list of positive, morally straight African Americans who were pioneers for other African American’s. Again, thank you for the post. I am always looking for historical figures that are an alternate to the current narrative.
Lemongrass
Francise, Check this book………..”I Dream A World”…Portraits of Black Woman Who Changed America by Brian Lanker
Heidi
Such a beautiful woman. Thank you for posting this.
Beth74
This woman was a blessing and her life continues to be an inspiration. Thank you so very much for posting this beautiful retrospective of a woman who genuinely loved and made a difference.
Dominic Adams
Wow! She should be in the history books! Thanks for posting!
Rochelle
Thank you so much for sharing this. Inspiring!
Suzy
Thank you, and Bless you for posting this. I cannot help but sit here in tears after reading this for all of the unborn (never to be born) children that were never given the chance to make a difference in our societies.. I must share a heart wrenching story. When I was a young girl (about 18, in the late 70s) I knew of a young girl, if my memory serves she was about two years younger then I was at the time. We we a homeless bunch of girls for one reason or another (about 12 of us, all of different ages),each of us having our own horrific stories, being wards of the courts and being raised in a Presbyterian Managed Girls home. This young girl became my roommate, (we slept two to each room in the home), one late evening she shared with me that she would be having an abortion the next day. I could not help myself and asked her how she could do that to her blessed child, that she could never know what importance her child would have in the future (even possibly someday being the President of the United States) and her answer was simple, at least in her eyes… She told me: “Oh, this is not my first abortion, I have had eight so far. It is much easier than remembering birth control.” I could not believe what she told me and thought it had to be a lie it was so unbelievable. I went down to the house-mothers room that was currently on duty and ask her and she confirmed it with tears in her eyes. By the time this young girl returned from her appointment the next day, I had changed rooms as I could not in good conscious be in the same room with a girl that could use this horrific act of murder as her means of contraception. A few years later I found myself in a situation of having to make the same choice, my family kept pushing me as they wanted me to have my best chance for a college education.. I decided to keep my child and spent 23 of the most wonderful years with him along with his stepfather and two brothers until one day in mid April of 2007 when we lost him is a horrific car accident. But I will never regret my decision to have him and raise him on my own for the first 18 months of his life until I married his dad. But I cry for the nine little babies and all of the others before and since that were never given the chance and I celebrate and Bless this woman for her convictions, she was a saint and may she rest in heavenly peace… and thank you for sharing this person with the rest of us. It seems the important ones are the ones kept from the history books and it is a shame.
Jacqueline
Oh, Suzy, the tragedy. I thank God you decided to make that courageous decision and that the Lord allowed you 23 years with your beloved son. My heart aches for these all the death. I know you will be united with your son one day in heaven, and that it will be a marvelous thing to behold! Praise God!
Thank you, dear one, for sharing your important, personal story here.
Jacqueline
Marie
What a lovely, erudite, woman. Thank you for posting this. I am currently collectings stories of Black Americans that we never normally hear about. I plan to do a long FB post for Black History month.
I am not a black woman, but I know there has to be more out there than Dr. King, Malcom X, entertainers, and sports heroes.
Joan Pike
This was powerful. I have never heard of her.
Thanks
Jacqueline
Yes, Joan, I would have loved to have known her! She apparently was quite a lady!
Blessings, Jacque