Dr. Mildred Jefferson passed away last month, October 15, at the age of 84.
She was known throughout pro-life circles for her tender spirit and
encouraging the next generation of pro-life leaders to take up the mantle of the pro-life cause. Her ever-present smile will be missed, as well as her special presence and tireless dedication to the cause of life.
Wouldn’t you think that everyone in our country should recognize the passing of the first black woman to graduate from Harvard Medical School? When a wonderful woman who devoted 40 years of her life to honor her Hippocratic Oath, and encouraged other physicians to follow this time-honored tradition, passes away, don’t you think all of the news media should feature a story about her?
Mildred Jefferson had accomplished many great things that no one else in history can claim to accomplish. Besides being the first black woman to graduate from Harvard Medical School, she also 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. Mildred Jefferson was the recipient of honorary degrees from twenty-eight colleges and universities. We should all be honoring her, but the media is mostly silent about her passing last month. Why is this?
It is probably because Mildred Jefferson was an outspoken advocate for the most helpless members of our society – the unborn. Dr. Jefferson worked against the outspoken feminists in the 1970’s who were demanding the right to kill their unborn babies. She put tireless effort into opposing their movement, and was one of the founders of the National Right to Life 
Committee. She went on to serve three consecutive terms as NRLC president from 1975-1978. This is not politically correct, and the pro-abortion activists have probably ensured that the media will not give her the accolades that are due to her because she was such an untiring, visible opponent of abortion.
You probably won’t hear about Dr. Jefferson’s passing, unless you subscribe to a Christian news source. Besides being an outspoken advocate for the unborn, she was an old-fashioned, authentic patriot. Her love of her country showed in every speech, and was bound up in her support for the right to life and liberty. She opposed abortion because she believed, ethically, morally, and religiously, in the right to life of every human being, from conception to natural death. She did not want to see our great country ruined because of the deteriorating respect for life which has been so strongly evident, especially in the last few decades.
Mildred Jefferson was born to a Methodist minister in Pittsburg, Texas in 1926. She earned degrees from Texas College and Tufts University before graduating from Harvard in 1951. A surgical internship at Boston City Hospital eventually led to another trailblazing accomplishment: becoming the first female doctor at the former Boston University Medical Center.
She became interested in working with the pro-life movement when, in the 1970’s, the American Medical Association decided it was all right for doctors to perform abortions in states where it was legal. Mildred Jefferson was opposed to this. She said that performing abortions would be violating the Hippocratic Oath. She not only condemned the procedure as taking a life, but she went on, “People who arrange and provide abortions don’t realize the wreckage they leave behind, the depression.” She said that the Roe v. Wade decision by the Supreme Court in 1973, “gave my profession an almost unlimited license to kill.” In 1981, she tried to stop the killing by helping to get a national bill passed that would have declared that human life “shall be deemed to exist from conception.” If it had passed, states would have been able to prosecute the abortion as murder. Dr. Jefferson testified before Congress, “With the obstetrician and mother becoming the worst enemy of the child and the pediatrician becoming the assassin for the family, the state must be enabled to protect the life of the child, born and unborn.” Of course, that bill did not pass. The pro-life movement has an uphill battle now to undo the harm.
Dr. Jefferson also talked about abortion from the perspective of a black woman — a demographic overrepresented in the number of abortions performed. She said that legal abortion was most harmful to poor black women. One survey reports that African American women have abortions at three times the rate of white women and almost twice the rate of other racial groups.
Mildred said, “The right-to-life cause is not the concern of only a special few but it should be the cause of all those who care about fairness and justice, love and compassion and liberty with law. I became a physician in order to help save lives,” she said. “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.”
Mildred Jefferson also spoke for the right to life for the elderly. “Would you believe,” she said in a talk in Methuen, Massachusetts, a few years ago, “that now in our country you may actually go to an emergency room and not be treated for your injuries because someone has decided that you have lived long enough? Or that it’s not worth spending the money on you, your insurance will not cover enough of it?” As the baby boomers reach retirement and the number of young paying into Social Security and Medicare keep shrinking, she warned, the balance between the demand and supply of life-sustaining medical care will increase pressure for putting the balance sheet ahead of the lives of the poor and elderly. People may defend the sanctity of life for spiritual and humanitarian reasons, she said. “Or you can just be selfish and realize that if you aren’t going to do it, you are going to pay the price.” Now with the “Obama-care” as a reality, how long will it be before medical care is rationed out as she predicted? With no respect for the lives of the unborn, how long will it be before the elderly are also extinguished?
Her undeniable tenacity and courage was rooted in her deep Christian faith. As the daughter of a Methodist minister, she liked to refer to herself, even in her advanced years, as “a preacher’s kid.” Her faith made her an optimist, no matter how dark the outlook may have appeared to others who shared her concern about the legally sanctioned destruction of life in America. She had all of her life a great hope for the future, not only for America, but for the world. She said, because Jesus came “not to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. And I know if we take that message and remember that the weakest, most helpless among us are the key to our survival, then we won’t have to worry about this great United State becoming extinct.” Now Mildred is enjoying the company of her Lord. Would that we could serve the Lord by fighting for the unborn as she did.
The battle for the right to life for all humans, born and unborn, goes on. The right-to-life movement has lost one of its greatest pioneers and champions. Mildred Jefferson was a tireless worker in the fight for life and she will be greatly missed. We should look to her as our example and renew our efforts in fighting for the principles of life and justice for all. If one woman such as Dr. Mildred Jefferson can do so much, think what we could accomplish if we would all work together! Thank you Dr. Jefferson for your efforts. May we live up to your ideals.
