[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 151 (Thursday, November 18, 2010)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1983]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




DR. MILDRED JEFFERSON INSPIRED AN ENTIRE GENERATION OF PRO-LIFE LEADERS

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                       HON. CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH

                             of new jersey

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, November 18, 2010

  Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Madam Speaker, today, I want to recognize 
and honor the life of Dr. Mildred Jefferson, who passed away on October 
15, 2010, at the age of 84.
  Dr. Jefferson was a trailblazer of her time. She was the first 
African-American woman to graduate from Harvard Medical School, the 
first female surgical intern at Boston City Hospital and the first 
woman admitted to membership in the Boston Surgical Society.
  Dr. Jefferson was born in Pittsburg, Texas, on April 6, 1926, to 
Gurthie Jefferson, a minister, and Millard Jefferson, a schoolteacher. 
She graduated from Texas College in Tyler and earned a master's degree 
from Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts before attending 
Harvard Medical School. In her lifetime she also was the recipient of 
28 honorary degrees.
  Her life was historic in many ways, yet she will be remembered not 
only for the lives she saved as a physician but also for the lives she 
saved as an advocate for the unborn.
  From the earliest years of the right to life movement, she dedicated 
herself to the cause, always beautifully articulating the humanity of 
unborn children. Poised and passionate, always focused and extremely 
devoted, she made history and inspired an entire generation of pro-life 
leaders.
  Dr. Jefferson was among the founders of the National Right to Life 
Committee (NRLC) and from 1975-1978 she served three terms as President 
of NRLC. She also served as director of Massachusetts Citizens for Life 
and a board member of American Life League. She was also a founding 
member of the board and a past president of the Value of Life Committee 
of Massachusetts and was active in Black Americans for Life.
  Among all of her accolades and accomplishments, she should be best 
known for her own eloquent description of why she stood in solidarity 
with the unborn fighting day in and day out for their first right, the 
right to life. In her own words,
  ``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 was always graceful. She embodied compassion. Her life 
is an example to us of the impact of faithful devotion to the sanctity 
of human life. Dr. Jefferson knew that you cannot speak of human and 
civil rights, while precluding virtually all protection to the most 
persecuted minority in the world today: unborn children.
  She reminded us all, ``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.''
  Dr. Jefferson is correct when she said,--the cause for the right to 
life concerns all of us. Someday, when our goal of ending abortion is 
finally realized, future generations of Americans will look back on us 
and wonder how and why such a rich and seemingly enlightened society, 
so blessed and endowed with the capacity to protect and enhance 
vulnerable human life, could have instead permitted, and even promoted, 
death to children and exploitation of women by abortion.
  It was an honor to work alongside Dr. Jefferson to fight the 
injustice of abortion, and I know her legacy and memory will live on in 
the lives of those who knew her and in the lives of the unborn children 
she helped save.

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