Dr. Mildred Jefferson – Champion for Life
Dr. Mildred Jefferson passed away last month, October 15, at the age of 84.
encouraging the next generation of pro-life leaders to take up the mantle of the pro-life cause. Her ever-present smile will be missed, as well as her special presence and tireless dedication to the cause of life.
She was known throughout pro-life circles for her tender spirit and
Wouldn’t you think that everyone in our country should recognize the passing of the first black woman to graduate from Harvard Medical School? When a wonderful woman who devoted 40 years of her life to honor her Hippocratic Oath, and encouraged other physicians to follow this time-honored tradition, passes away, don’t you think all of the news media should feature a story about her?
Mildred Jefferson had accomplished many great things that no one else in history can claim to accomplish. Besides being the first black woman to graduate from Harvard Medical School, she also 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. Mildred Jefferson was the recipient of honorary degrees from twenty-eight colleges and universities. We should all be honoring her, but the media is mostly silent about her passing last month. Why is this?
It is probably because Mildred Jefferson was an outspoken advocate for the most helpless members of our society – the unborn. Dr. Jefferson worked against the outspoken feminists in the 1970’s who were demanding the right to kill their unborn babies. She put tireless effort into opposing their movement, and was one of the founders of the National Right to Life
Committee. She went on to serve three consecutive terms as NRLC president from 1975-1978. This is not politically correct, and the pro-abortion activists have probably ensured that the media will not give her the accolades that are due to her because she was such an untiring, visible opponent of abortion.
You probably won’t hear about Dr. Jefferson’s passing, unless you subscribe to a Christian news source. Besides being an outspoken advocate for the unborn, she was an old-fashioned, authentic patriot. Her love of her country showed in every speech, and was bound up in her support for the right to life and liberty. She opposed abortion because she believed, ethically, morally, and religiously, in the right to life of every human being, from conception to natural death. She did not want to see our great country ruined because of the deteriorating respect for life which has been so strongly evident, especially in the last few decades.
Mildred Jefferson was born to a Methodist minister in Pittsburg, Texas in 1926. She earned degrees from Texas College and Tufts University before graduating from Harvard in 1951. A surgical internship at Boston City Hospital eventually led to another trailblazing accomplishment: becoming the first female doctor at the former Boston University Medical Center.
She became interested in working with the pro-life movement when, in the 1970’s, the American Medical Association decided it was all right for doctors to perform abortions in states where it was legal. Mildred Jefferson was opposed to this. She said that performing abortions would be violating the Hippocratic Oath. She not only condemned the procedure as taking a life, but she went on, “People who arrange and provide abortions don’t realize the wreckage they leave behind, the depression.” She said that the Roe v. Wade decision by the Supreme Court in 1973, “gave my profession an almost unlimited license to kill.” In 1981, she tried to stop the killing by helping to get a national bill passed that would have declared that human life “shall be deemed to exist from conception.” If it had passed, states would have been able to prosecute the abortion as murder. Dr. Jefferson testified before Congress, “With the obstetrician and mother becoming the worst enemy of the child and the pediatrician becoming the assassin for the family, the state must be enabled to protect the life of the child, born and unborn.” Of course, that bill did not pass. The pro-life movement has an uphill battle now to undo the harm.
Dr. Jefferson also talked about abortion from the perspective of a black woman — a demographic overrepresented in the number of abortions performed. She said that legal abortion was most harmful to poor black women. One survey reports that African American women have abortions at three times the rate of white women and almost twice the rate of other racial groups.
Mildred said, “The right-to-life cause is not the concern of only a special few but it should be the cause of all those who care about fairness and justice, love and compassion and liberty with law. I became a physician in order to help save lives,” she said. “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.”
Mildred Jefferson also spoke for the right to life for the elderly. “Would you believe,” she said in a talk in Methuen, Massachusetts, a few years ago, “that now in our country you may actually go to an emergency room and not be treated for your injuries because someone has decided that you have lived long enough? Or that it’s not worth spending the money on you, your insurance will not cover enough of it?” As the baby boomers reach retirement and the number of young paying into Social Security and Medicare keep shrinking, she warned, the balance between the demand and supply of life-sustaining medical care will increase pressure for putting the balance sheet ahead of the lives of the poor and elderly. People may defend the sanctity of life for spiritual and humanitarian reasons, she said. “Or you can just be selfish and realize that if you aren’t going to do it, you are going to pay the price.” Now with the “Obama-care” as a reality, how long will it be before medical care is rationed out as she predicted? With no respect for the lives of the unborn, how long will it be before the elderly are also extinguished?
Her undeniable tenacity and courage was rooted in her deep Christian faith. As the daughter of a Methodist minister, she liked to refer to herself, even in her advanced years, as “a preacher’s kid.” Her faith made her an optimist, no matter how dark the outlook may have appeared to others who shared her concern about the legally sanctioned destruction of life in America. She had all of her life a great hope for the future, not only for America, but for the world. She said, because Jesus came “not to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. And I know if we take that message and remember that the weakest, most helpless among us are the key to our survival, then we won’t have to worry about this great United State becoming extinct.” Now Mildred is enjoying the company of her Lord. Would that we could serve the Lord by fighting for the unborn as she did.
The battle for the right to life for all humans, born and unborn, goes on. The right-to-life movement has lost one of its greatest pioneers and champions. Mildred Jefferson was a tireless worker in the fight for life and she will be greatly missed. We should look to her as our example and renew our efforts in fighting for the principles of life and justice for all. If one woman such as Dr. Mildred Jefferson can do so much, think what we could accomplish if we would all work together! Thank you Dr. Jefferson for your efforts. May we live up to your ideals.
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In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage, rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.
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